CARE NEEDED

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3248, 5 April 1943, Page 5

CARE NEEDED

CHOICE OF A CAREER BOYS LEAVING SCHOOL LURE OF BIG WAGE Expectations that. because of the high pay being offered, more boys than usual would this year be leaving primary school to go straight to work, did not so far appear to have been fulfilled, said the vocational guidance officer at the Government Youth Centre, Mr A. A; Kirk. The centre, he added, always advised ■ that boys should have some suitable form of post-primary education. Even if a boy was not going to enter a profession or ever become a skilled artisan, a liberal education made him a better citizen and gave him an opportunity of living a fuller life. If once boys and their parents had the right attitude to education, and later work, there would be fewer behaviour problems to contend with.

“As so many occupations have now ■been declared essential, it is important that parents should come to the youth centre and discuss the condi-, tions and requirements of the various occupations, so that their children do not rush blindly into jobs which they find unsuitable and then come to us for permits to leave,” said Mr Kirk. “We would far rather tell them all about their proposed job first.” ■ Mr Kirk explained that officers of the Government Youth Centre were now acting for the manpower officer in handling all applications by employers to engage boys, under 18 and girls under 20 in any other than essential industries, and also in issuing permits for them to leave essential industries. '

A recent .Ministerial statement that the -Government was considering the possibility of releasing young men of 20 and under from the armed forces to enable them to continue their civil training or education showed signs of closing up some of the openings for boys just leaving school, he said. Employers who might have a number of junior workers returned to them were a little hesitant about engaging new staff.