TECHNICAL COLLEGE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 128, 26 November 1929, Page 14

TECHNICAL COLLEGE

LEAVING OP PUPILS

"AN ABNORMAL DEMAND"

In his report placed before the Technical College Board of Governors last night, the Director (Mr. J. H. Howell) says: "I wish to call the attention of the board to the large number of pupils that have left the Technical High School during the current session—a larger proportion than in any previous year. It is very clear that whatever may be the general position as regards unemployment, there has been an abnormal demand for pupils from the Technical High School; for example nearly two months before the end of the year there was not a single one of our third-year general engineering students left, and a number of secondyear students in all departments had taken up positions. While, the reputation of the college is such that it is a recommendation to have been a pupil in the Technical High School, parents and employers alike should realise that a short course of training is not satisfactory; and if pupils are taken away before they have completed their second year of training at any rate employers must not blame the college if they do not find these young employees as well trained as they may expect. We have had a number of cases where even first-year boys, who can only be considered as in the trying-out stage, have been taken on as apprentices. It should be impressed upon parents that it is most desirable that pupils remain at school at least until the end of their second year, when they should obtain a senior free place, entitling them to a further period of free education for three years either in the day or evening school. In the case of apprentices the gaining of a senior free place while in the day school is of great advantage, seeing that it excuses them from the preliminary examinations for the technological certificates issued by the Government. Parents need have no fear that pupils who have satisfactorily undergone a course of training will have difficulty in finding positions on account of the unemployment that is general."