ELECTRICAL TRADE.
TRAINING APPRENTICES. DR. D. 12. HANSEN'S ADDRESS. An address) on tlic training of electrical apprentices was delivered to the Christcliurch .Electrical Traders' and Contractors' Association by Dr. J>. E. Hansen; principal of tlie Christcliurch Technical College, last, evening. Mr 11. Burke presided. The subject was one oi outstanding interest, said Dr. Hansen, not only to those engaged in the trade, but also to the general public, booking back, on the last 30 years it was amazing to see how many great changes had been brought about by electricity, Those last 30 years had been exceedingly interesting, and all the big developments during them had been bound up with tho use of electricity, lie believed that the next 30 j'earh' would bo just aa interesting and that the whole GO years would, in the future, be looked back upon as the most interesting in the history of tho world so far us mechanical and electrical developments were concerned.
"I would like," said Dr. Hansen, "to fire the blood of you young men with a vision of what the importance is to the world of tho work in_ which you are employed, but 1 am going to come back, to earth and discuss the problems which are of immediate importance to the trade in New Zealand. ' lie read the report of the examiners I ill the last electrical-wiremen's examination. It showed, he said, that something was seriously wrong with the system of training apprentices in New Zealand in that they were not being encouraged to take any interest in the extremely important theoretical side < v i electrical engineering. Numbers of Students. So t'ar as the Technical College was concerned, ho said, approximately lour per cent, of the trade students were electricians. However, tho percentage for all the schools of the Dominion was 0.6, which seemed to show that in Ohristchurch they were not enrolling anything like their true proportion ot electrical students. '"lf wo take the figures showing the numbers ot men entering for the registration examination for electrical wiremen,' Dr. Hanson continued, "we find that Christcliurch had 25 candidates and that of _these seven passed in theory. Out of .37 candidates in the practical part 13 passed, a percentage of in the lirst part and yr> in the second. This tails below (he Dominion averages of per cent, and 49 per cent, of passes respectively. llhh suggests that more should be done both for unci by the wiremen in preparation .for the examinations and also tor their better (raining for their trade. Wiremen'r Classes. "tjix or seven years ago u e tiud classes for electrical wiremen, but they were discontinued, largely because, tho men attending regarded them solely us a means of passing the wiremen s examination. They would not attend them for a reasonable period for instruction, but if possible, joined up about a month before the examination and. expected to be crammed with facts just sufficiently rammed home to enable them to qualify in tho tests of tho Wire'men's Registration Board. decent school or college can work on these lines, sine© our schools are founded to develop sound trade knowledge, and this can he acquired only by study over a reasonable period. The wiring classes contained mainly adults, and we found that they were not, as a rule, keen oo studying. The apprentices were much more interested, and we drafted them into the classes tor elemontary electrical engineering. "The electrical engineering classos show a keenness on the part of the students that I Hhould like to see shared by the electrical wiring students. Some of the students are in their fifth year of attendance, and are entering for tho final examination of the City and Guilds of London Institute, as well as for the technological examinations conducted by the New Zealand Education Department.
• 'Not Unskilled Labour." •'The electrical wircman's job is not unskilled labour. It calls for dexterous use of tools, an understanding of the elements of electricity, and a knowledge of the by-laws governing electrical installations. The apprentice who can do simple calculations nad sketching will find these useful. Further, in a young country like New Zealand, there are always good possibilities for an electrician with a fuller knowledge of electrical work than ordinary housewiring. Power plants with sub-stations ■will ultimately require many workers with good electrical knowledge. There will be tens of thousands of motors in use in the Dominion before many years and the electricians will be expected to have a considerable knowledge of their working. "To the employers, I would suggest," Dr. Hansen concluded, "that they should engago boys with a reasonably good education. Education is cheap, and most boys with even average ability have passed Standard VI. It is a further recommendation that a boy has secured some measure of secondary education, which also is cheap in New Zealand, and its pursuit is an indication that a boy lias some energy and ambition. The apprentice should be encouraged, and I would even Bay expected, to attend classes for instruction in subjects of value to the electrical worker. He should certainly not regard the wiremen "s certificate as the sole object of his studies, and drop all studies when he haß passed the examination."
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19301126.2.28
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20095, 26 November 1930, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
871ELECTRICAL TRADE. Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20095, 26 November 1930, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
Ngā mihi
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.