The selection of one’s profession is one of the most important, yet most difficult decisions in one’s life. This selection is additionally burdened by a great number of options offered to adolescents. On the other hand, this decision is made during the period of identity development when the majority of adolescents are still not aware of their own preferences and interests (Van der Gaag & Van den Berg, 2017). Therefore, the selection of academic studies and future profession represents one of the crucial issues that troubles adolescents upon graduating from secondary school (Alberts et al., 2003). The decision about the choice of profession should be based on two key factors: the prospects of the selected profession and the employment options (Kniveton, 2004). All the more owing to the fact that fast advances in science and technology represent the main reason why certain professions are facing extinction whereas some new ones are thriving. Therefore, it is important that students realise which jobs are in great demand in the labour market. Otherwise, a further discrepancy between the matriculation policy and labour demand policies will result in an unnecessary surplus of occupations and, consequently, an increase in unemployment among college graduates. The results of the research conducted by Creed and Patton (2003) identified gender differences regarding the choice of career. Actually, the research determined that young female respondents displayed a higher level of career maturity and concern for their own career and employment in comparison to their male counterparts. As regards gender differences, it is worth mentioning that various research results proved that unlike male adolescents, female school-age adolescents rarely chose professions in sciences (Miller et al., 2002; Wilgosh, 2002). Research results also showed that students’ decision regarding their career choice was influenced by their parents, teachers and school counsellors. Namely, the results obtained from the research conducted by Taylor et al. confirmed that 72.2% of parents assumed that the career choice should Abstract. The research was motivated by the necessity to examine the perspectives of STEM professions in Serbia. The aim of this research was to study students’ motives for career choices and their attitudes towards STEM sciences. The empirical scientific approach was applied, i.e. the quantitative and qualitative research method. The most frequently chosen undergraduate majors, the motives that determined that choice and the professional interests were examined by the interviewing technique in the first phase and the scaling and survey techniques in the second phase of the research. The participation in the research was voluntary and comprised of Serbian secondary school students. The research ascertained that a poor state of the national economy determined the students’ decision to be trained for “jobs of the future” rather than attend the desired studies. The professions in the IT sector, engineering and sciences proved to be the most profitable ones. These results proved a growing popularity of STEM professions among the Serbian students, but they also implied the prospective necessity to promote mathematics and engineering within the education system considering the present insufficient interest in these academic studies. Regarding the fact that this type of scientific research is still rarely conducted by Serbian experts in the relevant field, this research contributes to a more comprehensive review of the STEM education.

中文翻译：

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STEM 教育对塞尔维亚中学学生职业选择动机的看法

选择一个人的职业是一个人一生中最重要但也是最困难的决定之一。这种选择还受到提供给青少年的大量选择的负担。另一方面，这个决定是在大多数青少年还没有意识到自己的喜好和兴趣的身份发展时期做出的（Van der Gaag & Van den Berg，2017）。因此，学业和未来职业的选择是困扰青少年中学毕业的关键问题之一（Alberts et al., 2003）。关于职业选择的决定应基于两个关键因素：所选职业的前景和就业选择（Kniveton，2004）。更重要的是，科学技术的快速进步是某些职业面临灭绝而一些新职业正在蓬勃发展的主要原因。因此，让学生意识到劳动力市场上哪些工作需求量很大，这一点很重要。否则，预科政策和劳动力需求政策之间的进一步差异将导致不必要的职业过剩，从而增加大学毕业生的失业率。Creed 和 Patton (2003) 进行的研究结果确定了职业选择方面的性别差异。事实上，研究表明，与男性同行相比，年轻女性受访者表现出更高水平的职业成熟度和对自己职业和就业的关注。至于性别差异，值得一提的是，各种研究结果证明，与男性青少年不同，学龄女性青少年很少选择科学专业（Miller et al., 2002; Wilgosh, 2002）。研究结果还表明，学生对职业选择的决定受到父母、老师和学校辅导员的影响。即，从 Taylor 等人进行的研究中获得的结果。确认72.2%的家长认为职业选择应该抽象。该研究的动机是有必要检查塞尔维亚 STEM 专业的观点。这项研究的目的是研究学生的职业选择动机和他们对 STEM 科学的态度。应用了实证科学方法，即定量和定性研究方法。最常选择的本科专业、决定选择的动机和专业兴趣通过第一阶段的访谈技术和第二阶段的规模和调查技术进行了检查。参与研究是自愿的，由塞尔维亚中学生组成。研究确定，国民经济状况不佳决定了学生决定接受“未来的工作”培训，而不是参加理想的学习。IT 部门、工程和科学领域的职业被证明是最有利可图的。这些结果证明 STEM 专业在塞尔维亚学生中越来越受欢迎，但考虑到目前对这些学术研究的兴趣不足，它们也暗示了在教育系统中促进数学和工程的未来必要性。鉴于塞尔维亚相关领域的专家仍然很少进行此类科学研究，这项研究有助于对STEM教育进行更全面的审查。