APPRENTICESHIP

Hokitika Guardian, 7 June 1928, Page 4

APPRENTICESHIP

TECHNICAL EDUCATION

(Contributed by X.) (Continued).

The idea of technical education appears to have been evolved from the knowledge that a large section of our small population must of necessity be manual workers. Our secondary industries being limited, and there being therefore few opportunities for boys to enter trades it apparently was thought the State would rectify this by establishing schools where up to a point handicrafts could he taught. Beyond this tlfe policy seems to have been vague. It was probably realised that a wide gulf existed between the work in the schools and the work in the shops—which later has to ho carried out on a commercial basis. It was also realised no doubt that the country could not afford to pay students to attend the schools, and also that the parents could not afford to keep them earning nothing for several years while they were learning a trade. Therefore technical education was only looked on as supplementary to the training a hoy must receive from an employer who would at the same time pay him for his services. Jt was hoped no doubt that this technical school training would make the hoy more valuable to his employer, that there would be more demand for apprentices, and that they would obtain priority in their applications for employment in proportion l the excellence or otherwise of fliei: testimonials from the technical schools-. It was never clearly defined whctlnIbis technical education should he pi'c pai-atory to the simp training; whctlie it should he carried on simultaneously o>- whether it should, as one write

some years ago suggested, he arrange alter an apprentice Imd served his tine with a view to rectifying any defieien cies in his shop training, and shot

awarding a certificate as a guarantethe artisan had reached a certain .standard of efficiency liS a tradesman. The facts which must not ho over looked, however, are that in the firs: place it depends on what employment is offering whether hoys can he placed in trades or not ; that if more hoys arc trained in the technical schools than can lie afterwards placed in trades tli 1 money spent on their training is very largely wasted; also that hoys o'vci sixteen or seventeen at the latest arc very seldom taken on as apprentices. It may he quite good that all hoys should he taught the rudiments of handicrafts, hut if the training is t stop there it is douhtlul whether the expense incurred is justified by the re-

sults obtained. If for some reason employers will not or cannot take the trainees from technical schools as apprentices then the question must he faced as to whether these schools in their present form justify their e.xis pence. The idea that the State should take over the entire training of appren tines may, 1 think, he dismissed as utterly impracticable. Equally impracticable also is the idea that the apprentice should during his apprenticeship be under dual control, and learn partly from his employer and partly Irom tho technical schools. This would be quite unworkable, and if attempted to ho en-I'ori-ed would break down the apprenticeship system altogether. AI > |>E NT' I ('ESI lII’ T .EG IS LA TJ ON. A few years ago the apprenticeship system had at least the merit of simplicity. Though it was admittedly in some ways inefficient this could have been probably overcome very easily.

At the time referred to an employe! could take oil a Imy as apprentice without any formality. At the end of three months, however, if the employer, the boy and the hoy’s parents were willing, the Factory Inspector had to he notified of the employer’s intention to keep on tho hoy for the balance of his Term of apprenticeship—five years. This became for all practical purposes a contract of apprenticeship and in the majority of cases worked satisalctorily. The Factory Inspector could prevent a hoy leaving his employer without good reason and could also have no doubt prevented an employer from dismissing a boy without showing cause/ The weakness of the system was that the Inspector had not sufficient power to decide in the first place whether an employer was a lit and proper person and had in his shop or works a sufficient staff and facilities for teaching apprentices. It would have been a comparatively easy matter to have invested tho Inspector, as Registrar of Apprentices with sufficient power to have prevented any-abuses, and to have laid down a few approved rules for his guidance; also to have provided some official either to the Arbitration Court or some other tribunal in the probably very rare cases' where either employer

or apprentices were dissatisfied with his ruling. Instead of this an Act has been passed which not only ties down the employer to an indenture system which hits years since been obsolete, but appointing at the same time committees of very unstable constitution, ' and raising side issues as to eompul- ' - sory attendance at technical schools and other matters which tend to leave the employer uncertain whether Fie is teaching the hoy his trade or whether tlie technical schools are doing it; whether lie or the Apprenticeship Committee arc controlling .the apprentice. The only point left clear is that the employer lias to pay the wages and comply with the regulations and re- ’ strictions as may he made from time to time. Still more serious is the effect on the hoy who is quick to realize that the “ boss ” has very limited control over him, cannot dismiss him without considerable trouble, and the hoy is too often (under bad guidance) quick to take advantage of this. Hence the complaints about unsatisfactory behaviour of apprentices and the reluctance of employers to take them on. In some parts of the world— America for instance—the apprenticeship system is dead. It will not take much to kill it in New Zealand, though ] this would he a calamity, not only for S the youth of the country hut for its industries. In the larger and more populous countries automatic and semiautomatic machinery run by intelligent labourers taught only to run one particular machine, and paid according to j | output is found to be more economi- j cally sound than the employment of I apprentices, with the necessity for their strict and careful supervision. But the industries in New Zealand are for the most part too small to warrant the heavy expenditure for up-to-date automatic machinery. The output is too limited. And in any ease the system does not tend toward the training of artisans or the relief of unemployment. New Zealand manufacturing industries for some years to come can. only survive if a reasonable percentage of apprentice labour is not only allowed but encouraged. As employers are practically unanimous that the present legislation and restrictions not only discourage but tend to make unprofitable the employment of apprentices it is not too much to ask that the whole legislation should be very carefully considered with a view to soma radical amendments.