This study is concerned with the relationship between the vocational choices and achievement values of adolescents belonging to the various social strata in New Zealand. The study deals also with a survey among parents, whose achievement values are studied in relation to the vocational aspirations they have for their children. For this purpose a questionnaire was administered to a representative sample of male students in the age group of 14 attending High Schools in New Zealand, while mail questionnaires were sent to a representative sample of mothers. The conclusions drawn from the analysis of these data will be reported in this study. The subject of vocational choice has not been given much attention yet in New Zealand. The Department of Education has collected some useful statistical information regarding school-leaving age, qualifications and probable destination of school leavers. In 1963 the New Zealand Council for Educational Research sponsored a national survey on the vocational choices of school leavers but the results of this study have not been published yet. Other studies of vocational choice have little application to the whole of New Zealand, because they are based on local, non-representative samples. To the knowledge of this writer the aspirations parents hold for their children has never been investigated in a systematic matter. The few studies on achievement values that have been conducted are also confined to local samples, with the exception of one work that draws speculative generalizations about the New Zealand citizens! These New Zealand studies of vocational choice and achievement values are discussed Chapter V. A large body of overseas literature is concerned with the vocational choices of adolescents. In some research vocational choices are studied in relation to achievement values, in other investigations the two issues are discussed separately. The results of these overseas studies are reported in Chapters III and IV.