The OECD shares findings on how many young people could see themselves in a health profession at the age of 30.
With the health sector being hugely important but suffering many workforce shortages around the world, the concern is if this will get even worse in the future. One avenue to explore is the likelihood of young people taking up these positions in the future.
The OECD published findings from the OECD Programme for International Students’ Assessment (PISA) survey and student applications and admission programmes based on national administrative data collected by OECD and WHO (the latter data set is mainly focused on nursing education programmes).
What did they discover?
The interest of 15-year-olds in pursuing careers as doctors and nursers has decreased in about half of OECD countries and in several non-OECD countries between 2018 and 2022.
Girls are more likely than boys to aspire to a health career, for example 72% of the 15-year-old students in OECD countries aspiring to work as doctors were girls, and 90% of 15-year-old students in OECD countries aspiring to work as nursers were girls.
Aspirations in nursing were notably lower than aspirations to become doctors. Only around 2% of 15-year-olds in OECD countries said they aspire to become nursers – almost four times lower than those aspiring to become doctors. Interestingly the OECD also shared that nursing programme applications increased during the early COVID pandemic but decreased in 2022 and 2023. 1
Read the full report.
What about in your setting?
How many of your students are interested in a health profession? Let us know on social media.
References
- OECD (2025), What Do We Know about Young People’s Interest in Health Careers?, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/002b3a39-en.
