DESCRIBES WORK OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE BUREAU

The Bureau of Vocational Guidance is a part of the Graduate School of Education and its chief aim is to serve teachers and administrators in the matter of vocational guidance of school children. There are a number of ways, however, in which Harvard students could get benefit from the work of the Bureau.

In the first place the Bureau maintains a working library of books on the common occupations. During the past year and a half Mr. Frederick J. Allen has been preparing a bibliography of occupational material which has just been issued by the Harvard University Press under the title "A Guide to the Study of Occupations". This volume gives the important references under each of 264 occupations, with a brief criticism of each book to which reference is made. The students of the University would be welcome to use the facilities of the Bureau.

The Graduate School is concerned primarily with the preparation of teachers and a large part of its effort must necessarily be devoted to teachers in service. The Bureau of Vocational Guidance during the last year and a half has given brief courses to seventh and eighth grade teachers of Newton, Cambridge, and Providence for the purpose of preparing these teachers to introduce the class for the study of occupations. This class is concerned with pointing out the relation between education and occupational life, the general problems of the occupational world, and the nature and requirements of a number of common vocations.

In addition to these brief courses single lectures have been given by the director and others on the staff, including advanced graduate students.

Three other groups of activities are carried on: correspondence and conference, aid in University courses, and general promotion of vocational guidance.

Information is in Demand

Correspondence comes to the Bureau from all over the United States and foreign countries as well, asking questions and requesting all sorts of information about plans and policies in vocational guidance. We have recently answered a number of questions for the use of the Polish government at Warsaw. Persons occasionally come to the Bureau to ask advice about their own career, and Mr. Allen has recently been appointed Coordinator for the Federal Board students in training at Harvard University.

A large collection of pamphlets, original material, and books is maintained for use in connection with the courses in vocational guidance given in the Graduate School. This collection is one of the best in the United States and is available to all who care to use it.

In the summer session for 1921 general courses in vocational guidance and vocational education are to be given and a combination course on occupational information and vocational psychology as well. In addition a course in vocational rehabilitation is to be given with the cooperation of the Federal Board for Vocational Education. Mr. Munroe, Mr. Lamkin, and Mr. Fisher of the Federal Board at Washington are to participate in this course.

The Bureau promotes vocational guidance by cooperating whenever possible with persons throughout the United States who are interested in the work. The Director served as President of the National Vocational Guidance Association during the past year and acted as chairman of a committee to prepare a comprehensive statement of the principles of vocational guidance. Mr. Lewis Maverick in association with two other advanced students is making a study of vocational guidance in colleges, which, it is expected, will be published by the Bureau of Education at Washington. Mr. Allen is preparing brief summaries of occupational information and has just completed the group included under agriculture, which the Bureau hopes shortly to publish.

The Executive Board of the Bureau consists of Professors Holmes, Hanus and Shaw of the Graduate School of Education and Professors Cole and Farquhar of the Graduate School of Business Administration. The Advisory Board consists of the following: Mr. B. Preston Clark, Mr. A. Lincoln Filene, Mr. Howard Coonley, Professor Carroll W. Doten, Mr. Henry Abrahams, Mr. Frank V. Thompson, Mr. Philip J. Reilly, Mr. Meyer Bloomfield, Mr. Henry F. P. Kendall and Mr. J. Randolph Coolidge Jr.

The Bureau became a part of the Division of Education at Harvard in 1917 and was formerly the Vocation Bureau of Boston under the direction of Mr. Meyer Bloomfield. During 1917-1918 Dr. Roy W. Kelly was Director and a large amount of work related to the War was undertaken, particularly in the training of employment managers, preparation of a book on the ship-building industry for the U. S. Shipping Board, studies in industrial rehabilitation, and lessons in industrial Americanization. The present Director is Professor John M. Brewer.