Survey On Vocations

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31291, 10 February 1967, Page 3

Survey On Vocations

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 9. A survey to determine the vocational choices of high school pupils will be made in the central region of New Zealand over the next few months.

It will be conducted by Miss C. Vellekoop, lecturer in sociology at the University of Canterbury. The New Zealand Council for Educational

Research and the school of sotial science of Victoria Umversity will co-operate in the survey. The purpose is to study the expectations high school pupils have for their education and future career, and also what plans the parents of these pupils have for their child’s future. The survey will be made in an area stretching from New Plymouth to Gisborne, and south to Nelson. Pupils in forms 111 and IV of about 30 schools—one quarter of the schools in the region—will fill in a questionnaire in the classroom about the education and the job they hope to get About 750 parents with children in forms 111 and TV of these schools will receive

a questionnaire in the mail a day after their child has been questioned. Only parents of 14-year-old pupils will receive the questionnaire. Miss Vellekoop believes that 14 is the crucial age. Then, pupils are required to decide whether they wish to leave school at 15 and find a job, or whether they should stay on for more schooling. “The study is of considerable importance for the assessment of the potential for the labour market, and of the requirements for education and training in New Zealand,” she said. The information given by parents and children would be treated as strictly confidential and would be seen only by the research staff.