WANTED Skilled Hands —and Minds

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 925, 3 May 1957, Page 6

WANTED Skilled Hands —and Minds

Se N all Countries striving to hold their place in a developing world one of the big questions of recent years has been: what must, we do to meet the growing need for technically skilled people? New Zealand has shared the controversy on this’ question, and the Talks Section of the NZBS has now prepared for winter listening a comprehensive series of YC talks on technical education. The first will be broadcast next week. When The Listener ‘talked with William R. Roff,; who planned the project, he said that the starting point for the talks was the tremendous emphasis being given, especially in Britain, Russia and America, to technical "know-how." "Of course mechanisation isn’t a new thing," -he-said. "One of our speakers estimates, for instance, that it has done away "with well over 100,900 jobs on New Zealand farms. But the sort of _ thing technology means in large-scale industry»today-well, as an instance, the same. talk mentions: a factory in the United.States which employs about 1000 people-end 450 of them are technicians ‘and scientists. Another example-at a new British oil refinery six men in any one shift produce in a day nearly onethird of Britain’s inland consumption of oil products. And Russia claims to have

a factory in which nine men in one shift 3500 piston heads in a dayenough for their entire light car industry." Quoting an early talk in the series, Mr Roff said it wasn’t suggested that we would see factories in New Zealand changing over to fully automatic plant in the near future-the sort of changeover that could suddenly put large numbers of people out of jobs. But there would’ be more and more automatic machines-‘"different machines requiring a different sort of looking after." And if we ‘held out against this sort of change, it was argued, our factory processes would steadily become more obsolete and we would lose the markets and the very standard of living-even the ir SPL were trying to preserve. Mr Roff said that’ in planning the project the idea had been to begin with some general reflections on the changing character of our society and the demands that these changes make on the skills of the community. In this context education referred not to specific technical training but to the need for the community as a whole to educate itself to the new requirements for economic and social well-being in a competitive world. The first talk therefore describes the technological revolution

cusses its implications for our own community. "Well, from there the reasonable first step seemed to be to discover the concrete needs of industry in New Zealand," said Mr Roff. "We look first at the numbers of people required by industry now and in the future- which also means something of an appraisal of the likely development of New Zealand industry itself. Then we discuss the sort of people needed and what this means in the way of training and levels of skill. Here and elsewhere in the series a good deal of attention is given to the ‘middle groun’the important highly-trained technicians who come between the skilled artisans and the technologists proper. We end this part of the project with a talk on a typical New Zealand industry-textiles --to illustrate where and in what way the people will be employed, what ‘they will do, and how technical advance wil! affect the industry as a whole." Who are the people for the jobs? is the next question the series asks; and in discussing the proportion of our young people who are at present technically trained it may surprise some listeners when it asserts that "our education system does not give technical training to its full-time students." Parents, it explains, may assume -that when their

sons take an engineering course at a technical high school they are being trained as engineers. This isn’t so, though the period in such courses may help a boy to discover his aptitudes, or lack of them. The need to train men to be versatile is a theme mentioned in the talks at this point, and it is echoed by other speakers. "Who foresaw," asks one of them, "what the needs would be of the men who now design, build and operate nuclear power stations or go to sea in atomic submarines? Most of them must have been trained on conventional lines, but because they were versatile they have been able to adapt themselves to an entirely new kind of work. This is the way we must train technicians for the future." At the same time the point is made and repeated that training must not be too single-minded in its emphasis on, the new skills-that. a good grounding in English, for example, is important. But the project does not attempt, except in passing, to discuss the wider education which makes, it possible for a man to live a full life-and the importance of this wider education, Mr Roff pointed out, should be kept in mind in listening to the talks. "We get right down to the detailed examination of the foundation of technical education in the largest group of

talks,’ Mr Roff said. "First we ask and enswet such questions as: What do we mean by technical education, what is a technician and what a_ technologist? What sort of training do these people have and what do they do? Does all technical education have to be wundertaken in schools: and other full-time institutes or is part-time work possible? And what of adult»education? We go on from there to describe the institutions available in New Zealand, the sort of training they give and so on, and to discuss what must be done about basic cechnical training in the future. Then we have a word about ‘further’ educa-tion-the kind of education that’s suitable for people who have left schoo! and wish to qualify for a job, or a_ better job, by part-time study. This covers both people who are now technicians and can be trained to a higher standard, and the up-and-coming who may be given postschoo! courses of yarious kinds, either in combination with apprenticeship schemes. or as some form of adult education. Lastly we come to an examination of the place of the university in technical education." Rounding off the project are three talks by an industrial psychologist which return to the human problems that arise when a comprehensive effort is made to increase technical education. The first talks in Technical Education will be heard next week from YC stations. From 4YC on Monday, May 6, and 2YC on Thursday, May 9, Arthur Denning, Director of Technical Education in New South Wales, will discuss the technological revolution throughout

the world. N.S. Woods, Chief Research Officer to the Labour Department, will be heard from these stations the next week on the implications of the technological revolution for New Zealand. From 1YC and 3YC on Monday, May 6, Squadron Leader R. M. Waite, Training Research Officer with the R.N.Z.A.F., will give the first of three talks on human problems-from job satisfaction to problems of management-posed by the technological revolution. Mr Denning will be heard again later in the introduction to the group of talks on the foundation of technical education. Other speakers in this group will be D. W. Lyall, Principal of Christchurch Technical College, on the New Zealand situation; Professor R. J. Rastrick, Professor ‘of . Mechanical Engineering at Canterbury University College, giving "a look into the future"; Dr B. L. Lee, Superintendent of Technical Education in the Department of Education, on "further education’; and Dr G. A. Currie, Vice-Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, on the place of the University. Speakers in three talks on the needs of industry will be Dr W. B. Sutch, Assistant Secretary, Department of Industries and Commerce; W. L. Newnham, former Engineer-in-Chief to the Public Works Department; and R. G. Harrison, a textiles technologist. Two talks on "The People for the Jobs" will be given by H. C. McQueen, Commissioner of Apprenticeship, and H. M. Scott. Principal of Seddon Memorial Technical College, Auckland.