Harder to Visualize Careers

Te Ao Hou, March 1966, Page 7

Harder to Visualize Careers It is an unfortunate irony that these young people who most need the goal of a worthwhile career are the most severely handicapped when it comes to choosing a suitable occupation. Unlike city children who see industry all around them, they have nothing to stimulate them into thinking of their future work. One of my biggest jobs is to somehow make all our pupils think about their future careers, so that by the time they are interviewed by a vocational guidance officer, they have given the matter plenty of thought. This makes it much easier and quicker for the vocational guidance officers, but of greater importance is the fact that these adolescents have given careful consideration to their final choice. I have a notice-board on which I display a wide variety of posters giving information on different types of occupations. The library has

a good stock of brochures and pamphlets, and I also use films and film-strips. All this is just the spade-work of careers advising, yet despite it all, there is still a too large proportion of pupils who do not think carefully enough. One indication of this is the fairly narrow range of occupations most seem to prefer. Panel-beating, motor mechanics and the army are the most popular boys' preferences, and the girls stick mainly to teaching, nursing and telephone operating. I fear these choices are arrived at not so much by serious thought, as by knowing others who have taken up these jobs already. Of course if they are happy in their choice of occupation, why should I worry? I shouldn't I suppose, but I sometimes do have the nagging doubt that the girl who is now a telephone operator would have made an excellent dental nurse or kindergarten teacher or shorthand typist, or that the panel-beater could have been a successful draughtsman or professional engineer or officer cadet.