jerky fashion, although meriting praise for the handling of their high notes, yet the remaining two houses provided surprises. Temple were unable to maintain their excellent standard and whilst their buoyancy and vitality were commended, it was to the School House peasants with their singing of Bach's "Good fellows, be merry" that the highest marks were awarded for their absolute unison, good contrast and shapely and clear phrasing. After general praise and brief but helpful comments on the individual performances, Mr. Hind announced his final marks: The Grove 163, The Manor 158, Queen's 165, School House 170, The Rise, 171, Temple 175. And so Temple's initial lead had been sufficient to hold off the School House challenge and by the consistency of their standard The Rise, in fact, seized the second place. P.H.B.
CAREERS At the Careers Masters' Convention which I attended early in January, our chief host was International Computers and Tabulators. This is the biggest British company engaged in the manufacture of data processing equipment or, to use the more commonly accepted term, computers. The computer industry is very rapidly expanding as more and more organisations realise that much of the drudgery can be taken out of their work, and a tremendous amount of time can be saved, by using this type of machinery. The rapid expansion of the industry means that there is tremendous scope for young men entering it and, because it is relatively new, there is the stimulation of rapid changes and developments. There are three main career fields, namely Engineering, Marketing and Programming. On the engineering side the main interest is in electronics and obviously a high standard of Maths. and Physics is required. On the marketing side a certain technical skill is needed but an applicant does not need to have "A" Level Maths. Obviously in marketing such equipment a certain technical skill is required, but the company seems to be more interested in boys with a wide education who have logical minds. The same is true about programming work. The programmer produces the information and instructions for the machinery to enable it to carry out its work, and his job is essentially a back-room jab. Much of his work consists in dealing with the problem of condensing information and instructions so that they fit in with the capacity of •the machinery he is working with. We also visited Wates, Ltd. This is a large private company of Builders and Civil Engineers operating in the Midlands and the London area. Their two main fields of work consist of large contracts, mainly for local authorities and their own developments. Much of their contract
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