OPENINGS FOR YOUNGSTERS OF LOCAL SCHOOL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 34, 17 December 1948, Page 5

OPENINGS FOR YOUNGSTERS OF LOCAL SCHOOL

Facts Put Before Parents’ Meeting* In opening the topic “Choosing a Career” at the Whakatane Par-ent-Teacher Association meeting on Monday night, Mr G. Gordon, Careers Adviser at the District High School, stressed the importance of choosing the right course when entering High School. If any of the' subjects required for a particular occupation are missed it means a year wasted in those subjects. Towards the end of the year, he explained the Careers Adviser and Head Teacher of the High School visit all the schools in the district contributing to the High School and interview all pupils to try to find out what they want to do when they leave school so as to get them into the right school course. Thereafter, the Careers Adviser has an interview with each pupil once a year and it is often found that a child has changed his mind during the year about what he wants to be.

Mr Gordon considered that parents should play a greater part than they do in the choice of a career for their children. Very few parents had been to school to enquire what the school thought their children were best suited for and too much was left to the child. The school cannot provide anywhere near the staff required in the town and Mr Gordon was emphatic that more consideration should be given by employers in this community to employing Maori boys and girls when there were vacancies in, their staffs. There were Maori boys and girls at the school who had received the same education as the Europeans and who could be recommended for work of different kinds. Clerical Work .Mr N. H. E. Hockin spoke of the opportunities in the clerical field in Whakatane and said that there is a shortage of young people to fill all the positions offering. His first advice to the girl or boy who would like an office career was to obtain School Certificate before leaving school. After that the next thing for a girl to do is to attend a Business College. It would equip a girl as typiste or bookkeeping machine operator and the expense would be well repaid even after six months. A boy starting on an office career would first gain a lot of useful experience in a junior position and would soon have a great variety of clerical work. Nearly all big established firms have superannuation or pension schemes and employment with Insurance Companies or Banks or the Civil Service gave opportunity for living in various parts of New Zealand and even going abroad. Retail Trade Openings

Mr C. L. Hudson dealt with the opportunities in the retail trade which offered interesting work, meeting different people, in a great variety of shops. The work included that of display artist, ticket writing, advertising copy writing and window dressing. For senior assistants there were many opportunities as salesmen in demonstrating and selling different lines and there were always opportunities of positions as Departmental Managers and Branch Managers or of owning a business. / What Mill Offers Mr F. F. Combes, in speaking of the opportunities for young people at the Whakatane Board Mills, said that the great majority of the labour is unskilled and requirements in the skilled class were comparatively restricted. There was almost always an opening for another girl as shorthandtypiste—preferably one who had had tuition at a business college and understood the use of a distaphone —and one boy a year could be employed for clerical work. One boy a year could start in the technical control division. A boy who took up this side of the business would work under the •Chemist for 12 or 18 months and get training there and then go on to manufacturing and work through the Mill. There were openings for Industrial Chemists in other indus-

tries in New Zealand, such as Rubber and Fertilisers. In the maintenance and extension division one carpenter’s apprentice could be taken on each year, and in the electrical department one apprentice every five years. The chief opening in this division was in the engineering line, and it was best to be apprenticed. The Mill had the best engineering shop in the Bay of Plenty. Mr Combes stated that New Zealand could do with double the present number of professional engineers. The Headmaster, Mr I. B. Hubbard, in thanking the speakers for their interesting addresses and helpful information said that it was hoped next year to give representatives of other occupations in the town the opportunity of addressing the Parent-Teacher Association.