Elementary students look to different careers

“President, scientists and lawyers” used to be the most popular dream jobs for elementary school students.

But now, four out of 10 fourth, fifth and sixth graders wish to have careers in art, music and physical education, a report shows.

The findings are from a 2015 welfare report from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.

In the survey, 40.49 percent of students wanted jobs in culture, art and sports. They wanted to become actors and actresses, singers, athletes, film and play directors, performance organizers, painters, performance artists, designers, authors and reporters.

Another 38.06 percent of students selected these professions as the second most sought job category _ bringing the percentage of students wishing for careers in this field to 78.55 percent.

The second most popular category, when combining the percentages of the most sought and second most sought, was the field of educators _ professors, teachers and instructors.

Cooking and food service sector jobs followed. This is attributed to the host of cooking-related shows that aired in the past year, making chefs more popular.

The next-favored jobs were in health, welfare and religion including such professions as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, Korean medicine doctors, nutritionists, social workers and clergy.

Judges, prosecutors, lawyers and civil servants proved less popular.