TV dramas cause mismatch between students’ career and education goals

The latest figures reveal that TV dramas are shaping students’ career aspirations, with many aiming for professional roles without realising these require a university degree.

TV drama shows such as 'Suits' are misshaping students’ expectations. Picture: Supplied

Students bingeing popular TV hospital, courtroom and police drama shows are inspired to be doctors, lawyers and cops, with many believing they don’t have to go to university first, new research shows.

A global study of 690,000 15-year-old students from 81 countries by the OECD shows girls in 2022 (the latest figures available) want to be doctors, teachers, lawyers, psychologists, police officers and actors. Boys want to be IT professionals, engineers, sportspeople and managing directors. One in five students are “misaligned” in their career thinking, the new international report says. They are “expecting to work in a job that typically requires a university education, but not expecting to complete tertiary education,” the report states.

Penne Dawe, CEO of the Australian Centre for Career Education, said the impact of top-rating TV shows such as Law and Order, Grey’s Anatomy and Suits are having an impact on the career choices of school students.

Actors in a scene from TV show 'Greys Anatomy'. Picture: Supplied

“They are watching a new forensic detective episode and then end up wanting to be forensic investigators,” she said.

“They think such shows give them realistic information about what that job is like.”

Ms Dawe said there was a “postcode divide” in such thinking, with students from more disadvantaged backgrounds less likely to have realistic expectations.

The OECD report shows nearly one in three Australian students from a disadvantaged background has a mismatch between career aspiration and the expected further education this job involves.

However, it’s less than one in ten of students from more wealthy backgrounds.

Career aspirations have changed little in the past two decades, with girls no longer wanting to be keyboard clerks, hairdressers or writers in 2022 and more boys wanting to be managing directors and CEOs. On average, half of all girls and 44 per cent of boys expect to work in ten jobs, with professional industries dominating.

In Australia overall, 65 per cent of such jobs make up less than 20 per cent of the labour force. Although service and sales assistants are the most popular occupational category making up 16 per cent of jobs, only five per cent of young people want to work in those areas.

In total, 39 per cent of young people are uncertain about what job they want to do at the age of 15. This is has not changed over two decades.

Kate Flaherty, national president of the Career Development Association Australia, said there was “nothing wrong with young people having lofty ideas about their careers as long as it’s part of a process”.

“These days, if they want to be a psychologist, they may head to TikTok and watch psychologists talk about their job, which may not be realistic,” she said.

“It’s far more important to actually meet people and talk to them about what they do and why.”

Despite this, Ms Flaherty said social media and television shows can be used to start conversations with students about their career interests.

Danny Pino and Mariska Hargitay from TV show Law & Order: SVU. Picture: Supplied

The OECD report found around 23 per cent of Australian students think “school has been a waste of time” and around 45 per cent think school “has done little to prepare me for adult life when I leave school”.

Trevor Black, chair of the Australian Centre for Career Education board, said the OECD report “reinforces the importance of all students having access to individual quality career advice from qualified career practitioners”.

“It is vital that all schools provide the time and resources necessary for this to occur. This is particularly so for schools in rural or remote settings,” he said.