85% of Brits never fulfill childhood career dreams

As the nation’s students gear up for the final week of their A-Levels and GCSEs and undergraduates discover if they’ve done enough to claim their honours, a fate which will impact on their career decisions, new research reveals that less than 1 in 5 of us don’t go on to do the job which we wanted to do as a child.

The survey, which was carried out JCB Toughphones reveals that 85 PERCENT of us don’t fulfill our childhood career ambitions, with only a handful of people becoming what they wanted to be when they ‘grew up’.

According to the research, Geordies are the least likely to realise their childhood dreams, with a shocking ninety-three percent of those questioned in the North East claiming they don’t do the job they thought they would do while growing up, with one in ten (91%) people in Yorkshire claiming the same. The region most likely to become what they wanted as a child is the South East, where a fifth (19%) of people have seen out the ambitions of their youth. 

JCB Toughphones, which carried out research as part of the launch of its brand new range of tough smartphones, designed for every career - from labourers to professionals, found most little boys it seems wanted to grow up to become footballers (14%), closely followed by pilots (11%) and soldiers (7%). Politician came bottom of the pecking order (1.4%) as desirable childhood careers, closely followed by architect with a tiny two percent.

Girls it seems wanted to show their caring side, with a fifth (20%) of those questioned claiming nurse would be their top childhood dream job, closely followed by teacher. Almost another fifth (19%) of girls cited the role as their dream job, unlike the boys; only six percent of whom said they wanted to stay on in the classroom. 

Jason Kemp of JCB Toughphones, said: “It’s a shame most of us don’t live out our career ambitions, but not everyone can be a professional footballer. But I can’t talk, I wanted to be a Marine Biologist! At a time when teenagers across the nation are thinking about their futures, the new research shows that many of us take a career trajectory we weren’t always expecting!”

For more information about JCB Toughphoens visit jcbphone.co.uk.