Royal Mail : The UK’s children reveal their dream jobs to Royal Mail

Royal Mail's Young Letter Writer of the Year competition gives a unique insight into the career ambitions of 100,000 under-14 year olds across the UK

• Being a professional sportsperson (17%) emerges as the most popular dream job for UK children (boys and girls combined) in the largest ever analysis of the career aspirations of under-14s
• This is followed by being a vet (11%), a career in the performing arts or the media (10%) and working in the combined category of 'science, IT, engineering and architecture' (9%)
• However, boys and girls have differing views on what would make their dream job:

More than one in four boys (27%) dream of being a professional footballer and just under one in five girls (17%) see their dream job as being a vet
Science, IT, engineering and architecture' attracts more boys (14%) than girls (5%). However, significantly more girls (9%) want to enter the medical profession than boys (4%)
Teaching (12%) is third-most popular job for girls, but one of the least-favoured options for boys (3%)

• The findings are based on the often heart-warming content of nearly 100,000 handwritten letters expressing the personal dreams of a huge cross-section of the UK's children
• Royal Mail's Young Letter Writer of the Year competition started in 1977. This year's competition saw the highest number of entries since 2000, emphasising the continued importance of letter writing

Royal Mail's Young Letter Writer of the Year competition has given a unique insight into the career aspirations of children growing up in the UK today. It also reveals clear gender differences in their views of what makes a dream job.

Royal Mail analysed the responses of nearly 100,000 children under the age of 14 who entered the competition with a letter in response to the question 'What is your dream job?' The UK national winners will be announced towards the end of the month with the country and regional winners announced on 18 January 2016.

Top spot
For all UK children (boys and girls combined) a career as a professional sportsperson emerged as the UK's most popular dream job accounting for 17% of letters, followed by being a vet (11%). This in turn was followed by a career in the performing arts or the media (10%) and a career in the combined category of 'science, IT, engineering and architecture' (9%).

A closer analysis of the figures reveals that boys and girls have differing views on what makes a dream job. A career as a professional sportsperson (with footballer topping the list) emerged as the most popular dream job for boys, featuring in 27% of letters. A career as a vet emerged as the most popular dream job among girls, accounting for 17% of responses.

While being a professional sportsperson is a top draw for boys, it is a dream shared by only 8% of girls. In contrast, only 5% of boys hope to work in animal care, the most popular choice for girls.

Popular professions
Amid concerns that women are under-represented in science, IT and engineering, the findings found that boys already expressed a much stronger interest in this area. Around 14% of boys outlined a dream job in the combined category of 'science, IT, engineering and architecture' compared to just 5% of girls. However, significantly more girls (9%) than boys (4%) appear drawn to the medical profession.

For girls, being a teacher was the third most popular job option accounting for 12% of entries. The profession attracted only 3% of the boys' vote.

The popularity of talent shows such as the X-Factor impacted boys and girls in different ways, although the lure of stardom featured in the top five dream jobs for both sexes. About 14% of girls said that their dream job would be a career in performing arts compared to just 6% of boys. Elsewhere, a career in fashion and beauty attracted 9% of girls compared to 0.5% of boys.

Royal Mail's Young Letter Writer of the Year competition is now in its 39th year. With nearly 100,000 entries, this year's competition was the biggest since 2000, suggesting that letter writing is still seen as important by the UK's school children.

Stephen Agar, Managing Director Consumer and Network Access, said: 'The huge number of entries for Royal Mail's Young Letter Writer of the Year competition shows that young people continue to recognise the importance of good letter writing. The quality of writing, originality of thought and strength of argument demonstrated in this year's entries shows that many of our children are extremely competent when it comes to putting pen to paper.'

The handwritten letters are being judged on a range of criteria including style, good use of vocabulary, accurate grammar, well-constructed sentences and correct punctuation all relative to age. The competition was organised in association with the education resource centre, iChild.

Judges, including former Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen, popular TV presenter, Helen Skelton, and Royal Mail chief executive, Moya Greene, are also looking for strong and engaging content imbued with originality relative to age. Other qualities include generating a compulsion to read on, as well as a clear argument that reaches a powerful conclusion.

ENDS.

Note to editors

• Royal Mail has received 97,355 entries from school-aged children up to 14-years old from across the UK in response to the question 'What is your dream job?'
• In the national final, TV presenter Helen Skelton will be joined by Royal Mail's Chief Executive Officer, Moya Greene, former Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen and Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust.
• The judging will take place in the January with the two winners announced shortly afterwards.
• There are two age groups - Group A Under 11 and Group B 11-14
• The 12 competition regions are:

1. London
2. South East
3. East of England
4. East Midlands
5. West Midlands
6. North East
7. North West
8. South West
9. Yorkshire and Humberside
10. Scotland
11. Wales
12. Northern Ireland

*Prizes breakdown:

Prizes Schools Child
Overall winners x 2 £1,000 £1,000 vouchers
Regional winners x22 £200 £200 vouchers
Regional runners Up x 96 £40 £40 vouchers

The first Royal Mail Young Letter Writers Competition was launched almost 40 years ago. The competition aims to engage school-aged children in letter writing and help improve their literacy.

About iChild
iChild provides education and child development resources to support teachers, childcare professionals and parents. These resources cover areas from the National Curriculum. iChild has over 330,000 members comprising teachers, nursery carers, childminders, parents and grandparents. The organisation also runs an exclusive childcare directory in association with PACEY (Professional Association of Childcare & Early Years), allowing new parents to find a registered childminder in England & Wales.

About Royal Mail plc
Royal Mail plc is the parent company of Royal Mail Group Limited, the leading provider of postal and delivery services in the UK and the UK's designated universal postal service provider. UK Parcels, International and Letters ('UKPIL') comprises the company's UK and international parcels and letters delivery businesses operating under the 'Royal Mail' and 'Parcelforce Worldwide' brands. Through the Royal Mail Core Network, the company delivers a one-price-goes-anywhere service on a range of parcels and letters products. Royal Mail has the capability to deliver to more than 29 million addresses in the UK, six days a week (excluding UK public holidays). Parcelforce Worldwide operates a separate UK network which collects and delivers express parcels. Royal Mail also owns General Logistics Systems (GLS) which operates one of the largest ground-based, deferred parcel delivery networks in Europe.