Few jobs available for school leavers

Press, 19 October 1977, Page 17

Few jobs available for school leavers

While Jobs for school leavers appear limited, the real situation will not be known until February, when enrolment figures will show how many students who intended to leave school have returned.

Employers generally have more job applications than vacancies, allowing them to be more selective. Some say that they have a similar

number of vacancies to last year but others report stable staff numbers, with few resignations leading to few vacancies. There has been an increase in vacancies in some sections of the Railways Department.

The Christchurch district vocational guidance officer (Mr P. H. Milburn) said that it would not be easy for school leavers to find jobs, but it was impossible to predict at this stage how difficult it would be.

This would not be known until the start of the new school year in February.

The vocational guidance service advised would-be school leavers to apply for several jobs instead of putting in one application, expecting it to be all right.

The State Services Commission handles all Government jobs except those in the Railways, the Post Office, and corporations such as the Broadcasting Corporation and the N.A.C.

The district inspector for the commission (Mr E. Delaney) said that there would be about 90 vacancies in Government departments for school leavers — about the same as last year.

As high a standard of applicant as possible was wanted. School Certificate was essential and University Entrance desirable. There was a constant flow of inquiries from people wanting jobs.

The Railways is increasing the number of appren-

ticeships in fitting, turning, boilermaking, blacksmithing, coach building, and for fitter-electricans to 66, compared with 53 last year.

An apprentice instructor, Mr A. H. Blackler, said that retirements in supervisory positions were being filled by people from the shop floor and these places had to be filled.

The vacancies would be filled comfortably. Eightytwo applications had already been received, some as early as last January and February. The traffic section of the Railways would take its usual intake of 15 administrative cadets, said an employment officer in the district traffic manager’s office, Mr E. G. Marker. Most would be men, with one or two women.

For the first time, the department would take 15 young men, aged from 15 to 18 years, into a junior porter’s school in midJanuary. After platform duties, they would do operational work. Young men had previously been employed for these positions as required. There would be few assistant clerical positions for young women. There might be one or two depending on resignations but the staff turnover was low.

A spokesman for the Post Office said that there were few vacancies for school leavers. There had been little staff movement during the year. The vacancies would be on the technical side, such as for telephone technicians and technical service officers.

The City Engineer’s Department of the Christchurch City Council will probably have one or two places for motormechanic apprentices.

A spokesman said that about 18 applications had been received for two places last year and he expected a similar situation this year.

The Municipal Electricity Department will probably have six or seven vacancies for elec-trical-wiring apprentices, positions which will lead to registration as electricians. The department’s training and safety engineer (Mr C. H. Christensen) said that there had been about 70 inquiries for these vacancies.

The department also had a vacancy for an apprentice motor mechanic and there had been 25 applications for this position.

Mr B. Shackel of Shackel Meats, said that his company had three apprenticeships available in the retail meat trade. The successful applicants would begin work near Christmas.

About 20 applications had been received so far. This was more than last year so the company had been able to set higher standards when looking at educational qualifications. The group personnel manager for Lane Walker Rudkin, Ltd, (Mr B. W. Kington) said there was a limited number of apprenticeships and technical positions available.

However, the company was interested in meeting any young person who was prepared to start on the factory floor and work up to a supervisory or managerial position. The textile and gar-ment-manufacturing industry generally had few vacancies.

While there were about five vacancies for young men, there was a long waiting list for vacancies for young women as bank officers in A.N.Z. banks in Christchurch, said the manager of operations (Mr G. L. Farrant). There were some vacancies in South Canterbury branches.

The A.N.Z. tried to keep a balance of an equal number of men and women as bank officers. The minimum qualification was School Certificate in

four subjects, including English and preferably mathematics. There had been more applications for jobs than last year so the bank could be more selective.

A spokesman for the Bank of New Zealand said that it was too early to tell what the situation would be. However, he anticipated many applications for few jobs. An insurance company spokesman said that the company was taking on additional staff only when people resigned. Few persons were leaving. There would probably be two vacancies — one possibly for a school leaver and the other for a girl with previous experience in insurance.

A survey of three industries, for which the Canterbury Employers’ Association provides the secretariat, shows that there are about 80 to 100 apprenticeship vacancies in the engineering industry, in Chrsitchurch about 50 in the motor trade, and about 20 in the building trade. A spokesman said that some builders took on apprentices direct so there could be more than the 20 shown in the survey.

A senior woman consultant for Key Personnel, Ltd, Mrs L. F. Stubbs, said • that educational qualifications were needed tosay more than ever.

There were girls prepared to leave school now to take up positions, while continuing their studies for examinations at night school or at week-ends.

Another Key Personnel consultant, Mr P. J. Burtt, said that there were one or tw'o positions for young men leaving school and he thought that there would be a few more.

Some employers waited until school leavers finished school, so there could be more jobs on the market later this month and next month.