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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 5, Issue 4 (August 1, 1930)

Organising for Selection

Organising for Selection.

To attempt to carry out the principle of selection with adults at the present time would, in all probability, produce nothing but conflict. It is, one feels, with the boy and the girl, that a start should be made. They are the immediate wage-earners-to-be. At once the question arises, how can the selection process be organised? Let us sketch it out. Since our system of education is that of the State, administered through nine Education Boards, it is not a difficult matter. Each Board could have one Vocational Laboratory in charge of trained psychologists with a knowledge of adapting mental tests to special conditions. Thus, each child would appear here during his last year at school. Tests could be made for various aptitudes, summaries could be prepared of sight, hearing, spatial perception, reaction tests and the many other essential details measurable with reasonable reliability. The tests, together with school records, could be worked up to give certain specific information at present only realised by teachers. In point of fact many employers to-day realise this by asking certain schools for a particular type of boy, placing their faith, thereby, in the judgment of the teacher.

The Laboratory would require to keep a check on all labour processes, detail them into their elements and finally determine what special capacities— both mental and physical, were required to carry through the component parts in production. In addition to this there would have to be kept a “job development” section. Here an economist would have to be appointed perhaps, in conjunction with the local University. His particular job would be to watch possible industrial trends and developments. This would prevent an over-supply in any one department. Suppose, for instance, that a boy is fitted for iron designing, but the possibilities in this direction indicate a future restricted field; then, upon the page 45
In The Auckland Province. (Rly. Publicity photo.) The men who operate trains on the N.Z.R.

In The Auckland Province.
(Rly. Publicity photo.)
The men who operate trains on the N.Z.R.

advice of the psychologist, this boy is at once given advice as to the next best suitable employment.

Thus the committee would have before it a complete set of facts, all types of information; first a full set of facts relative to the capacity of the potential wage-earner; second, information relative to the capacities necessary for any sort of labour in which there was a vacancy at the time; and, finally, the trend and probable demand for labour in this or that field within the next year or two. Such a scheme would do much to save the lamentable loss of effort now apparent, and direct children into work likely to hold them for a considerable time. The net results in our industrial world, would, I aver, be even greater, for it would not be until financial stringencies took place that employers would stocktake. This system would always be stocktaking and for some time ahead.