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22/08/2009

BBC Radio 4 - I Want to Work in...

Laurie Taylor takes an affectionate look back at 50 years of careers advice.

Laurie Taylor, himself a former careers master at a comprehensive school, takes an affectionate look back at 50 years of careers advice.

Laurie Taylor - himself a former careers master at a comprehensive school - takes an affectionate look back at 50 years of careers advice. 

He goes back to the time when careers were really only for middle-class boys; girls and the lower orders were expected to make do with mere jobs. This was reflected in the inadequate careers advice handed out at the time by school careers masters and by the often patronising schools TV films about everything from working in insurance to the distinctive pleasures of shelf-filling in a supermarket. How much was anyone helped by such sources of information?

Laurie finds out how different the situation is today, when fewer and fewer children follow in their parents' career footsteps and when even the notion of a 'career' itself is under attack by the proponents of the 'portfolio' society. He talks to experts and visits a jobs fair for graduates, and asks if, over the past 50 years of careers advice, anybody has taken a blind bit of notice.

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