London, Nov 5 Teenagers and young adults look up to their parents as role models when it comes to their careers rather than celebrities, a new survey suggests.

Almost 50 percent of 16-24 year-olds admitted that their parents set the best examples.

Mother comes top of the ratings, ahead of dad in second place and Apprentice head Alan Sugar in third.

U.S President Barack Obama was fourth in the ranking at 24 percent, just 2 percent ahead of grandparents.

Celebrities such as Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell are well back in the field, with only 14 percent of the 1,000 polled aspiring to be like them.

"We commissioned this research to discover how young people are feeling about their careers and future job prospects," Sky News quoted icould.com's David Arnold as saying.

"It's fascinating to see that they are looking towards their parents for guidance and career advice and value professions in education and medicine the highest.

"This is counter-intuitive to what we are led to believe - that youngsters these days only dream of being reality TV stars," he added. (ANI)