Probation Work as a Career?
| Author | Richard K. Brown |
| Published date | 01 June 1966 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455056601200209 |
| Date | 01 June 1966 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
PROBATION WORK
AS
A
CAREER?
The results of an enquiry among University students
Richard K. Brown
Lecturer in Sociology, University of Leicester
&dquo;Probation officers are usually so overworked that they have no time to do their
job properly. They may have 60 people on their books most of whom have to
be seen at least once a week. Anyway who am I to tell somebody what is wrong
with his life especially at only £1,000 p.a.?&dquo;
&dquo;Probation work offers the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life
and, by this, to gain broader experience, whilst at the same time having the
chance to help other people.... But I feel that the scope for advancement is
very limited and that it is the sort of job where you can easily get in a rut....
I have decided against probation work because I feel that in the job my chances
of promotion would be limited; also I have a desire to try and see something
of the world and I have no wish to settle down just yet; most important I do not
think that my own moral character is good enough to go giving advice to other
people.&dquo;
THESE WERE TWO of the replies made to a questionnaire sent to students in the
University of Leicester during 1964. The survey’ was restricted to second and
third year students in the faculties of Arts and Social Sciences. The aims of the
survey were twofold: to discover what attitudes these students had to social
work, and especially probation or child care work, as a possible career; and to
try to outline the sort of image of these two occupations current among under-
graduates, using the official descriptions contained in the relevant career leaflets
as a basis for questions. Two hundred and seventy-six questionnaires were
returned, an overall response rate of 56 per cent, but a considerably higher rate
of return was obtained from social science students, those most likely to con-
sider entering social work. The enquiry was admittedly limited and relatively
superficial. However the results could be of interest to those in the probation
service both because they indicate some of the factors influencing career choice
and because they suggest the picture these students had of the probation officer’s
role and of the probation service.
CAREER CHOICES
Of all those who completed the questionnaire nearly half had considered
some form of social work as a possible career, and the proportion was higher
for women students, especially women social science students. However, only
a fifth of the respondents (28 men and 25 women) considered that probation
work had any attraction for them as a possible career, and in these respects
there were hardly any differences between the sexes or the faculties. Only three
men and 17 women (7 per cent of all replies received) stated that they intended
1
The enquiry was suggested by the Vice-Chancellor of Leicester University, Chairman of
the Advisory Council for Probation and After-Care. It was planned and carried out
jointly by the writer and Mr. K. E. Reeve, Appointments Officer, University of Leicester.
Copies of the full report of the results of the enquiry (on which this article is based)
have been sent to the Training Committee of the Advisory Council and to the Central
Training Council in Child Care. Any opinions expressed in this article are however
solely attributable to the writer.
65
to take up any form of social work as a career. Sixteen of these 20 were social
science students, 15 of them studying sociology as their main subject. For five
of them the choice of type of social work was left vague, but only one, a girl,
out of the remaining 15 definitely wanted to be a probation officer. These replies
were statements of intention. In the preceding four years in fact an average of
I per cent of all arts students and 9 per cent of all social science students entered
some form of social work, or training for it, on leaving the university.
The 53 students with some interest in probation work did not differ greatly in
terms of basic social characteristics from their fellows with no such interest.
Probation work attracted fewer girls than other forms of social work from among
those whose fathers had professional or managerial occupations, or who lived
in London and the South East; this was not the case for those whose fathers
had supervisory or manual occupations, or who lived elsewhere in Britain. As
might be expected a larger proportion of students in the Department of Sociology
than in any other department had been attracted by probation work. Both men
and women with such interest tended to be slightly better informed than others
about the work and conditions of service of a probation officer,.
THE ATTRACTIONS AND DISADVANTAGES OF PROBATION WORK
The replies of those &dquo;attracted by&dquo; probation work in particular, and of those
who had &dquo;considered some form of social work as a career&dquo; more generally,
provide evidence as to the advantages and disadvantages of probation work as
the students saw them.
Four features of...
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