VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21911, 21 September 1934, Page 13

VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE

EDUCATIONIST'S TESTS

EXCELLENT RESULTS PROFESSOR SHELLEY'S WORK "Our work in eclucation.il ami vocational guidance is now bearing fruit." said Professor James Shelley, of the chair of education at Canterbury University College, in an interview with the Dominion in Wellington this week. Professor Shelley has tested the mental capacities of hundreds of adults and children in Christchurch, and given much advice on questions of education and vocation. "Jioth here in Wellington and down in Christchureh I have had people come to me saying that what I prognosticated on the basis of tests turned out as I had said," he added. "One of these persons was a man of 30 who was not satisfied with his job. Ho was a skilled tradesman, but lie was not happy and felt that his work in life was teaching. H<; had not gone beyond primary school, but 1 tested him and found that he would make a good teacher. He thereupon set himself to study, passed examinations, and is now a master at a secondary school —and doing very well. "Parents bring their children asking me to find out the career for which the child would be most suited. In cases of this kind it is necessary to give advice judiciously, and with an eye to present conditions. It is no use advising a parent that his child has leanings in the direction of a trade or profession which is on the down-grade or which is hopelessly overcrowded. There is a most interesting experiment being carried out on these lines at the University of Minneapolis just now. "Nothing Haphazard"

"Thanks to a generous Carnegie grant the institution has been able to take a group of unemployed men and women—workers whose trades have languished under present economic conditions—and test them for their aptitudes. In carrying out these tests consideration was given to the industries that are on the up-grade, and the group is now being trained in new vocations relating to these industries. In many cases it has been found that the trainee is more suited to the new work than he ever was to the old. There is nothing haphazard about the tests that we carry out. They are all strictly statistical and have been standardised over thousands of cases in all parts of the world. Take the case of a youth of 18 who wishes to go into a certain job but is not quite sure if he is fitted for it. First his standard of general intelligence is tested—his knowledge of what is going on about him, his appreciation of world affairs and so on. Next he is tested for any special capacities that would be required of him in the job he has in mind. His nervous reactions under certain circumstances are studied. It would not do for a man who was a bus driver to get into a panic every time there was a traffic jam! Striking Example

"There are many jobs in this mechanical age that do not sufficiently absorb a child's interests, and that is where greater importance should be attached, 1 consider, to leisure occupations. A case in point is that of a boy who had been tried in various junior positions in a bank. He had failed miserably iu most of them, and the manager decided to send him along to us. "We tested the boy and found that his trouble lay iii what I have already mentioned —that there was not sufficient interest in the jobs he had been given to spur him on to work well. L suggested that he be given more important work. The manager demurred a little, but eventually gave the boy "the position I suggested. To-day he is regarded as the best boy who has ever held that particular job."