GUIDELINES FOR WORK IMMERSION
MARIDEL V. PAULE
The experience of working on a real project and the assumption of responsibility such work entails are a valuable preparation for learning to accept the responsibilities of adult life. However , this is not to say that all jobs represent valuable experience. Certain cautions must be observed.
The value of work experience is increased if a youth is given supervision, counsel, and related experience to enable him to analyze his experience, recognize its learning opportunities, and evaluate them. Experience on just any job is no guarantee that the student will make an intelligent vocational choice or even a better selection when he chooses another work experience. Vocational skills that can be learned through work experience on part-time jobs of the type ordinarily available to youth can be greatly overestimated. Vocational skills through job experience will be achieved only when jobs are carefully selected and supervised. Once the general responsibilities of being employed have been realized, a point of diminishing educational returns may be rapidly reached in a routine job.
These limitations are cited to illustrate the need for planning, counseling, and related education to help youth realize the educational values to be derived from m work experience. Present trend suggest that the school will be depended upon more and more to aid youth in securing work experience and later the first job. The type of work experience the school can sponsor alone or with other agencies may vary from community and school projects, to supervised part-time work to cooperative programs in order to develop specific skills. The details of all such projects should be worked out with great care so they may have the greatest educational value to the student.
It need hardly be added that the whole field of occupational education and adjustment is still relatively new one for the secondary school and that much needs to be done to integrate it with specialized and general education so that the school total program may be as effective as possible
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The author is Teacher II at Sta. Cruz High Integrated School, Sta. Cruz, Lubao