FROM THE ARCHIVES:Young people getting their Leaving Cert results in 1967 faced bleak job prospects in Ireland, as this report indicates. – JOE JOYCE
MORE THAN 25% – 3,500 – of the 12,091 students who succeeded in the 1967 Leaving Certificate examinations are expected to go on to university this autumn; the rest face much more severe competition for the few jobs available to them.
The Civil Service Commission estimates that it will absorb between 1,000 and 1,500 of these young people as clerk-typists or clerical assistants, and 50 or 60 for the junior executive officer grade. A spokesman for C.I.E. said that there would be about 60 vacancies in the coming year for shorthand-typists or female clerks. “We haven’t had a male competition since 1960. We’re getting a computer, and the male clerks who leave now are not being replaced.”
Opportunities in other semi-State bodies are far slimmer. A Bord Fáilte official said: “We might take in a half-dozen school leavers a year, but most of our clerks are promoted from the typing pool. We’d have perhaps three vacancies a year for junior typists.”
At Bord na Móna, a spokesman said recruitment of school leavers would be virtually nil. “We did advertise a job for a boy last year, and had about 200 applications.” The Irish Sugar Company and its subsidiary, Erin Foods, anticipate total clerical staff recruitment might amount to six shorthand typists and possibly one or two clerks. “The factories, of course, do their own recruiting as the need arises. We had about 600 applications from boys for the last job we advertised.”
Aer Lingus has a brisk programme of recruitment for school leavers, but will be hiring fewer this year than in previous years. On an average, Aer Lingus has hired about 40 Honours Leaving Cert boys annually, about 25 Pass Leaving Cert boys, 40 Honours Leaving Cert girls and 50 to 60 Pass Leaving Cert girls, the last to work as ground hostesses. Fifty shorthand typists and about 150 air hostesses are hired every year, on Intermediate Certificate minimum requirement.
A personnel officer in the Electricity Supply Board said: “It would be impossible to give any figure for a number of reasons. But we’re not expanding in jobs, because our growth is highly mechanised.”
In private business, the banks will probably recruit about 300-350 girls and 200 boys, although a spokesman for the Bank of Ireland Group said: “The number fluctuates considerably from year to year.” Guinness will hire about 40 girls for the clerical staff over the year, but does not anticipate recruiting males on the Leaving Certificate level.
The picture would indicate the Leaving Cert alone is not an entrée to the working world, especially for boys. The total number of vacancies estimated above comes to 2,500; even if all are filled by Leaving Cert students, some 6,000 others, mostly boys, will still be seeking work.
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