A scheme of vocational guidance for use in an educational area

Abstract

The scheme of vocational guidance described in this thesis was one in which the Psychology Department of Edinburgh University, the Edinburgh Education Committee, and the Ministry of Labour co- operated, and was personally supervised by the author under the direction of Professor James Dreyer.

The Edinburgh Advisory Committee for Juvenile Employment had long held the view that it was the birthright of every child to receive, and the duty of every education authority to make available, individual advice as to his or her mental, temperamental, and physical character - istics, and what they appear to fit him or her for in occupational life. Towards the end of 1937, this Committee, on the instigation of Professor Dreyer, thought that the time was now opportune for an investigation into the possibility of devising a scheme for vocational guidance applicable to all children leaving school throughout the Edinburgh Educational Area.

Owing to the fact that the administration of such a scheme would have involved considerable time and energy on the part of those intimately connected with it, if every child leaving school was to be tested, it was ultimately decided to choose four of the largest Intermediate Schools in the Edinburgh Educational Area, and in so.doing, cover some 2000 pupils (approximately one -third of the school 'leavers'). The scheme, necessarily limited in scope, was so planned as to interfere as little as possible with the ordinary school time -table, and the time spent by the teachers in the administration and scoring of the tests was reduced . . . [page missing]