TRADE TRAINING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 71, 25 August 1947, Page 8

TRADE TRAINING

REHABILITATION WORK Ex-servicemen training as bricklayers or plasterers at the Rehabilitation Board’s trade training centres will in future undergo a training term at' the centre of two years instead of one. This was decided at the monthly meeting of the Rehabilitation Board. Previously trainees in bricklaying and plastering have spent one year at the centre and a further twelve months on subsidy with private employers at -award rates of pay. They will now, as before, do 26 weeks in the workshops and 26 weeks in the field, but will also do a further 52 weeks as extension training on State housing contract work. A similar arrangement has long been in force in the case of carpentry trainees. There will be no change in wages paid to trainees, who will receive award rates as from their fiftythird week of training.

The Board was informed that representatives of the industries concerned were in agreement with the proposal for extension, as was also the Housing Construction Department. There were sufficient materials and ample work available to ensure the scheme’s practicability. It was proposed that in suitable cases concrete blocks be used in place of bricks and that these be manufactured by trainees during any temporary hold-up. Suitable subsidy arrangements will- be made where employers are prepared to take trainees at the end of the first 12 months and before the end of the full two-yeai\pei’iod.