International Review of Educational Cinematography (Jan-Dec 1934)

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THE VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE FILM BY Julien Fontegne INSPECTOR GENERAL OF TECHNICAL TRAINING, CO-DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN PARIS. In this brief report we shall limit ourselves to summarizing the ideas on the vocational guidance film which we have already had occasion to set forth at national congresses such as those at Lille and Paris, at international congresses like that of Basle or in national or international reviews of the type of Information Professionelle, Cine-Document or the Review of the I.I.E.C. of Rome. Vocational Guidance. We must define this. The definition which seems up to now to have won the largest share of approval is the following « Vocational guidance aims at advising an individual in the choice of a trade or craft which is suited to his desires and particular interests, and accords with his knowledge and aptitudes whether physical, intellectual, moral or artistic; due account always to be taken of the family situation of the individual, and the state of the labour market ». This definition brings in its train two distinct questions: that of the crafts available for individual activity and the type of the individual who will have to make a choice among such crafts or trades. Choice of Trade. A simple reading of the literature on the subject will supply a superficial knowledge of the various trades and crafts available, while visits to factories, workshops, farms and offices, etc. will widen this knowledge. Museums, exhibitions and technical exhibitions especially should be visited, and conversations with experts and men and women engaged in the trades under consideration will prove extremely helpful. At the same time, this is not enough. There is always a lack of life in these books dealing with crafts and trades. The young person does not always feel, as he ought, the enthusiasm which a great writer is conscious of when he exalts the glory of work. Visits to factories, etc., though agreeable, are not as profitable as one could wish, while the museums sometimes prove sterile in suggestions and the experts' talks are often superficial. Can we not organize a regular methodical teaching and illustration of crafts by means of the motion picture? What is a craft but a collection of gestures and actions directed towards a given aim? Could not the film represent all these motions and gestures in one whole? If this were true, would it not be enough to split up a craft, decompose it as it were, into a certain number of technical movements and then reassemble these movements in a synthesis? This sounds easier than it really is and was tried some years ago, but was abandoned. It is not easy to say whether there is much more value in a series of technical movements than in a collection of printed lines indicating the motions used in practising a certain craft, or in a lecture on any given trade. The important thing is that the child or young person, after having left his elementary school, is able to obtain some notions: a) on the work which he may have to do one day, sooner or later; b) on the tools, utensils and objects necessary for exercising such craft or trade;