Milford chronicle., 1962-05-25
Summer Job Can Be
Opportunity Or TroP
By w. b RAGSDALE Jr.
AP Newsfeatures Writer

money between school terms, more
desirable than ever now with col
lege costs rising steeply each year.
Federal civil service officials
have two summer job programs
designed to help college students
! take a close look at government
/ service and see whether they like
it and it likes them. Frequently
this leads to a career in public
| service.
Youth cousellors say work ha-
bits learned in summer job can
be valuable even if the job itself
| leads nowhere. However, they say
a summer job can become a trap
if it is too good and lures the
youngster into quitting school.
Parents and employers should
impress on jobholding teen-agers
that their most important job is
attending school," says Robert C..
Goodwin, administrator of the Bu-
reau of Employment Security n
Washington. Future demands o f
of the job market will require
higher skills and more and more
| education.
'If the jingle of money in a
youngsters pocket causes him to
drop out of school, the pay he gets
for his summer job could turn out
to be kind of fools gold"
Goodwin says the ranks of the
unemployed are loaded with un-
| skilled workers who dropped out of
school and found themselves tied
to jobs with little chance for ad-
| vancement.
Jobhunting teen-agers get a
helping hand from the government
in several ways.
Government agencies, both thru
| civil service and apart from civil
service hire students and even
some faculty members during sum-
mer months.
The us. Employment Service,
working through local offices. also
helps out. In some cities, with the
help of local groups, it has set up
a special youth employment SER
vice to process jobs for teenagers.
Civil service has two programs
designed to help college students
get career experience in their field
of study.
Under the student assistant pro-
gram, federal agencies hire stu
dents on temporary basis to aid
scientific, professional and techni-
cal personnel They are limited to
130 working days within a calen-
dar year.
These jobs generally are avail
able at engineering and research
centers. The departments of ag-
riculture, commerce, welfare, e.
fense, labor, interior and even state
hire students in these areas
During the summer, the student
may work with forest rangers, help
in a laboratory, work on missile
research, help build roads in ma
tional forests or work on an ag-
ricultural experiment station.
Under the student trainee pro-
gram the applicant takes a regu-
lar civil service examination a d
works at regular intervals in a
program designed to lead to full
, time job after graduation.
This program is coordinated fire.
quently with the cooperative pro-
gram in a number of colleges, so
that the student goes to school for
three months, then works for three
months.
The number of these jobs how
ever, is limited Civil service Off
cials estimated that with all h e
government activity in the Wash
ington area there are only about
$50 trainees in all agencies.
Most summer hiring by the gov
eTnment is done on a temporary
replacement basis. Under this plan,
a summer worker does NOT have
to qualify under civil service if he
or she works less than 700 hours.
However, this is NO mecca for
the unskilled high school or col
lege student. The biggest demand
for temporary requirements is
stenographers and typists. civil
service officials say there is an en-
ormous demand in these areas. but
little need for unskilled messen-
gers and clerks.
They also urge teenagers to stay
away from Washington, except
maybe for Sightseeing, unless
they have their summer job here
already lined up.
District of Columbia employment
officials estimate they can find jobs
now for only about half of those
who apply. They found 1856 sum-
mer jobs for teenagers last year
in a wide ranging program.
us. employment officials say
their greatest success has come in
finding jobs in rural areas.
This year, for instance, they are
training North Dakota teenagers
in driving factors so they can find
summer work. Teenagers, too, are
hit by farm mechanization that re-
suits each year in fewer farm jobs
In New York City, the employ
ment service operates farm cadet
program, whereby youths from the
city spend the summer working on
farm and living with farm
family.
In COLORADO. the state employ
ment service operates a program to
provide high school and college
students to work in the sugar beet
fields. beet niks, the workers have
tagged themselves.
California operates large scale
program coordinating availability
of student labor with activity / n
the growing and harvesting of
crops such as pototoes, tomatoes.