CHANGING DIRECTIONS

The Peace Corps has a "profound effect" on the career choice of Volunteers, says Robert Calvert, director of the organization's Career Information Service.

Studies of the first 5,000 returned Volunteers show that more than half of them changed their vocational plans while in the Peace Corps. Two out of three of the Volunteers who entered the Peace Corps with no long-range vocational goals decided on one while overseas, according to the studies.

Particularly significant, Calvert says, has been the shift toward international careers. Only 8% of the 5,000 Volunteers were interested in long-range careers overseas when they entered the Peace Corps. But almost one-third had this aim when they completed service, he says.

Statistically, the activities of the 5,000 returned Volunteers are broken down this way:

* 39% have continued their education.

* 15% work for the Federal, state or local government.

* 15% teach either in the United States or abroad.

* 8% work with a social service agency (more than 100 returned Volunteers are now taking part in the Office of Economic Opportunity's War on Poverty; more than 10% of these are serving as VISTA Volunteers).

* 11% are in business and industry, either in this country or abroad.

The remaining 12% includes many who are traveling before starting their careers. Some older returned Volunteers have retired. A number of the women surveyed have married and forsaken career goals for the role of housewife.

A separate study of more than 2,000 returned Volunteers indicates that nearly one-third were interested in teaching at all levels. The same study shows that the number interested in careers in government had doubled -- to 20% -- since they entered the Peace Corps.

More than 6,000 persons have successfully completed service as Peace Corps Volunteers. It is estimated that at least 50,000 will have completed service by 1970.