WOMEN ENGINEERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 279, 25 November 1941, Page 11

WOMEN ENGINEERS

Efficient In Four Months In England

In the middle of a busy workshop two women in England, no longer stood with heads bent close toother over a milling machine, lhe cutter slowly passed over of steel > and the two watched eagerly while the instructor examined it. work; you'll do," he nodded, and the women, beaming, shook hands with each other enthusiastically. They had passed the first mileon their journey from housewives to skilled engineers. A month ago neither knew any more about mechanics than was needed to use the household sewing machine. To-day, among a maze of intricate machines which drill, turn a metal to an accuracy of ?o£, o '°? oth of an inch, thev, with 1200 other pupils at the Ministry of Labour training centre at Cheetnam, Manchester, are learning a new trade and enjoying it. The trainees are of all types and ages. Among them are about two dozen aliens—Poles, Czechs and T e fj® ee Germans. A lathe operator told me (the correspondent of a London paper writes) he was 63, and until two years and a half ago was m practice as a chiropodist near Cologne.

Another German, a woman, found herself doing exactly the same job as she used to do in an engineering works in Berlin—"but there is a big difference," she said. "There I was a machine operating a machine. Here I am an intelligent being." Old engineers and engineering employers at first ridiculed the idea that in 16 weeks novices could be transformed into craftsmen. But the miracle has been achieved.

Since it was opened a year ago the centre has supplied more than 1000 trained people to industry. With the arrival of additional new machinery it will be possible to increase the number of trainees to 2100.

During- training the trainees are paid at the rate of 60/6 a week for men and 38/ a week for women, with increases of 5/ and 3/ when they pass proficiency tests.