February 25, 2020
Role models needed to widen career choice
Click here for the full interview.
The Tertiary Education Commission wants to see schools expose children to people from a wide range of occupations and professions.
The commission has released a report Drawing the Future in which primary and intermediate pupils were asked to draw jobs they were interested in.
Chief executive Tim Fowler says international research says the aspirations children form as young as age 7 or 8 feed into their future course of study.
For tamariki Māori, most aspired to be professional sportspeople, with police and firefighting also up there, but careers in science, technology or engineering way down the list.
He says children can’t be what they can’t see.
"Most of the kids who are coming up with these results have met people or know people or have information about the people doing those roles. The key thing we need to be thinking about and changing the way these aspirations work because they have huge long term implications, is we need to be getting more people from the world of work in schools," he says.
Tim Fowler from the Tertiary Education Commission.
Copyright © 2020, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com