The Gordian knot of vocational guidance

Abstract

We should anticipate in the postwar era a period of sweeping occupational readjustment. Intelligent vocational counseling requires a comprehensive, systematized, and verified body of occupational information. The job-analysis aspect of counseling has lagged behind the man-analysis aspect. Job studies by management and by public agencies for purposes of selection have developed techniques that can be applied to the collection of occupational information for use in guidance. The information should be gathered for "families" of occupations, classified functionally, especially for occupations which are likely to be entered by young people. A functional classification of fields of work is presented. The need for scientifically formulated and reliable occupational information, formulated from the guidance point of view, to supplement this classification is urged. "In so far as they go, the United States Employment Service job descriptions have done an excellent pioneer job in this direction." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)