NEED OF SPECIALISATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 152, 16 March 1918, Page 5

NEED OF SPECIALISATION

GIRLS WITH NO FUTURE. Many girls are at present taking up work without n thought for the future (writes "E.L." in the "Daily Mail"). Attracted by tho prospect of a high wage, they do not pause to reflect that with the end of the war there ■ will be an end to their income—that their employment is for the duration of the war onlyThere are many openings for women in these days, and parents with daughters who are leaving school, have no need to think for a lonji time before finding them employment. What is needed is a little thought for the future. We are in danger of letting our girls mortgage their future prospects for the sake of present gain. "What we shall have after the war," said an experienced teacher of girls the other day, "is a large number of unemployed nnd unemployable girls in all classes of society. Parents only see I the. wages that the girl earns now; they do not realise that she will have nothing,to fall back upon when the war is over. 1 The present condition of the labour market cannot last. There will be a 'slump' later on. Then it will he found that many girls have been entering blind-alley occupations. Thev will be discovered to be untrained in any one branch of work. And as a result they will be without the power to earn their living. No'one will want an untrained worker when one i sufficiently trained to be of double the use can be had for the same wage. It is not reasonable to suppose that the girl without qualifications will take the same ulaco as the girl who is well trained." There is wisdom in this. We ought to remember that the present gain is not everything. Many of our girls fresh from school are eager to enter the lists of tho wage-earners. They want to be independent. They want also to serve their country by doing some of the work that is waiting to be done in these days.- But we who are older should be wiser than they and- should point out the unwisdom of rushing into work without having first learned now it should be done. Girls may best serve their country by learning some trade or profession', having first of all. selected the kind of work thnt most appeals to them and for which they are best fitted by education and physique. The day of the specialist had dawned before the war broke out. Now we are in the position, many of us, of having to take what we can get in the way of labour. But when the war ends and the conditions become normal, the specialist will come into her own again. We shall have no use for the girls who can do a lot of things fairly well but none really efficiently. No headmistress of a school will engage an assistant who is untrained just because she happens to require the salary. A girl may, if she likes, he a "Jack-of-all-tradesi", but she must certainly be mistress of one if she is to hold her own in the world. The girl leaving school should have decided what work she most desires to do, and for this work she must he content to he trained. She must not be diawn away from her purpose liv the alluring wages offered to her for work of an ephemeral character. The future has to be thought of and provided for. Headmistresses of girls' schools, and parents, will be well advised,to impress this fact upon their girls and to see that blind-allev work is avoided. 'I raining can be had nowadays for all kinds of work. A girl may be as manv-dif-ferent things as her brother. l'rom the list she can select the work that most appeals to her, but. having selected it, she must be content to go through the drudgery of the training that is necessary to turn her out an efficient, well-qualified worker. Otherwise she will find in a few years time that no .one has any use for her.