CAREERS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

Southland Times, Issue 24868, 7 October 1942, Page 3

CAREERS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

Vocational Guidance Centre Needed

The need for the establishment of a vocational guidance association in Invercargill was stressed by Miss W. McNaughton, a member of the teaching staff of the Southland Girls’ High School, in a talk to the Invercargill Rotary Club yesterday. An organization which could give guidance to boys and girls in the choice of careers would be of immense help not only at the present time, but in coping with youth problems after the war, said Miss McNaughton. Vocational guidance, she began, had been well defined as the service the community gave to young people who were about to become active members of the community. Vocational guidance associations existed in the four main centres, and it was time people everywhere sat up and took an interest in the boys and girls who were going to work for them in the future. The northern associations had a realistic outlook; they did not spend their time crying about the evils of the world, but attacked the problems involved in vocational guidance and such matters as Army education and the employment of children 12 and 13 years of age. AUTHENTIC INFORMATION

Up to the present vocational guidance had not worked out too well, said Miss McNaughton. One of the difficulties was that young people got too much advice from too many friends. A vocational guidance committee would assemble representatives of the employers, the unions, the churches, and all other organizations with goodwill towards young people. One necessity was to get authentic and up-to-date information about careers. The last Government handbook on this question was dated 1929.

“The schools and the community should fuse better than they have done, and I’m sure a vocational guidance association would bring this about,” Miss McNaughton went on. “The schools would get into touch with the business and professional community, and I think the young people we have care of would benefit tremendously from the impact of the community.”

“WASTAGE OF YOUNG PEOPLE” A certain amount of vocational guidance work was being done in the post-primary schools. Mr George Hill, of the Southland Technical College, Mr A. J. Deaker, of the Southland Boys’ High School, and the speaker herself had been doing what they could, pointing out the jobs which had prospects and trying to steer the children clear of purely war-time jobs. But they were only too well aware of the fact that many of the children they could not touch at all. There should be some place in Invercargill given over to the work of vocational guidance, so that young people had somewhere to go and real authorities to consult. The association would have no axe to grind, and when it went looking for jobs it would not have to explain its motives. In conclusion Miss McNaughton appealed to the Rotary Club to do what it could to help. “There is a wastage of young people today,” she said, “and anything we can do to help is well worth it.”