KEY POINTS:
Children as young as 11 are being told to think about career options - and it seems to be a growing trend.
Figures from the Government's Career Services show one in six of their email and telephone inquiries came from people aged 15 and under in the four months to June, up 4 per cent on the same period last year.
The figure is set to rise if its text message service, on trial until next month , gets the permanent go-ahead.
The Herald spoke to 12-year-olds at the Coca-Cola Careers Expo in Auckland.
The pre-teens said there was "a little" pressure to decide what they wanted to do when they left school, mainly from their parents.
By 15 or 16, students said the pressure was intense and coming from school as well as home.
Secondary Principals' Association president Peter Gall said students in Year 10 were making decisions now for their subjects next year.
It was an important time, as 14-year-old aspiring engineers and doctors chose science options that led to speciality subjects required in their final year at high school.
"Quite often your high-flying academics are pretty set in their ways," said the Papatoetoe High School head.
"They know what they want to do and they know what they have to do to get there. But it's still pretty important to keep options open because there is so much choice nowadays."
Kate Fenton, careers adviser at New Zealand's biggest high school, Rangitoto College, said students should keep studying subjects they enjoyed, while eyeing requirements for university courses or trades.
Despite prerequisites most often being linked with university courses, some trade trainers, including the electrical industry, asked for prescribed entrance standards, she said.
Professor Luanna Meyer, chairwoman of the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee university entrance sub-committee, said students needed the right academic background and ability for certain courses.
"Otherwise we are just setting them up for failure," she said. "There's no point having them pay fees and enrol in a course where they are lacking critical background."
University of Auckland schools partnership office director Ken Rapson said prerequisites were revamped in 2005 to cater for the introduction of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement.
Since then, they remained largely unchanged at the university apart from the addition of "full A levels preferred" for aspiring engineers taking Cambridge exams this year.
He said the alteration closer aligned the requirement with students studying under NCEA.
Mr Rapson said it was important students got good information because of the wider array of job choices.
Weymouth Intermediate deputy principal Jonathan Hendricks said students were taken to the Careers Expo to make them aware of options. He said the field trip was not designed to limit children's study paths.
"Our focus is mostly about making available the huge variety of options that are available out there," he said.
Expo advisory board member Robyn Walshe said the event aimed to help senior students make good decisions about their future career, prepare well and build confidence.
It was impossible to set an age when students should choose their career paths, she said, because it depended on emotional and intellectual readiness. Ms Walshe said teenagers tended to fit into one of four stages, browsing, exploring, applying or what she termed "hanging loose".
Browsers sniffed around at the expo, not knowing what they wanted to do. Explorers had an area of interest, such as working with animals or children, but not a specific career goal.
Appliers were certain about what they wanted and focused on getting into a specific course. Those hanging loose were best to look at other options, such as a gap year, because they were not ready to make a decision.
Requirements
* Bachelor of engineering at University of Auckland
Students need a minimum of 18 credits in calculus and physics in NCEA or maths and physics under the Cambridge exams, with full A levels preferred. It means students need to take compulsory maths to Year 11, choose it in Year 12 and opt for maths with calculus in Year 13. The subject path to Year 13 physics can start as early as Year 11.
* Health sciences at Otago University
Students strongly recommended to have chemistry, with biology, physics and statistics also recommended. It means some students need to choose chemistry as early as Year 11 to get the "strongly recommended" subject at Year 13. The same applies for biology and physics.
What the kids want
* Brittany Parkinson, 12, Mangatawhiri School, wants to be an actress, astronomer or architect.Brittany wanted to be an astronomer before the Careers Expo but liked the look of the drama school and civil engineering stands."I like the idea of designing buildings," she said. "I'm going to take some drama classes and you need maths for astronomy, so I'll work hard at that, and take sciences."
* Lucy Bennett, 16, Waiheke High School, wants to work in the outdoors.She was waiting on acceptance to Mt Aspiring College in Wanaka for Year 13 next year to study subjects such as cafe culture and snowboarding."I've always like sport. When I got older I realised you could have a job in it," said Lucy.
* Ray Talisa, 12, Weymouth Intermediate, aspiring police officer."I've wanted to be a policeman since I was 5," said Ray. "There's a little bit [of pressure] from my mum and dad. They say 'what do you want to do when you grow up?'. I say 'a policeman'. They say it's too dangerous."
* Freya O'Meara, 15, Kristin School, plans to study psychology and law at university.Freya decided on her university plans last year in Year 10 but says some peers aren't so decisive."Everybody is trying to get you to chose your options for next year. To do that, you have to know what you want to be," said Freya. "They are really pushy."
