[This report] explores parents' hopes and expectations for their children's education and beyond, with a focus on how parents can help children get what they need to achieve their life goals. The findings reveal that parents aspire to professional careers for their children, whether in traditional fields like medicine, engineering or law, or in newer sectors like business management or computer science. However, parents are also conscious that, in many ways, their children have it tougher than they did. An increasingly competitive job market means that a standard undergraduate degree is... [+] Show more
[This report] explores parents' hopes and expectations for their children's education and beyond, with a focus on how parents can help children get what they need to achieve their life goals. The findings reveal that parents aspire to professional careers for their children, whether in traditional fields like medicine, engineering or law, or in newer sectors like business management or computer science. However, parents are also conscious that, in many ways, their children have it tougher than they did. An increasingly competitive job market means that a standard undergraduate degree is seen as necessary but not sufficient. Young people need to do more to stand out from their peers. Postgraduate qualifications and studying abroad are ways to do this, but they can be costly and so require careful advance planning. Parents also realise that their children need to graduate with life skills as well as academic qualifications to be attractive to employers. They need to leave university as confident, responsible and well-rounded adults.
Key findings [include]: 64 per cent of parents say that being happy in life is one of the most important goals they have for their child, compared to only 30 per cent who say career success; 83 per cent of parents have a specific occupation in mind for their child, with medicine (19 per cent), engineering (11 per cent) and computer science (eight per cent) the most popular; 58 per cent of parents would most like their child to study one of the following five degree subjects: medicine; business, management and finance; engineering; computer and information sciences; or law; 79 per cent of parents see an undergraduate degree or higher qualification as essential to their child achieving important goals in their life, and 50 per cent think a postgraduate degree (master's or higher) is necessary; 39 per cent of parents have paid for additional tutoring for their child at primary school stage, 44 per cent at secondary school, and 23 per cent at university; 66 per cent of parents have sought advice about their child's university education and, of these, 72 per cent learned of new options they had not considered; 77 per cent of parents would consider sending their child to study at university abroad and, of these, 24 per cent would be willing to pay at least half as much again, compared to the cost of educating their child in their home country; 58 per cent of parents think that a university education is unaffordable for the majority of people in their country; 45 per cent of parents think that enhanced confidence and social skills are the most valuable aspects of a university education in preparing students for life after graduation.
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