Young people have high hopes of working life

Citation

(2001), "Young people have high hopes of working life", Education + Training, Vol. 43 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2001.00443aab.001

Young people have high hopes of working life

Young people have high hopes of working life

Keywords: Quality of working life, School leavers

Around 85 per cent of 14-15 year olds in the UK are looking forward to starting their working life at the end of full-time education, claims a research report which explores young people's aspirations and perceptions of the world of work. Young People's Attitudes to Work, Careers and Learning shows that most young people expect work to be rewarding, interesting, enjoyable and exciting. Some 47 per cent expect it will be tough and 44 per cent believe it will be tiring. The factors that young people consider to be most important in a job are salary (cited by 42 per cent of males, but only 23 per cent of females), having interesting work (cited by half of females and 36 per cent of males) and having time for interests outside work. Only 12 per cent rated having the opportunity for promotion as important. Among the factors rated unimportant were working for a well-known company, managing other people and working in a team.

The research was sponsored by HSBC and compiled from a survey of 1,681 young people by Roffey Park, the executive education and research organization, in conjunction with Sussex Careers Service. When asked about their dream job of the future, the sample offered a wide range of occupations, from chairman or managing director of a large corporation to professional sports person, zookeeper and astronaut. The entertainment and leisure industries appeared to hold the highest number of dream jobs. Art and design, computer programming, the medical and legal professions and self-employment all scored highly. Manufacturing industry ranked as the most undesirable job sector, cited by only 0.2 per cent as where their dream job would lie.

Some 60 per cent of young people expect to work for many different employers. Around 40 per cent said they would like to travel abroad regularly as part of their work. Only 12 per cent want to commute to work and 4 per cent expect to have periods of unemployment in their working life. Almost half of respondents were keen to get involved in some sort of voluntary work.

Almost three-quarters of the sample believe it is necessary to be highly qualified in order to achieve career success. Half expect to go to university, with a further 29 per cent expecting to go on to a full-time college course. Most recognize the importance of continuous learning throughout their working life.