SECONDARY school subject choice is one of main mechanisms used by sharp-elbowed middle class parents to push their offspring on to the flight path to the world's top jobs, according to a study by a Scottish university.

Researchers studied the "occupational outcomes" of nearly 10,000 people who were in secondary school between 1969 and 1976 - a time when traditional selective state education and grammar schools were being swept away in favour of what Tony Blair's spokesman Alastair Campbell later called "bog standard comprehensives".

The findings showed that the curriculum choices a child made at 16 were much more important than the type of school they attended in determining the social status attained several decades later.

The analysis, carried out at Edinburgh University's Moray House School of Education and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, also found that going to an independent or a grammar school did not always give advantages.

It was found to explain "a small proportion of the social inequalities". Taken together, subject choice and school type accounted for between a quarter and a third of the advantage associated with growing up in a middle-class family.

The researchers found those from more advantaged social backgrounds were more likely to study a larger number of courses in subjects such as languages, English, maths and science - and to attend selective schools - which were found to enhance the chances of entering professional and managerial occupations.

Another finding showed subject choices explained the effect of attending grammar and independent schools that could not be explained by the social composition and ability of the students attending.

Dr Cristina Iannelli, senior lecturer at Moray House, said: "This study uncovers subject choice as one of the mechanisms by which middle-class parents were able to put their children on to the right path leading to the top occupational destinations."