An Australian government study into the career aspirations of 14- to 15-year-olds has found architect ranked among the top-ten desired occupations.
The research, conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, is part of the Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.
The study surveyed more than 3,000 teenagers, of which 1,917 stated desired occupations. The teenagers were first asked, “As things stand now, do you know what career or occupation you would like to have in the future?”
Of the 59 percent of respondents who said “yes,” five percent of boys and six percent of girls nominated “professional design, planning or architect” as their a desired occupation, which is also one of three professional categories desired by both boys and girls.
In order to categorize responses given, the surveyors combined “realistic” jobs nominated like architect with more “fantasy” ones like rocket scientist, military sniper and interspace emperor into more generic categories.
The study found the career aspirations of teenagers generally conformed to gender stereotypes. However, “some jobs were ranked highly by boys well as girls, including doctors and other medical professionals, and design, planning and architecture,” said Anne Hollonds, director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies.
Top ten career aspirations of 14- to 15-year-olds.
Image: Australian Institute of Family Studies
Among boys, architect ranked eighth ahead of science professional and performance arts, but was less desirable than engineering, construction and the automotive trades.
Architect also ranked eighth among the girls, ahead of veterinarian and “media, literature or arts professional.” The most desired occupations for girls were as doctors, teachers and lawyers.
Research conducted by Parlour, published in Architecture Australia in 2014, showed 45 percent of first-year architecture students were women and 46 percent of architects aged between 25 and 29 were women.
The career aspirations study also reported a mismatch between the state desired professions of teenagers and actual workforce as it stands today. Sixty percent of those surveyed aspired to professional or managerial jobs, while only 35 percent of the current Australian labour market are employed in those roles.
Similarly in architecture, while five percent of those surveyed desired the profession, only 14,973 architects (0.13 percent) were part of a workforce comprising more than 11 million employed people, according to the 2011 census.
