Banker makes list of top five jobs London teenagers dream of doing

Banker is the fourth most popular job

City workers smile as they stand in the street during a student demonstration against higher tuition fees and privatisation in universities (Peter Macdiarmid / Getty)

Children used to dream of being pop singers, ballerinas or astronauts. Not anymore. A career survey has revealed that a new generation of teenagers are more realistic.

Banker, which was not a top 10 career choice last year, made its entrance as the fourth most popular job chosen by teenagers.

Conducted by Skills London – the capital’s biggest jobs and career event - the research of 16-year-olds across the city, found that medicine, teaching, law were the most popular career aspirations.

Today’s young people are likely to be more pragmatic than previous generation as they are afraid of not achieving job stability and having a good salary, the survey found.

According to Skills, students think they are less likely to collect high wages in their careers. Whereas 48 per cent of 16-year-olds surveyed in 2014 said that they expected to earn £40,000 a year after five years in employment, just 34 per cent said the same in 2015.

Generally when it comes to earnings , there seemed to be a good deal of realism among students for the short term. Just 25 per cent said they wanted to earn £15,000 to £19,999 in their first year of work, in comparison to 27 per cent last year.

A further 21 per cent wanted to earn £10,000 to £14,999 an accurate prediction knowing that the average income for a full-time employed between 18 to 21-year-old is £14,403, according to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings conducted by the Office for National Statistics.

“It’s easy to characterise Generation Z as having unrealistic expectations of work, but actually today’s school-leavers are aspirational realists are focussed on knuckling down and getting well-paid works,” said Mark Hilton Director of Skills at business group London First, which co-organises Skills London.