MAYBE it's the long hours or the obsessive fitness regimes to maintain the obligatory flawlessly flab-less physique but apparently Cumbrian youngsters are more interested in becoming teachers, police officers and even farmers than popstars.

Face to face interviews with 7,262 of the county's seven to 16 year-olds found that being a popstar ranked as the joint twentieth most popular career choice behind teacher (11 per cent), police officer (9 per cent), footballer (8 per cent), nurse (6 per cent), hairdresser (5 per cent), graphic designer (4 per cent), model (4 per cent), fireman (3 per cent), farmer (3 per cent), vet (2 per cent), chef (2 per cent), train driver (2 per cent), soldier (1 per cent), pilot (1 per cent), other sportsman (1 per cent), in the RAF (1 per cent), travel rep (1 per cent), sailor (1 per cent) and golf pro (1 per cent).

"It seems that career-wise, kids have their feet more firmly on

the ground than we had imagined," said Paul Burke - a manager with Co-operative Insurance which commissioned the survey from Carrik James Market Research.

Kendal teacher Geoff Cater, the man behind Kirkbie Kendal School's immensely popular talent show Reach for the Stars, said he was "genuinely surprised" by the survey's findings.

In his experience he said youngsters were inspired by TV-shows like Popstars and Pop Idol and did "dream the dream" of rising to pop stardom.