Vocational Guidance.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20567, 8 June 1932, Page 10

Vocational Guidance.

We print this morning' a report on vocational guidance for children prepared by a sub-committee of the Standing Committee on Education. The report is a useful summary of the work already done in this field and puts forward some suggestions ■which should be fruitful. The sub-committee says, for instance, that "for all practical " purposes the information gained about " a child's mental and physical qualities "during his eight to twelve years of "schooling is thrown away when he "leaves school," though obviously this information would greatly assist prospective employers. The proposal that this information should be rescued from the Department's pigeon-holes and arranged in an easily understood chart is an excellent one, though it seems to ask for much greater administrative resources than the Standing Committee now has at its disposal. As the scheme is so valuable, however, the various organisations which have interested themselves in vocational guidance, as well as parents of children about to leave school, will probably be anxious to assist in removing this difficulty. It is, of course, not quite correct to suggest that the record of a child's school career is accessible only to the education authorities, for headmasters can and do supply much useful information about their pupils to employers who ask for it. In many cases, too, employers will place more reliance on the informally expressed opinion of a teacher than on a written record. Another particularly valuable suggestion made in the report is that the Standing Committee should try to estimate the probable demand for labour in different occupations in Canterbury in the near future. Even the most general information on this point would be useful as a guide to parents and school authorities, for while it is important to put children in occupations which suit is equally important, and perhaps more difficult, to ensure that supply and demand shall be reasonably closely related. A child's natural aptitude will usually indicate a fairly wide range of suitable occupations, and the choice of the training which will narrow that range gives an opportunity to allow for the future requirements of the various industries and professions. The estimating of these requirements is another task which calls for the assistance of employers, and it is therefore encouraging to find that the Standing Committee seems already to be working in close touch with such organisations as the Chamber of Commerce.