I suspect leaving school and finding a job is a daunting prospect for most youngsters. Today’s school leavers do, however, have it a lot easier than my generation did. Terms such as ‘careers advisor’ and ‘work experience’ were almost unheard of when I was a teenager. Further education was merely a catching up process for those who didn’t do as well as expected in their GCE ‘O’ levels.
That’s how it was in a mainstream secondary school in 1960. Of course, if you had been bright enough to pass the 11-plus examination, you went to grammar school and from there, probably to college or university. Ill health meant that I missed a lot of school and was borderline. I took the 11-plus twice but did not get the one remaining available grammar school place.
I got lucky, however, in that I went to a brand new secondary school, which had much higher aspirations than such schools had previously. These new secondaries were later called ‘comprehensives’. I took eight ‘O’ levels and passed six. Staying on to do ‘A’ levels was an option but I really needed to get a job and start earning.
However, I had not the slightest idea what sort of work I wanted to do.
So having spent a summer working in a paint, January 2022), I caught the bus to Hampton Court to interview for the job of Junior Editorial Assistant at Ian Allan Ltd. This was the book and magazine publisher founded on the hobby of trainspotting, which it was claimed that Ian Allan himself had invented.
