The teens who dream of a job just like Mum or Dad’s
IT is the stage of life when they are looking to forge their own identity.
But many of today’s teenagers are looking no further than their parents for inspiration and guidance.
They are more likely than the previous five generations to want the same career as their mother or father, study has found
A third expect to follow in their parents’ footsteps – more than at any time over the last 100 years.
It is thought that teenagers are increasingly seeking to make the most of family connections to kick-start their careers in an intensely competitive job market.
But researchers also suggest that parents – particularly mothers – are more likely to have carved out careers for themselves that their children want to follow.
The findings emerged in a study to chart the ‘evolution of the teenager’ over the past century.
Commissioned to mark the outbreak of the First World War, it paints a picture of dramatically changing attitudes to work, role models, family, ambition and obstacles to employment. Today’s teenagers emerged as the most driven generation in 100 years, as well the most entrepreneurial.
They also valued education and qualifications more highly than previous generations, which tended to see character traits such as leadership as more important than schooling for finding work.
But they face the most challenging and complex job market in living memory, with 92 per cent expecting to encounter barriers when looking for long-term employment.
Perhaps the study’s most surpris- ing’ finding was that today’s teenagers, known as ‘generation citizen’, were the most likely to want a similar job to their parents, despite the variety of careers now available.
A third said they expected to follow in parents’ footsteps – twice as many as a century ago.
Dr Heather Ellis, from Liverpool Hope University, who helped compile the report, said: ‘I think it relates to increasing levels of social mobility, with young people increasingly looking to within their own families for career inspiration, rather than to more traditional role models such as bosses and teachers.’
She said youngsters were also seeking work experience at their parents’ place of work. Parents nowadays may also have a better understanding of the job market.
The research, commissioned by the National Citizen Service, a gove r nment- backed s c heme to encourage community work among teenagers, questioned 3,600 Britons across six generations. The oldest group surveyed were 100 from the ‘greatest generation’, the over-90s. Born around the time of the First World War, serving one’s country and supporting one’s family were for them more important than a career.
Just 17 per cent followed in their parents’ footsteps when choosing a livelihood.
A further 500 were questioned from the ‘silent generation’, those aged 72 to 89, who were probably too young to fight in the Second World War but as teenagers may have experienced its hardships.
They were more likely to look to traditional role models such as teachers or bosses than parents.
The researchers also questioned 1,000 ‘baby boomers’, who are now aged 54 to 71, 1,000 from ‘generation X’, now aged 32 to 53 as well as 500 from ‘generation Y’, who are aged 19 to 32 and 500 from ‘generation citizen’, or 13 to 19-year-olds.
‘Generation citizen’ emerged as the most driven, declaring that career success was one of the most important things in life for them.
Only the ‘ silent generation’, who grew up in the Great Depression of the 1930s, showed similar aspiration.