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Successful career over happiness: Study decodes what Indian parents want for their kids

In many emerging economies, parents hope for their children to be successful in their career almost as strongly as they do for them to be happy in life, the study showed.

FP Staff|Jul 20, 2015, 15:17:39 IST

Are Indian parents obsessed with their kids studying engineering and MBAs and being successful in their careers? Turns out they might be. A new global survey by HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management found out that in India, 23 percent parents want their children to be engineers and 22 percent want them to be MBAs.The report called 'The Value of Education: Learning for Life', spoke to parents from many countries across the world and the findings were fascinating. Chinese parents give priority to the health of their children (72%) while in US and Canada they think their kids being happy is most important.In many emerging economies, parents hope for their children to be successful in their career almost as strongly as they do for them to be happy in life, the study showed. So in India, parents want their kids to be successful in their careers (51%) more than even having a a happy life (only 49% wanted that for their kids). Even health is a relatively lower concern for Indian parents.[caption id="attachment_2351928" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Reuters image.[/caption]The study further found that a job in engineering is the most preferable for almost a fifth of parents in Brazil (18%), Malaysia (18%), the UAE (16%) and Mexico (16%), compared to just 5% of parents in Australia, Singapore and Taiwan. Parents in India – a country renowned for its emerging technology sector – are more than twice as likely as the average to want their children to go into a job in computer science.Making a difference to society is important to two in five (38%) parents in Indonesia and to just under a quarter (22%) of parents in Turkey and India. To get their sought-after careers, 88% Indian parents feel that postgraduate or masters degree is important, While 91% are happy with undergraduate courses.An interesting find by the study was related to additional tutoring. The study said 74% of Chinese parents would not mind paying for additional tutoring for their children. India and Indonesia tie for the second place with 71%.

The desire for children to achieve the highest possible academic qualifications is strongest in the UAE, where a third (33%) of parents say this is an important goal for their children, as it is for parents in Malaysia (29%) and India (28%).Parents were also found to more likely to want their daughters to go into medicine (22%) than they are for their sons (15%). They are, however, more likely to want their sons to go into engineering (15%, compared to 6% for daughters) or computer science (10%, compared to 5% for daughters).This is true regardless of parents’ own gender, the study further added.[caption id="attachment_2352226" align="aligncenter" width="825" class=" "]

Source: HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management[/caption]Many parents think students work too hard and so are concerned their children do not have enough time to develop the softer skills they need to succeed in the job market. In Asia and the Middle East, this imbalance is particularly pronounced. In the UAE, 39% of parents think their child spends too much time on independent study at university, compared to only 5% who think they do not spend enough time. There is also a wide gap in Indonesia (36% compared to 10%), Singapore (30% compared to 10%), India (29% compared to 17%) and Hong Kong (42% compared to 26%).In contrast, parents in France are more likely to think their child does not spend enough time on independent study at university (30%).

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