halfway between a school and a working week, one quarter of the week being devoted to classroom studies and the remainder to practical work. The first few weeks would be diagnostic and the remainder of the time be devoted to streaming the trainees into construction, engineering and electrical groups. At the end of the year, trainees would be submitted to a selection test and the more able 10-15% diverted to a further one-year full-time trade course leading to a Craft Certificate of the City and Guilds of London Institute, or its equivalent. The remainder would go into apprenticeship work in industry under the aegis of the Training Division of the Department of Labour, returning to evening part-time or block release courses for further education. Those completing the one-year trade course would also enter apprenticeship upon completion of the course, but as potential foremen and supervisors.
Apprenticeship
4.5.
It is suggested that a combined organiser of apprenticeship training and trade testing officer be appointed to the Department of Labour Training Division so that advice on training is available to industry, particularly group training such as will be important for the small firms and on the proper training of apprentice masters. The Organiser should preferably also have had experience of the setting-up and operation of trade testing arrangements. These latter can be used for ascertaining the present levels of skill in industry, for setting a standard for apprentices to attain and to enable productivity to be increased through the linking of various levels of trade test with points on the wages scales. Part-time testing staff could be used for the purpose from Government, teaching and industrial workshops,
4.6.
It is recommended that as an early exercise, the Functional Apprenticeship Committee of the Advisory Training Committee be asked to review the pattern of apprenticeship with a view to recommending reductions in the length of training for certain trades. Thus whilst four or even five years might be essential, a while bnger, for engineering and electrical trades, many of the others can be completed in three, or taking the pre-apprenticeship course into account four and two respectively. In this connection, it is an anomalous situation in the writer's view that Government should have a separate apprenticeship scheme at the present juncture, however necessary it may have been in the past, and it is recommended that consideration be given to rationalising the separate arrangements to form one overall scheme available to all employers. need for the proposed legislation has now become pressing and it is hoped that this can be papidly pushed through.
Advanced Trade Training
The
4.7. Arrangements will be necessary both for advanced training and for re-training on either a part-time or evening basis as at present. But the syllabuses used should take account of the actual needs of industry and not be centred around City and Guilds of London Institutes examination syllabuses, where these are inappropriate. More advanced trade tests could be used in place of these examinations, for example, in the case of trainees having a low standard of general education.
Technician Training
4.8. Returning to Appendix 5, there would be three routes to technician training, from the craft or trade courses, from students leaving the secondary schools before completing their course and from students having attained a school certificate with appropriate credits. The general level of education needed for technician work would be the completion of a full secondary course containing, among other subjects, mathematics, physics
8
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.