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CHAPTER VII
TRAINING
IMPORTANCE OF POST-ACADEMIC TRAINING
167. The wider opening of the services to local candidates has compelled us to consider a question that is perhaps not strictly within our terms of refer- ence, namely, the provision of training facilities for local recruits. Our revised salary scales are justified only on the assumption that the men who are to enjoy them are adequately trained for their work. The possession of a University degree, or the diploma of a professional or technical college does not make a professional man. There must be a period virtually of apprenticeship when a man learns to turn his scientific training to practical ends. The young engineer works under men of his profession in order by passing the necessary examination to become a member of his professional institution; a young doctor walks the hospitals or under the Spens' proposals will serve an apprentice term under a selected general practitioner; a teacher having obtained his degree proceeds to the study and practice of the art of teaching and, in the employ of a good educa- tional authority, works for a period under the supervision of a senior member of the school staff.
168. Men appointed hereafter by the Secretary of State to the public services in Hong Kong will be assumed not only to have gained the essential academic qualification for their professions but to have had also the period of professional apprenticeship and professional experience. We are strongly of opinion that in no case should this post-academic training period be omitted unless adequate provision is made for a comparable apprentice training in Hong Kong, and in such cases men should not enter on the relevant salary scales at the point indicated for expatriate officers until that training period has been satisfactorily completed.
169. Reference has already been made in paragraph 28 (ii) to the extent to which provision for technical and professional teaching already has been made in the Colony and to the difficulty that people have experienced in obtaining satisfactory apprenticeship. We are of opinion that both in the matter of teaching and apprenticeship a great deal remains to be developed.
RECOMMENDATIONS
170. We are strongly of opinion that the final success of the new Colonial policy and the success of industry and commerce depend in part on the adequate training of recruits to the professions and to industry. To achieve this end it will be necessary not only to widen educational activities in the Colony but to gain the co-operation of Heads of Government Departments and of industrial and commercial concerns. We therefore recommend that the Government should undertake a special inquiry into :—
(a) the existing training resources of the Colony;
(b) the provision of professional and technical apprenticeship for the
adequate training of future public officers;
(c) the possible need of Departments for additional staff in order that recruits should receive efficient training in the first year or two of their service.