150 Pupils On Career Visits

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31449, 16 August 1967, Page 11

150 Pupils On Career Visits

About 150 senior secondary school pupils from Canterbury and the West Coast will spend the week from August 28 to September X in Christchurch studying a big variety of careers. On the Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings they will have formal talks and films about careers at the Christchurch Teachers’ College but for the rest of the time they will be spread among 60 to 70 places of employment. Each of these may contain dozens of jobs. For instance, a hospital will be one place of employment but in it the pupils will be able to see a huge variety of jobs. Experts in each field will tell pupils what is involved on the spot Originally these holiday visits were planned primarily for country children who might not have the opportunity at home to see a wide range of employment said the District Vocational Guidance Officer (Mr W. J. Boyd). However, circumstances had changed. Some distant schools were visited so regularly by vocational guidance officers that the pupils were as well informed as some in the city, Mr Boyd said. / Interest from both town and country children was equally keen and both groups would have opportunities to visit places not normally open to them.

Mr Boyd said his centre did not simply ask pupils what careers they wanted to see. They were invited to fill in a questionnaire indicating their interests and skills and from this the Vocational Guidance Centre suggested a range of nominated jobs and also others which might not have been considered. Investigations after the last course showed that 40 per cent of those attending were considering fresh careers as a result of broadened interest. Mr Boyd said the centre

would »lso supply pupils with 15 basic questions to consider when examining each career. These included. the branches of work in a given establishment, education and special skills required, personal qualities needed, training arrangements, higher qualifications, salaries and prospects, and hours of work.