WORKING STUDENTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 782, 1 October 1929, Page 8

WORKING STUDENTS

BUSINESS AND STUDY COMBINED NEARLY 1,000 IN CITY •‘ln New Zealand there are not sufficient junior and senior executive business positions to absorb any considerable number 0 f graduates, accordingly there is no profit to be gained by a student taking up a purely academic course as a pre-requisite to a business career.” That is the opinion of Mr. M. Roche O’Shea, registrar of the Auckland University College, who discussed I yesterday the values and facilities of I university training from the point of ; view of the aspirant to business and commerce. A purely cultural education, he said, was valued more highly in America than in New Zealand for executive positions were far more numerous, and young people with academic training starting on the bottom rung had a greater chance of soaring to the heights. 80 PER CENT. AT WORK In Auckland a large number of students combined a university course with the opening years of their business careers. Eighty per cent of the young men and women attending th a University College work during the day in offices, shops and factories. They study at night, the syllabus being so arranged that the majority of lectures are given in the evenings. Although there are 257 full-Um» students, 923 are part-time students, carrying out a full day’s work before beginning their evening studies. Of their number nearly half are teachers and training college students, but 143 are Government and local body employees, and 373 are in the employ of private firms. » In America the keen competition makes it exceedingly difficult for this arrangement to be carried out, and the “working” students of America are different from the “part-time’' students of New Zealand, in that many of them accept any sort of emplov. ment to give them a living until they are “through.” CHOSEN OCCUPATIONS That sort of thing is practically unknown in Auckland, where practieally all the part-time students have employment in their chosen professions, businesses or trades. Discussing the position of the law students, Professor R. M. Algie said that the idea of such a student devoting all his time to unversity studies was quite out of the question in New Zealand, and in any case would not be desirable. “The equipment of a law student must comprise two different entities." he remarked, “firstly hft training in practical work, and secondly his general educational attainments. The former cannot be so well acquired at a university as it can in a law office. Development along general educational lines can, of course, be adequately attended to in the university. “Regarded from this point of view, we may therefore say that a law clerk who is in an office and who is attending the university is, in a broad sense, a full-time student.”

staff. Firstly, he cannot afford to pay for more lsrbour, or secondly, he has not the work for additional staff. This is where the Government can step in. Advances could be made to private enterprise for the sole purpose of employing labour. The scheme would operate somewhat on the following lines: —The money would be in the form of a loan, the Government taking a priority lieu over all the assets. The money would be repayable at the rate of say 15 per cent, each three years, interest to be charged at 2 per cent per annum. It would be an express condition of the loan that for say each £2OO of loan the borrowing employer must engage one extra hand. Such hand would be bound in tiie manner of an apprentice for one year. The loan would be available, for farmers and manufacturers. Trading concerns, professional and commercial institutions could perhaps be considered. The scheme has certain clear-cut advantages. It would cost the State only the difference between 2 per cent, and the rate the Government Is being charged for the money, plus the cost of administration. The Government would, of course, have first claim in the event of the failure of the concern. The employment thus provided would be of a more permanent nature than relief works offer. It would encourage the investment of private capital in business. There would be an incentive to increase production and definite encouragement to expand industries. The loan would provide wages for 12 months, leaving the employer to find only the material to work with, and the employee would have 12 months in which to establish himself in his position. The scheme could be put into operation at fairly short notice. As regards absorbing such a large number of men, there are in New Zealand over 5,000 industrial establishments, 1,600 of which employ more than ten hands. In addition to this, there are over 30,000 farms greater than 200 acres in area. Surely these, with the assistance of a scheme outlined above, could absorb the greater proportion of our unemployed. c.w.w.