CHOICE OF A CAREER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1944, Page 8

CHOICE OF A CAREER

ADVICE AND GUIDANCE

A meeting under trfe auspices of the i Karori Home and School Association was ljjeld recently. Parents of Karori Wost School were also present. Mr. G. C. Brooks, Vocational Guidance Officer, gave an outline of the Vocational Guidance Centre's activity. The centre could best be regarded, he said, as a central and co-ordinating body. Those factors which most affected the child and his choice of a career—the child himself, the'parents, the school, and the prospective employer—were all taken into account in giving advice and guidance. The centre also assisted, when required, in placing young people in careers, and regarded it as part of its duties to continue to keep in touch with .them at intervals after the commencement of work, with a view to further assistance. The whole system was -voluntary in nature and no measure of compulsion was exerted to force parents or children to take the advice a Vocational Guidance Officer gave. Mr. Brooks stressed the ■ importance of decisions regarding a child's education and career. Vocational Guidance Officers made an intensive and continuous study of the present and future prospects of the fields of employment. In addition, they could offer expert psychological service. They were thus in. a better r position than most parents and others''interested in^tho welfare, of- yoiuig peogle to v.f.igh the various factors " which must influence" such a decision1; ,;■.*.". ,