The results so far from the survey Draw the Future show that students have relatively uniform dreams about future careers. The three most popular jobs account for nearly a quarter of all the occupations mentioned: most often, students dream of becoming professional football players (about 13%), professional basketball players (about 6%), and police officers (about 5%). The results also reveal a clear difference between genders: boys tend to aspire to occupations traditionally viewed as male-dominated, while girls more often choose jobs where women are in the majority.
A Survey for All Grade Levels
Draw the Future is the second part of the survey Our Future, aimed at all elementary school students in Iceland. The survey is divided into two parts. Draw the Future is for children in grades 1–7 and involves them drawing pictures of their dream jobs and answering short questions about their drawings. The other part is called Your Voice and consists of an electronic survey tailored to students in grades 8–10. In that survey, students answer questions about their dream jobs, expectations for the future, and share issues that matter to them.
The aim of Draw the Future is to get to know the dream jobs of children aged 6–12, understand who their role models are and what they expect from the future, and also to gain insight into their opinions on learning and school. All elementary schools in the country have been invited to participate, with the goal of reaching all students in the youngest and middle grades.
All jobs that students draw are categorized into 17 groups following the same system used on the website Next Step, which is managed by the Centre for Education and School Services. To examine gender distribution across dream jobs, students are asked to state their gender—boy, girl, or stálp (a nonbinary Icelandic term)—but can also choose “Prefer not to say.” In addition, some students did not state their gender.
Most Want to Work in Sports
The majority of students—around 37%—chose jobs that fall under the “Arts and Entertainment” category. This includes a wide variety of occupations such as professional sports, sports science and e-sports, creative roles like fashion designer, actor, author, and dancer, as well as influencer, architect, and event manager.
The next most popular category is “Environment and Agriculture,” where veterinarian was the most common dream job. In third place is “Teaching, Leisure, and Upbringing,” with teacher being the most frequently chosen job. The “Law Enforcement and Security” category came in fourth, with about 6% of students envisioning their future careers there—police officer being the most popular occupation, and, as previously mentioned, one of the top three overall.
The three least popular categories were “Fisheries,” chosen by only six students; “Metal and Mechanical Technology,” chosen by just four students; and the least popular category of all, “Media and Information,” where only one student dreamed of a job as a newspaper delivery person.
Students’ Dream Jobs Don’t Match Society’s Needs
This shows that students’ dream jobs are, in many ways, at odds with the needs of society if the goal is to maintain professions within the three least popular categories. In this context, it is also worth mentioning the categories “Healthcare Services” and “Electrical and Computer Technology,” with about 6% of students choosing jobs within the former and only 2% within the latter. Students’ interest in these two areas does not reflect society’s need for qualified professionals in healthcare or the high demand for computer scientists, programmers, electricians, and other skilled workers.
Clear Gender Differences
Girls were far more likely than boys to want to work in teaching, leisure, and upbringing. For example, 53% of those who want to become teachers are girls, 27% are boys, and 20% are students who did not state their gender. Only girls and students who did not state their gender expressed a desire to become preschool teachers or childminders.
It was also far more common for girls to have a dream job within environment and agriculture. Veterinarian was the most popular job in that category, with 80% of aspiring veterinarians being girls, 10% boys, and 10% students who did not specify their gender. Only boys had dream jobs within electrical and computer technology. Of those who chose a career in healthcare services, 79% were girls, 10% boys, and 10% were students who preferred not to state or did not specify their gender.
Need for Increased Career Education
It is important to keep in mind that these results reflect only part of the students in the youngest and middle grades of Icelandic elementary schools. It is therefore both interesting and necessary to get even more students to submit their drawings so that our picture of Icelandic children’s dream jobs becomes as clear as possible. The results also highlight a clear need for increased career and education guidance in elementary schools to introduce students to a broader range of occupations across all sectors of the labor market and thus enable them to see the full spectrum of jobs available to them in the future.
