EMPLOYING YOUTH

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 196, 8 November 1927, Page 16

EMPLOYING YOUTH

PROBLEMS TO BE FACED

CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION The difficulty experienced by parents in finding suitable employment for their boys and girls, and the difficulty experienced by employers in finding suitable juvenile workers. These two problems were “noted with serious misgiving’’ by a committee set up to report to a conference on the co-ordination of education last evening. Professor R. M. Algie, who presided, explained that a previous conference had been called by the Chamber of Commerce and the university authorities. The purpose of the meeting was to receive the report of the committee. The report stated that the causes of the difficulties were the imperfect adjustment between , school training and subsequent practical life; haphazard methods of selection by employers, - and lack of foresight by parents. The formation of a Dominion juvenile employment bureau, under the control of the Education Department, was suggested. Opposition to early specialisation was also expressed, although gradual differentiation of the school course from the age of 11 was favoured. Professor A. P. W. Thomas suggested that the conference should consider the education of employers as well as the employees. Many employers were averse to taking youths who had undergone a complete secondary school course, and would much rather employ a boy of 14 or 15 than a youth of 18 or 19. Such a state of affairs was serious in the extreme, and it was their business to educate the employer to a correct vision of things. Canon H. K. Arclidall, headmaster of King’s College, also spoke against the early age at which boys and girls were taken away from secondary schools. Mr. W. Skegg urged the conference that the main problem was what was to be done with the 200 boys who left Grammar School last year and were still unemployed. Mr. T. Blood worth said he would suggest in all seriousness that conditions were so serious as to warrant boys being kept at school an extra year whenever possible, at least until the present depression was over. He felt they would merely jeopardise the employment of adults by assuring employment of boys.

It was decided to get into touch with the Wellington Association for the Advancement of Education with a view to adopting a similar name and constitution.