88
Report II Page 6 para. I.
Report 1 Page 3
(1) The Heavy Engineering Trades:-
The similarity between the types of apprentice required by the Hong Kong Dockyards and the Federated Malay States Railway Central Workshops is remarkable. Both desire to train their own apprentices on practical work and require of the Educa- tional System that it should provide them with apprentices with a sound general educa- tion, with a pronounced engineering bias if available. The size of the machines operated in the Dockyards, the enormous pieces of machinery to be handled and machined, make it quite clear that a boy trained in a trade school would be unsuitable for direct employment as a journeyman in a heavy engineering workshop. The ex- periment of the Federated Malay States Railway of taking in passed Trade School students as improvers should be closely followed.
The ideal scheme of instruction is along such lines as have been operating success- Lines 16-20 fully at Kuala Lumpur Technical School viz.-practical training in the works com- bined with a carefully co-ordinated system of training in the Technical School; the whole to be based on a sound pre-apprenticeship training.
(2) The Automobile Repair Trade :
This trade, as already mentioned, lends itself very specially to Trade School instruction. The standard of work done in Hong Kong is on the whole bad, and is characterised by a degree of carelessness impossible in a Trade School trained apprentice. There would seem to be every hope of such a school being a pronounced success, but certain points must be observed:
(a) The standard of the Trade School student must be sufficiently above that of
the outside apprentice to attract the attention of the best firms.
(b) It is not worth while giving a Trade School training to a boy without insisting on a knowledge of English, either on entry or to be attained during training. (c) The rates of pay in the Straits, relative to the cost of living, are at least 50% higher than in Hong Kong. Care must be taken NOT to attract to a Trade School boys of a class which would regard $30-$40 a month as insufficient. (d) As in the Junior Technical School it would be best to attract the sons of foremen, etc., in the garages. These could either pass through a prelimin- ary course at the Junior Technical School or be recruited direct from the English schools. About 30% of the students without any trade connection could be recruited direct from English Schools. The placing of such students should not be difficult if the bigger motor agencies can be interest- ed, as it certainly would pay them to be.
(e) A connection should be established from the beginning with all branches of the Public Works Department which run workshops. The width of the course in the Trade School would enable it to undertake a fair amount of Public Works Department work and a certain number of its students would make valuable additions to the workshop staffs.
(f) The development of Hong Kong as an airport should give openings which
will otherwise be filled by imported labour.
It is suggested that much confusion of thought can be avoided if it is recognised that the airs of a Trade School in Hong Kong would be:-
(a) To effect an improvement in the skill of the artizan employed on light
engineering work..
(b) To bring modern methods before the eyes of the garage proprietors.
(c) To provide a reliable, educated type of foreman.
It should be understood that the boy trained in a Trade School would not, on leaving, find the Automobile Trade his only source of employment. He would be well equip- ped for any branch of the Light Engineering Trades.