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.

More Difficult to Decide Then too, there is the opposite case of pupils ill-advisedly taking up a career for which they are not fitted, and failing to succeed. It is often too late to start on a more suitable alternative, and so a career is wasted. Another problem for the country pupil is the lack of first-hand experience of a sufficiently wide range of occupations. City pupils see these jobs around them every day, and they know a lot more about different jobs than country pupils do. The latter frequently have no way of deciding whether or not they would like a particular job. Sometimes I suggest office machining to a girl seeking advice, and then I have to explain as best I can what an office machinist does; but because the girl has never seen an office machinist at work and cannot visualise what it would be like, she discards the suggestion. On one occasion I tried to interest a hefty young fellow in the pattern-making trade in a foundry. I had a job ready for him if he wanted it. He had never heard of a foundry and was quite unimpressed with my description of the pattern-makers' work. He couldn't visualise the work, so he turned it down. He is now working on the chain in a freezing works.

Chance to See For Themselves In an attempt to give our pupils a chance to see real career situations for themselves, this school organised a week-long careers trip to Wellington last August for the fifth and sixth forms. The pupils, in several small groups, inspected many different types of occupations. They kept a record of everything they saw, and later wrote reports. The trip was expensive—after local fund-raising had been added to school and Maori Affairs Department subsidies, the pupils still had to find £12 each—but it was a most valuable experience for these young people. They were able to assess several different types of careers which they had been considering, and they also got a good insight into the working life of a city.

Working Out the Likely Possibilties It is hard to imagine just how unrealistic some pupils can be in selecting careers. I once asked a lower fifth form class to write an essay on the topic of their future careers. One yonug hopeful declared that he was going to be a naval captain. His uncle in the navy would help him to become a captain. Another lad had a well-worked-out scheme. He was going to join a stock firm; after 10 years, when he had become a manager, he was going to leave the firm and join the opposition with all the old firm's secrets! It is hard to remember sometimes that it is secondary school pupils that one is dealing with. So the first task of the careers adviser is to ensure that pupils are thinking about careers, and also to provide them with information on different types of employment. I expect our pupils to be thinking along these lines in their first year at college. Maturing teenagers will inevitably change their minds many times, but by the time they are in the fifth and sixth forms the likely possibilities should be emerging. I think this is probably the best time to see the vocational guidance officer.

Help in Choosing Courses The careers adviser is also responsible for seeing that pupils have enrolled in the right courses. In large secondary schools the arrangement of courses is usually quite complicated, and it is often advisable to see the careers adviser when a pupil is about to be enrolled. The variety of courses is meant to meet the special needs of different pupils. Some courses are not geared to school certificate, and it is as well to remember that many school certificate subjects cannot be taken for university entrance. Once they are enrolled, the careers adviser watches pupils' progress to see if course and class adjustments are necessary before it is too late; he speaks to classes on job opportunities,