Once again Thai children prove to be caring and responsibly minded in their choices of the most popular careers. The number one job choice in a new survey is being a ‘Doctor’, followed by ‘Engineer’, ‘Policeman’, ‘Businessman’ and then ‘Teacher’.
Bangkok, January 2013: Once again, for the fourth year, Adecco Thailand has surveyed the countries youth to find out what they think about future career choices, and how they prefer to spend their leisure time. The survey clearly shows our children are focused on how they can help their country and its people. The top three choices of ‘Doctor’, ‘Engineer’ and ‘Policeman’ shows that Thailand’s youth want to help our country during these trying times. Also in an overwhelming show of loyalty, 94% would prefer to spend their leisure time with family and friends. These first two questions show a genuine concern for country and its society and a positive outlook for Thailand’s future.
Adecco Thailand – a subsidiary of the world’s leading staffing and human resources firm – regularly conducts this survey and compares it to findings from similar Adecco surveys taken in Malaysia, Singapore and the USA. The children survey, aged between 7 to 14, are asked six different simple questions and are not coached how to answer them. Those questions are:
- What do you want to be when you grow up? Why have you chosen this and how much do you expect to earn?
- What is the best/coolest job that you can think of?
- If you became Prime Minister of Thailand, what are the first three things you would do?
- What is more important: to make lots of money or to spend time with your family?
- What are you looking forward to doing in 2013?
- What is your dream country to live in?
These surveys show how children are affected by what is happening in their area and environment.
Although the majority of children surveyed each year are different, and come from different backgrounds, becoming a ‘Doctor’ has been the number one career choice now for four years running – even though the majority of children surveyed are different each year. The main reason behind this is that they want to help people and/or cure patient and family members. The monthly salary expectations are ranging from THB 100 right up to THB 10,000,000. This year, becoming a ‘Teacher’ is now the fifth choice after ‘Engineer’, ‘Policeman’ and ‘Businessman’.
The survey also shows that our children have a large and healthy diversity in their favorite jobs. Although the number one reply was ‘Doctor’, one respondent wanted to be a B-Boy Dancer. Another healthy sign is the sense of humor our children displayed in some of their answers. Some examples of this is those who chose to be Policeman – so they wouldn’t have to pay fines, or being a Programmer to create their own games.
The Top Five Jobs from ‘What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up’ questions collected from this survey are:
- Doctor
- Engineer
- Policeman
- Businessman
- Teacher
Once again, being a ‘Soldier’ was chosen as the best/coolest job, followed by ‘Policeman’ and ‘Doctor’. This may be as simple as children identify with uniforms and often accompanying power that goes with these jobs.
Children were also asked if they were Prime Minister of Thailand what the first three things they would do are. Many answers were very serious and responsible, such as;
- Taking great care of the people,
- Develop the country and the education system in poor areas,
- Raise unity and harmony among people
- Eliminate drugs and gambling problems
- Develop the local infrastructure e.g. roads, buses, hospitals etc
- Save the earth by taking care of our environment.
- Fight corruption
Some responses were a little less serious but still. Examples are: change the rules and regulations with student uniforms, have air conditioning installed everywhere, and the all important, take a nap after lunch!
Part of the survey dealt with if they would prefer spending time with their family or making money. As in last year survey, an astounding 94% said that would prefer spending time with family. This partly indicates the very good job our parents do in raising their families and in imparting the knowledge and feeling of how important family is. A few examples are “the warmth and happiness they feel being with their family”, “family is the most important thing” and “money can be earned any time”. Even those who chose making money, their reason given was “earning income to take care of their family”.
The answer for “what our youths enjoy doing during their leisure time” is typical for many children worldwide, which is Playing VDO / computer games and watching television. When asked what they want to do, the number one response is to spend time with their family and friends, followed closely by Playing VDO / computer games. This could tell us once again how healthy their outlook is for family and friends or to continue investing money in future VDO / computer games.
When asked the question ‘What are you looking forward to doing in 2013?’ Here are a few examples:
- Study harder to get better and higher grades
- Spend time with family and friends
- Do a part time job to save money for my parents
As in 2012, the survey once again revealed that lots of respondents wanted to do better at school in 2013 and would study harder to achieve this. Many also wanted to spend time with their families and friends.
When asked what their ‘dream country’ is. Although answers included Japan, USA, France, England and Korea, a resounding number chose Thailand – representing that ‘No matter how interesting or exciting the world can be, Thailand is where they want to live’.
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Tidarat Kanchanawat, Country Manager, Adecco Group Thailand, commented “Children are almost egoless, innocent and true to the heart. The findings also show how emotional bonds to their family and people are still durable and the love for their parents can prove to be more enticing for children than an obsession with technology. This survey confirms children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.”
