FINDING WORK FOR BOYS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 71, 16 December 1937, Page 6

FINDING WORK FOR BOYS

How State Service Helps Those Leaving Schools THE START IN LIFE t ■ An attempt to tackle the problem of guiding the boy who leaves primary school and sets out to make a place for himself in the world of work is being made this year by the State Placement Service. During the past week or so, Mr. H. S. Robinson, Placement Uffioer, has been visiting the various schools in Hastings interviewing the headinasters and pupils who are leaving school this year with a view to emphasising the facilities that th-> Service offers to those boys. Often a boy knows what he wants t0 become — sometimes he does not. In either case his greatest problem is to know where to hegin, and what sort of job to start off with. Unless he decides that question himself, he oiten develops into tlie all too comnion "drifter" — the boy who meant to be something, but did not know where to start. What he needed jvas guidance — someone to talk with him and iind out. his unformed ambitions, and set him on theh-ight track. Here it is that the Placement Service is eo-oper-ating with the headmasters with a view to setting on the riglit track those boys who are leaving school this year. The procedure adopted at each school visited is to have those pupils who are finisliing primary-school education this year assembled together, and ascertain from them those who are not going to carry their education further at the liigh school. These boys are then questioned as to whetlier tkey liav»» positions to go to, and, if not, then the officer, with the co-operation of the headmaster, seeks to find out what type of work the lad jvould like to do, and jwliat he 'is best fitted for — or rather, in what direction his present mclinations and qualifications appear "to lead. "There are not a great many boys leaving primary school in .Hastings this year to go to work,". said Mr. Robinson in an interview this morning. "By iar the greater majority propose to continue their education further. In two schools the whole of the classes are going 0n, and there are only a few boys who liave no intention of continuing schooling and who have no jobs in view. "All we jJo is encourage the lad to think out for himself what type oi work he would like to do and let him know that, when he has made his decision and wishes to get a job, then all he has to do is to come aloug and make use of the State Placement Service," he said. "We have placed a number of these boys already, so it is clear that our service is being appreciated by the boys and their parents. The sole purpose of the scheme is to find jobs for these boys, in just the same way as we endeavour to find work for the adults, but in this particular phase of our work we are encouraging the children- and the parents to make an effort to ensure tnat the boys are placed on the rlght track," The co-operation of the headmasters and teaching staffs has been readily forthcoming. It Is not gerierally known or appreciated that, for many years now, headmasters have been the medium througk which a great number of their pupils liave been found work, for a number of einployers frequently, anc^ in s'omc instances, regularly every year, seek the assistance of the headmaster in providing suitable boys and girls.