Evening star., 1934-11-11
KEY
TO HELP J0b[ESS
New Technique ASCertalnS
by Heredity What Work
Is Best Fitted.
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
MINNEAPOLIS, November l0.-An
apparent educational key for helping
the unemployed get jobs again has
been discovered by the University OF
Minnesota Employment Sterilization
Research Institute.
The principle is the old one of find
ing out what work heredity INTENDS a
person to like best. But the technique
for making this difficult discovery Is
new.
1t has been tried on several hundred
men and women who went to the IN
stitute for advice 1t revealed that
the higher a persons education, the
more helpless he seems to become for
discovering for himself what he Is
fitted for.
This report Is contained in study
of the needs of adults for further
training" by NJ. R. Trabue. executive
secretary of the Committee on 1nol-
vidual Diagnosis and Training. and
Beatrice J. Dvorak. research assistant.
MANY thoughtful persons, they
state, hold the view that unemploy-
ment is not merely a temporary
phenomenon of the economic depres-
sion. Even in the most prosperous
DAYS of the past decade a certain pro-
norton of Americas working popula-
ton was unemployed. And 1t is quite
possible that the proportion OF unem-
nloyed workers will be even larger IN
PROSPEROUS days of the future than In
those of. the past.
Further Training Urged.
Zone of the most frequent sugges-
tions heard is that the unemployed
should be given further tralnlng'
Adult education we have been tolo Is
the solution"
The Minnesota scientists set out 10
learn whether it might be true, and
what kind of education would 90 any
good. Their experiments were all IN
the laboratory of life. With real PROB
lens of men and women IN dlstress'
The studies cover in some instances
wears of time.
An "occupational analysis clinic
was set up. Its purpose was 10 olS.
cover how heredity and environment
had fitted each man ard woman 10,
the work he had been doing, and
whether the chance of success mlgnI
be better in some other work.
There we're no rules for this klno
of prophecy. The clinic worked OUT
its own. To give them a fair test,
it kept its recommendations secret
from the teachers to whom the cnnlc
economic patients went for furtner
training. Sometimes the patient
refused the advice. A baker insisted
on trying to be an auto mechanic. Ine
automobile teacher was permitted 10
believe that the clinic had sent tnis
misfit mechanic to him.
In this way failure would not be
due to the teacher trying. The re-
suit was that three-fourths OF the
adults who took the training the clinic
selected succeeded in it. Some OF
them got jobs directly.
OF those who took inappropriate
training, two-thirds failed at 1t.
Those who were found to need
training in order to achieve occupa-
tional success" the report states,
"were already better educated in the
ordinary academic sense than were
those who did not need training.
|. Instead of helping people to dis
cover their vocational aptitudes and
needs, our high schools and colleges
may, according to certain indications
in this report, actually be contribute
ing to the occupational maladjust-
ments of a considerable number.
Information about himself and
about the occupational fields for
which his characteristics qualify him
evidently contributes more to the eco
nomic and vocational success Of the
average adult than additional general
education. Without such information
the training he may take is almost as
likely to injure as to improve his oc-
cupational efficiency.
THE grown man or woman who
needs further training is frequently
unaware of that need. The person
who does feel desire to secure fur
ther preparation is quite likely to be
in error or doubt regarding the occu-
pational field in wAich he should seek
training"