Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to outline the skills and responsibilities of a careers master in the late 1950s. Design/methodology/approach: Schools were becoming more businesslike, and training was becoming more specialised and developed. Schools needed to have an "Officer of Information" or a "Careers Master" in order to make sure that students had the appropriate qualifications in order to follow a career path with a particular firm. The author suggests that schools needed to do more for the students than simply provide an encyclopedia of different occupations. This paper lists the practical steps a careers master needed to take, in terms of useful literature, notices and advertisements and also in terms of giving vocational guidance to students. Findings: This article outlines the main responsibilities of a careers master and details some of the methods he/she should be able to use. Originality/value: This paper suggests ways in which the role of a careers master in schools can aid students to gain the appropriate qualifications and to gain further information regarding potential future careers. (Contains 1 figure.) [This article was first published in "Technical Education," Volume 1 Issue 1 (1958/1959), and is being republished as part of a Special Issue to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the journal, which is now called "Education + Training."]