WHY THE FAILURES?

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 289, 6 December 1928, Page 25

WHY THE FAILURES?

ELECTRICAL APPRENTICES.

FLAWS IN EXAMINATION

PAPERS.

PROTEST FROM UNION,

The percentage of candidates who passed the recent electrical wiremen's examinations was lower than in any former examination. Not only is the position unsatisfactory from the viewpoint of the Electrical Wiremen's Regulations Board, which believes that the failures indicate that apprentices, and probably a number of wiremen, are not working to the. regulations, but it has been suggested by a member of the Thames Valley Power Board that "too much jazz and not enough study" is the basis of the trouble. Investigations made in Auckland this morning, however, throw an entirely different light on the subject. Mr. M. P. O'Leary, secretary of the Electrical Workers' Union, admitted that there was a certain amount of indifference in connection with examinations for boys, especially among those learning trades, but at the same time there was a good deal to be said on the opposite side. Questions that Mislead. Some of the questions on the examination paper set for the recent examinations were not practical, and actually were contrary to the regulations. Consequently they were misleading to the candidates. It was the intention of his union to write to the Registration Board pointing out these discrepancies, and also a complaint that had originated from the boys themselves, that there wae not eufficient working space provided for them. For instance, he said, one question asked related to the wiring of bowsers. Very few qualified men had had experience in this connection, and, in his opinion, a plan should have been given the candidates to work upon. It was the same thing as asking a man to wire a fiveroomed house without knowing its dimensions. On the other hand, in some respects the paper was easy, and this ehould be remedied. It was desirable to etiffen up portions of it in order to encourage the boys to take their work more seriously. Another difficulty that presented itself was that power boards had authority to make by-laws in addition to the regulations, and each board, and very often the inspectors, had different interpretations of them. The coneequence was that contractors were in a quandary to know where they stood. The Satisfactory Students. Mr. G. J. Park, director of the Seddon Memorial Technical College, attributed the percentage of failures to the fact that wiremen's registration examinations were comparatively new. Possibly the candidates hard hardly got used to them yet. In occupations, such as plumbing, where there was a definite registration examination which every apprentice recognised he must pass, there was probably a more serious attitude taken toward their work by boys. Hβ could eafely say that the students who gave most satisfaction at the evening classes were those with some definite objective, such as the securing of the wiremen's or the plumbers , registration. He hesitated to suggest that jazz and pleasure were the causes of students' failures, but said that whether or not they made progress was a matter for themselves. Discussing apprenticeship matters in general, Mr. J. Clark, a member of the Plumbers' Board, said that at the recent plumbers' examinations 155 candidates offered themselves for the written portion of the examination, and 141 for the practical portion. The, results from the former test did not display the standard that should be expected from candidates desiring to qualify for registration. The results of the practical examination, however, disclosed an improved standard on the whole, over 50 securing a pass. Mr. Clark was inclined to discountenance the suggestion that jazz and disregard for study were the causes of failures in the electrical examinations. Employer's Viewpoint. "There is a lot in what has been eaid," was the conviction of Mr. Albert Spencer, president of the Auckland Employers' Association, in discussing the subject of the attitude of apprentices to their work. He considered the trouble with the young people to-day was that they were anticipating pleasure before they earned it. There was a tendency on the part of the younger generation not to apply themselves to their job, or take, a pleasure in the work they were undertaking. In addition to this they expected the employer to pay for everything, and give them time off to attend instructional classes. If this were conceded business would be detrimentally affected.