Youth and Industry
SIR.—I was very interested to read your article Industry and the Public Schools, and the reference to the Public Schools Appointments Bureau. My son, a normal boy, left his public school a little over two years ago, and did his National Service, being commissioned in the Royal Artillery. Just before he completed his service he called upon the Public Schools Appointments Bureau in the hope of finding a place such as Mr. Lewis refers to. The Bureau gave him the names of several firms who had apparently said they wanted such a youth. The first one he got in touch with informed him that the appointment had been filled some six weeks earlier, whilst another (a travel agency) offered him an office boy's job and indicated that it might lead to a head clerkship.
I give you these instances, for I think such articles are most mislead- ing to the public and have a frustrating influence on boys who read them only to find when they get into touch with the Public Schools Appoint- mests Bureau that they are offered the type of assistance which my son was offered. I think that it should be made clear that the Bureau is not as able to help as your article indicated or as it might like to be. I also think that industry, if it wants young men with public-school education, ought to make the fact much more widely known. In the end my son had to fall back on the contacts which his father had in
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