FEW APPRENTICES TO TRADES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2840, 3 August 1916, Page 9

FEW APPRENTICES TO TRADES

A REASON WHY REPORT BY MR. LA TROBE A few evenings ago Sir. -Mainland, a member of the Industrial Association, made some caustic criticism on the paucity of the numbers of boys who -were being trained to qualify as building tradesmen. On this point Mr, VV.' S.. La 'Probe mado a most interesting report to the Technical Education Board ou Tuesday. The report, which dealt generally with those trades incidental to building, and which were taught-in the school, was as follows:— "As bearing on the discussion at the meeting of the Industrial Association the 1 othor evening on the question of the reasons for the scarcity of apprentices in tho building trade, the following facts may be of interest:— An Unpopular Trade. "In the preparatory trade classes of the Technical High' School equal facilities are provided for boys wishing to enter the engineering or building trades, boys are taKen. equally for any of the courses, and the training is necessarily largely of tho same character lor all. Hence a fair criterion of tho relative popularity oi the different trades with parents and pupils may be obtained lrom tho relative numbers entering. The trade which in .the estimation of parents is most desirable will certainly, be the trade in which we have the largest entries. At the present time, in these day trade preparatory classes, for every pupil in the building trades class, there are three in tho electrical, trades and two in the mechanical engineering trades class. Of the boys who come to the Technical High School with tho intention of entering these trades, only one in six wishes to enter the building trade. "The reasons for this fact lie' altogether outside the Technical College. As regards evening classes for apprentices, provision of the same kind, if not on the same scale, is made for the building ; trades as for the engineering trades. ■ The only reason why larger provision is made for tho ongineermg trades is that the numbers of students are much larger in these trades than in the ■ building trades. In fact, double the present numbers could bo taken in the present classes in building, whereas the engineering classes are usually full. . "Since the college has no endowments and litle income apart from fees and capitation paid on hour attendances, it is obvious that departments of the work in which there is no demand could only be developed at the expense of starving classes in which the demand -is good. That policy has not been adopted hitherto by the board, and it is difficult to see why it should bo adopted. As long as tho income of the college consists of fees and capitation at present rates it will be impossible to develop special courses for which there is no strong and steady demand, in the hope of creating a demand and assisting to place a special' industry on a paying basis in tho town. Tho college, can assist in the development of industries, but only in proportion as the industries assist themselves. Tho college can and does encourage boys to enter on industrial work, but it cannot compel them, neither can it compel the attendance of apprentices. Idiosyncrasies of Wellington. "So long as Wellington remains essentially a trading town, and the seat of Government so long will, the demand for commercial and civil service subjects overshadow the demand for training in iu'lustrial subjects, and so long will the ci~sge, if it continues to try, to do the work that is demanded by parents and students, continue to have large and prosperous classes of keen students in commercial and civil , service subjects, and smaller and , much more, difficult classes to organise in industrial subjects. As an example, take ono subject in commerce, bookkcopiug, as compared with architecture. We have over 100 students in bookkeeping, graded into five clcsses. hi architecture thero are only s...me 10 to 15 learners in Wellington, and these belong to several different years, and each year needs several different subjects. If the whole of these attended wo should still have only two or three in each subject. With fifteen to twenty in each subject it would be comparatively easy to urn classes on moderate fees, with capitation. But with two cr three it-is necessary to tako several'subjects and years together, and make the instruction individual. This in itself again imposes restrictions on the work and hinders development of the department. "The college can hardly be blamed for the fact that the profession of architecture in Wellington has so few 'earners— probably sufficient for the town. Neither, perhaps, can tho Government ■ be blamed for not providing means to support the staff necessary to give, these students a full training. H it did, the Government would undoubtedly incur the displeasure of those 'who sec in the' education vote a purely unproductiveexpenditurc, the mere luxury of a deluded democracy. For it would cost •I'M) 1 to .£IOO per annum to train each of Hose 15 or 10 students. Nevertheless, it would be money well spent. "As for the ordinary skilled trades, these must continue to hold ou,t. relatively poor inducements.to boys': s ctmpared with those occupations, skilled or unskilled, which depend on the export trade in raw mnterials and foodstuffs, so long as these exports continue to be Hie main support of the country. A Deeper Reason. "There is another and deeper' reason why the skilled trades do not Attract the boys as much as formerly. It is that the skill required by the rank and file in almost every trade is much less than formerly, not only the hand aud eye skill, but the brain skill as well. For this wo have to thank—or curse—machinery and modern factory methods. As the skill required diminishes, it eaturallv follows that the wage margin between unskilled and skilled labour tends to disappear. I am pretty certain'that both, these reasons operate,against the entrance of boys into the building trade at the present time. It is not so'much that the. wages of apprentices are less than the wages paid to boys in otTces or for unskilled labour; but the fact that at the end of a long training, at low wages, and with the addition of cousiderable night study, the prospects of monetary gain before a boy are little better than those of tne unskilled worker, and not nearly so good (in the estimation of the general public) as those of the commercial man; while he cannot so much as formerly take pride in his trade bv reason of his skill, and view with equanimity "is monetary loss while counting his gains in the pleasure ol skilful work well done. The father says. 'The trade is not what it was. .1 he ion 'Then 1 will not follow it!