VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6975, 8 October 1948, Page 5

VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE

INFORMATIVE ADDRESS SENIOR BOY’S OFFICER TALKS TO ROTARY An instructional and interesting address on “Vocational Guidance and How It Works” was given to members and invited guests at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Te Awamutu Rotary Club by Mr W. J. H. Clark, Senior Boy’s Vocational Guidance officer, Auckland. The president, Dr F. C. Blundell, introduced and welcomed Mr Clark. After expressing thanks for the welcome extended, Mr Clarke defined the term vocational guidance as assisting young people to select and prepare to enter suitable occupations and progress therein. other definition that had been given was “Seeing through John, and seeing John through” but he (the speaker) defined it as “helping John to see through himself in order that John may see himself through.” After stating that vocational guidance was established in 1943 as a branch or activity of the Education Department, Mr Clark said that the work of Vocational Guidance officers involved visits to schools and meeting pupils, teachers and parents, giving addresses to parent-teacher associations, Rotary Clubs and other interested bodies. As no one person had ail the knowledge required the success of vocational work depended to some extent on the co-operation of all sections of the community—in fact it was a partnership effojt. The speaker then went on to outline the five basic points of vocational guidance as follows: (1) a recognition of the individual difference in pupils; (2) a respect for the individual pupil as a person and not as a name on the roll or membership in a class and that aspect was important in a democratic society; (3) emphasis on the pupil as a whole not just in part: health, leisure, work, emotional and social relations, intelligence and abilities all entered into the summingup of the whole person;(4) a belief in the growth of the pupil, for a human being was not static but dynamic, ever changing and developing; (5) the eventual approach which meant the need for and value of studying accurately and understanding people. Vocational guidance was needed because of the fact that society* was changing and consequently was becoming more complex and more and varied training was required. There was also the need for more specialisation and mor* mechanisation. Then again the school educational system or syllabus was changing, especially at secondary schools and universities. In answering the question what vocational guidance required of its officers, Mr Clarke said that the latter had to study the individual in regards such points as health and physique, intelligence, and abilities both practical and academic, personality and Social adjustment, their interest and and leisure habits, their home and economic background together with their plans and purposes. In regards the study of occupations likely to be suitable for individual pupils, all the requirements of the selected profession or work had to be considered, how the different pupils would fit into the particular job, the preparation required for the job, and how best such could be achieved. Vocational guidance was successful and after a boy or girl had been placed into a position the department had special officers who did follow-up work by keeping in touch with the individual and giving him, or her the necessary advice and help needed. In closing Mr Clark said that Rotary by their sympathetic and practical interest could assist John to give the greatest satisfaction and to get satisfaction.

ADDRESS BY WOMAN OFFICER

Employers should not feel hurt when women who had been in their employment for many years decided to leave, said Miss W. McNaughton, girls’ vocational guidance officer for the Auckland district, speaking to the Optimists’ Club, Auckland yesterday on employment problems. Instead, they should bear in mind that- some of these women started work during the depression, when they could not exercise much choice in the career they took up, and it was natural for some of them to want a change now that there was more scope.

From the woman’s point of view, however, there were drawbacks to the change, she said. In the first place, they had to face a sense of lessening security and there was also usually a drop in salary. Vocational guidance officers took an interest in older workers, no less than in the young people. Their problem Vas to ease these women into positions where their capabilities would be exercised. This applied to all types of work.

For the younger person, the theme which had to be emphasised was “the young also have to eat and sleep.” Some of the eating and accommodation costs at present took all the first wage of the 16-year-old, and perhaps more. There seemed to be an increasing need for young workers to have family backing to start. Miss McNaughton said she had recently been lecturing in schools in the North. There her advice to girls who wanted to work in Auckland had been to arrange for somewhere to board in advance, and to come to the city with a fortnight’s pay in advance and a reasonably adequate wardrobe. She advised them to explain to their families that during the first six months, assistance with the payment of board would be a great help. Emotional Element

In cases where girls wanted to take up a career which had an age of entry, such as nursing, it was necessary for them to plan a secondary career to fill in the intervening time after leaving schoolEmotions both of the individual and his or her family played a great part in the choice of a career, Miss McNaughton said. In some cases a mother would

insist on her daughter taking up a certain career because she herself had done the work and thought there was nothing else so good, while in other instances exactly the opposite circumstances would apply.

One father had been determined that his son should not take up commercial art, as he himself had tried it and had not been able to make a living at it. The son took an engineering course, and it was not until he received a rehabilitation grant after the war that he was able to take up commercial art.

The first few days a young person spent at a job were important, she emphasised. The reactions at that time could effect her whole attitude to the work.

Material benefits provided by a firm did not necessarily matter quite so much as the human touch in dealing with the individuals themselves. It was excellent that they should have all the physical conditions the firm could offer, but these were not in themselves sufficient. There must be people who could talk to the workers as people and recognise them as people.