prospective studies which compare early career aspirations with actual careers observed during followup surveys for the same individuals confirm the importance of adolescent career aspirations for career choices more generally ashby and schoon on in pisa teachers reported whether pursuing a career in the teaching profession was their goal after completing upper secondary school on average across countries that distributed the teacher questionnaire in and that have available data in both pisa and about of yearold teachers who teach yearold students had chosen to become teachers by the end of secondary school figure the data also highlight substantial variations across countries