The children of entrepreneurs become entrepreneurs, the sons of teachers become teachers, the children of carpenters become carpenters and the daughters of dentists become dentists. This is more than a cliché, because for most young people the most important source of information about jobs is still their parents. How stressed they are, whether they enjoy their job, whether the bosses are annoying or whether they always come home late in the evening – children notice all these things and draw conclusions for their own future.
But young people need impulses from outside their direct environment in order to broaden their horizons. Because dream jobs are often not where you expect them to be. Only a quarter of young people in Germany are convinced that there is enough information about choosing a career and that it is easy to find their way around Bertelsmann Foundation survey result. This is unfair for young people and bad for the economy, which needs young people who feel they are in the right place.
On the one hand, good vocational training is important because old injustices would otherwise continue from generation to generation, working-class children may not dare to go to university, and academic children despise good but underestimated craft jobs. To the donor association According to the study, 27 out of 100 non-academic children study, while 79 out of 100 academic children do so. On the other hand, young people usually do not learn enough from their parents about new jobs in new industries because they simply know nothing about career opportunities as influencers or researchers on artificial intelligence.
Over the summer, the SZ presented dream jobs and subjected them to a reality check. What does a firefighter do on a daily basis? How nice is the job of an educator given the shortage of educators, but with very cute children nonetheless? How do architects manage to reconcile family and career? It is also the task of the media to report on new and old job descriptions, but they cannot replace structured job information. And Germany is already trying very hard, the German vocational training cuts in an international comparison according to the OECD not bad off. There is on the website of employment agency for example small videos in which very, very many professions are presented.
But the mere supply of information in school lessons or through the employment agency is too fun and unrealistic. Internships are much more important. During the pandemic, it has become even rarer for students to have the opportunity to break away from everyday school life for a few weeks at a time and try out working life. Internships are not compulsory in many schools, students have to do them in their free time, which is quite a lot to ask and, above average, often makes use of young people who have parents who can help them organize the internship.
Internships are so important. There, students can meet new role models. You only trust what you know, what you see in front of you. You will not take up a job that you cannot imagine. Now that the pandemic is not over, but more and more normality is returning to the workplace, employers have to open the doors again. Internships are required, and compulsory internships at that.
The question of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” you should hold back
And one more thing about dream jobs: The eternal question of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” also has something unhealthy. It would be good to take the pressure off and not push four-year-olds to see themselves primarily as working people in the future and to define themselves through their job. Especially since the question also likes to cement role clichés, because hardly any small boy admits to a classic women’s job. The question also resonates with the fact that you have to make a decision early on and then work in the same job for the rest of your life. But career paths are less rigid these days. Anyone who finds their dream job late or makes the wrong choice of career can and may still change jobs.
Daughters of dentists can become roofers and sons of shop assistants can become marine biologists. What young people need is the signal that they can be and become who they want to be.