A—7a

In accordance with the usual practice, a draft text of a proposed Recommendation had been prepared by the Office on the basis of replies submitted by member States to a comprehensive questionnaire. During the Committee's deliberations, some seventy-two amendments to the draft text were dealt with, but, despite differences of opinion and of emphasis which arose during the discussions, the Committee reached unanimous conclusions which it considered would form the basis of a valuable Recommendation. These were submitted to the Conference as a basis for final discussion at the 1949 session of the Conference. The main general considerations which emerged from the Committee's deliberations may be summarized as follows : (1) The present techniques and methods used in vocational guidance are accepted as largely experimental. (2) Vocational guidance is a continuing process starting during schooling, and the fundamental principles of vocational guidance are the same, irrespective of the age of the individual being assisted. (3) Appropriate vocational guidance services should be available for those who wish to use them, on the basis of complete freedom for applicants to determine their own course of action. (4) A set of standards and general principles in relation to vocational guidance would be useful to member countries in developing their vocational guidance services. These general considerations all pointed to the desirability of securing agreement on international regulations in the form of a recommendation indicating general principles of vocational guidance, certain technical methods of major significance, and appropriate administrative processes. There was general agreement that the text should avoid details wherever such were not really vital, and be sufficiently flexible to meet alternative national approaches without opening the door to such departures from accepted principle and method as would destroy the general objective. In its report to the Conference the Committee suggested that, in view of the UNESCO's special interest in vocational-guidance questions, that Organization should be given an opportunity of commenting on the conclusions relating to vocational guidance adopted by the Conference, and that any such observations should be brought to the attention of the Conference at its next session. WAGES General Report Preliminary discussion of a general report on wages formed the first of three parts of the item " Wages." The report, after referring to the nature of wages and objective of wage policy, dealt in detail in the earlier chapters with systems of wage payment, factors in wage determination, the general level of wages, relative wages in different occupations and industries (including differentials between men's and women's wages), wages and employment, wages and the price level, and international aspects of wages policy. Then came several chapters dealing with wage guarantees, followed by a final chapter on the past and possible future action by the International Labour Organization in the field of wages. The subject covered by the report had been placed on the Agenda not with a view to the adoption of a Convention or Recommendation, but in order to enable the Conference to consider the whole field of wages policy in relation to economic and social policy in general. It was anticipated that the Conference would thus have an opportunity of formulating a programme for future action by the International Labour Organization in this important field, and of indicating which aspects of wages policy it may wish to consider in greater detail at future sessions.

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