BOYS FOR BUSINESS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 June 1934, Page 8

BOYS FOR BUSINESS

DEMANDS OF EMPLOYERS ADVANTAGES OF TRAINING AUCKLAND, June 13. “It has been alleged in some (garters that the. preference among business men .it for boys f to commence in their offices ; without previous business training, but this allegation is not in keeping with the facts, in this city at least,,” said Mr K. B. Anderson, last night. Most business men found that boys who had some instruction in the principles of book-keeping adapted themselves very readily to the particular system in vogue in their paificular offices. As a result, the schools wore constantly dealing with requests for boys to enter business, and the selection generally*resulted in the choice of a boy with some business training. “It is to be noted that employers are divided, roughly, into two classes,’* said Mr Anderson, citing a report of ai recent meeting of teachers of commercial subjects, “those professional men who have capped their own education by a university course, and those who have not had such an academic training. The latter usually require younger boys with one or two years’ secondary education, who have some knowledge of elementary business prinj' ciples—there is a surprising demand for boys'who can do typing—while the professional man requires almost always a boy who has passed the university entrance examination, the so-called hallmark of secondary education in the Dominions. ” The demand for a matriculated boy who had 'specialised for a year in any accountancy subjects was very keen, and might be taken as distinctly in favour of post-matriculation specialisation, even if it opened 'the secondary .schools’ policy to criticism for overlapping. The viewpoint of the professional man was explained in a short address by Mr R. A., Spinley, who said that the great: majority of boys going into business houses had not been taught the fundamental principles of accountancy, the principles of debit and credit. Because of this lack of knowledge the majority of pupils turned out by the commercial colleges became merely ordinary routine clerks. “If the colleges gave a thorough grounding in debit and credit principles, they would be doing a great service ,to tile business houses in'the city, - ” said Mr Spinley