"More Than Challenge, Economic Rewards"…Why Elementary, Middle, and High School Students Want to Become 'Doctors'

Tendency to Consider Practical Aspects Such as Economic Compensation Increases

Recent analysis shows that elementary, middle, and high school students tend to consider practical aspects such as economic rewards and job stability rather than pursuing creative challenges and development potential when choosing their desired careers.

On the 30th of last month, the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (Director Ryu Jang-su) released a report titled "Changes in Students' Occupational Values: Focusing on Doctors and Legal Professionals," analyzing how students' values regarding occupations are changing.

According to the report, comparing reasons for choosing desired occupations between 2018 and 2022, the proportion of responses citing "because I think I can earn a lot of money" has increased.

A medical school of a university in Seoul city. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Photo by Yonhap News.

There was no change in the first priority reason for choosing a desired occupation ("because it is a job I like") and the second priority ("because I think I can do well"), but the response rate for "because I think I can earn a lot of money" increased.

The percentage of elementary students who responded "because I think I can earn a lot of money" rose from 4.4% in 2018 to 15.5% in 2022, an increase of 11.1 percentage points. For middle school students, it increased from 5.8% to 8.9%, and for high school students, from 6.5% to 9.0%, rising by 3.1 and 2.5 percentage points respectively.

On the other hand, the proportion of students hoping for jobs they like, that have high development potential, and allow creative work decreased. Among elementary students, the response rate for "because I think I can come up with ideas and work creatively" dropped from 6.4% to 3.4%, a decrease of 3.0 percentage points. In middle and high school, the response rate for "because I think there is high development potential" decreased by 0.9 percentage points (5.5%→4.6%) and 1.3 percentage points (6.4%→5.1%) respectively.

In particular, an analysis of students who chose doctor as their future aspiration among elementary and middle school students showed that the top reason for wanting to become a doctor shifted from "because it is a job I like" to "because I think I can earn a lot of money."

Among elementary students, in 2018, many chose reasons such as ▲"because it is a job I like" (22.3%), ▲"because I think I can do well" (21.5%), and ▲"because I think I can serve society" (20.5%) for wanting to become a doctor, but in 2022, "because I think I can earn a lot of money" ranked first at 30.1%.

Similarly, among middle school students, in 2018, the most common responses were ▲"because it is a job I like" (25.7%) and ▲"because I think I can do well" (19.7%), but in 2022, "because I think I can earn a lot of money" was the highest at 29.3%.

Jieun Jeong, a research fellow at the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, said, "Recently, while students emphasize economic rewards and job stability, pursuing economic freedom and stability through their occupations, the tendency to seek creative challenges and development potential through their jobs is decreasing."

Research fellow Jeong added, "It is necessary to provide students with opportunities to experience diverse occupational values, to develop creative thinking, and to accumulate experiences of social contribution. We should move toward a society where pride in individual occupations is fostered based on respect for the social value of all jobs."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.