ALMOST 40,000 EX-SERVICEMEN GIVEN TRAINING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 26, 29 November 1948, Page 6

ALMOST 40,000 EX-SERVICEMEN GIVEN TRAINING

A review of the Rehabilitation Board’s achievements in training exservicemen and women to take their place in industry, has been made by the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr Skinner. “As a result of the' Board’s endeavours almost 40,000 men and women who served with the armed forces in the recent war have re-' ceived some form of training to assist them to become established in nearly every walk of life,” said Mr Skinner. “Training has been given in farming, in a wide variety of trades, in clerical and semi-profes-sional occupations, as well as for the professions themselves. Many ex-servicemen have also been assisted to develop cultural talents, and this should reflect with benefit on the cultural life of the whole community.” The exact number of those assisted was, at. the end of September, 39,259, of which 17,336 had been given training in trades, 4-,326 in farming, and 17,597 had received educational aid. Renewals of educational assistance, apart from the above • figure, totalled 20,246. Most of the educational grants had been for full-time and parttime bursaries at New Zealand university colleges and other institutions. There were also 637 overseas bursaries, for post-graduate and special study, mainly tenable in the United Kingdom, the United States and in Australia, although some were for courses of study in such countries as France and Italy. Subjects of study by such bursars covered a wide field, from medicine, commerce, the arts and music to agriculture, engineering, forestry and mining. Trade training of ex-servicemen had been by. various methods. The Board’s own training centres had been teaching carpentry, bricklaying, plastering, joinery and painting, and had by the end of September given training to 6370 men, of whom 3074 had completed and had enter-' ed the building industry proper. “This aspect of training has been particularly pleasing,” said the Minister. “It has injected life into an industry which for a number of years have been suffering badly from depletions in the ranks of its skilled tradesmen. It has been a real attempt to satisfy the needs of a still under-staffed building industry and at the same time rehabili-, tate ex-servicemen in a worthwhile, secure trade.” A further 741 men had received training in the building trades in a combination of time spent at the centres and on subsidy with private employers. Of that number 260 had completed their training -courses. Subsidised training—where the Board had subsidised the wages of exservicemen trained by private employers—had been given in more than 160 trades and occupations and to 6307 men and women, of whom 2181 had completed. Another 3699 had been aided to resume interrupted apprenticeships.