Country Children Facing the Future by B. Kernot How many school-leavers begin their working life each year? I really don't know. The exact figure isn't important anyway. We all know that Industry has the huge task of assimilating tens of thousands of new workers every December. They pour out of schools all over the country, some keen and ambitious, others shy and nervous, others again dull and lacking drive, and a few, truculent and unprepared for life. Fortunately the jobs are there, but just think of the enormous problem of sorting out all the different types into suitable jobs to the satisfaction of the employer, though not always to the satisfaction of the employed. It may be a purely hit-or-miss, trial-and-error process, but it need not be so.

School Careers Advisers There are professional services available to all school-leavers, and not one adolescent need start his or her working life without first talking over plans and getting the best of advice. Attention has recently been drawn in ‘Te Ao Hou’ to the work of vocational guidance officers, and these people are of course the real experts, carefully selected and trained for their highly specialised work. However country folk are at a disadvantage in utilising this professional service because they must wait for these officers to visit their districts, and then, because of the crowded timetable, they may miss out on an interview. Many of the pupils at our college are turned away at each visit of the vocational guidance officer, simply because there is not time enough to see them all. Of course there is a list of priorities, so that the more urgent cases are seen first. This would be a very serious state of affairs were it not for the fact that this school, like most large secondary schools in New Zealand, has a careers adviser on the staff who sees to it that pupils are taking the right courses, looks after their day-to-day problems, supplies them with careers information, and generally prepares pupils before they meet the vocational guidance officers. Many parents and pupils are unaware of the existence of careers advisers so I thought I would write about my own work as a careers adviser in a remote country college with a large Maori roll, to bring this service to the attention of readers of ‘Te Ao Hou’. I shall be discussing mainly country experiences and country problems but I hope other readers may find something of interest also.

Migration Must be a Planned One From the point of view of choosing and pursuing a worthwhile career, the country pupil is at a great disadvantage. Perhaps the most obvious handicap, and one of the most serious, is the need in most cases to leave the district and go to the city to find suitable employment. All country school-leavers have some sort of a qualification, perhaps two or three years' secondary schooling, or maybe School Certificate or better, but unless their qualifications are used purposefully these young people tend to drift—drift to town, and drift from job to job, becoming jacks of all trades and masters of none, and wasting their talents and qualifications. One of the great challenges facing country schools is the need to change this drift into a planned migration.

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