TRADE TRAINING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 93, 12 February 1947, Page 6

TRADE TRAINING

ENTRY TO REHABILITATION CENTRES PLAN EVOLVED A.plan has been evolved by the Re habilitation Board whereby, it is hoped, ex-servicemen, particularly those with prior claims, will obtain entry to the Board's trade training centres more qnuickly than in the past. Under previous arrangements ex-servicemen seeking to become trainees have had to wait their turn in their own home centres. The new system will allow them to apply for entry to any centre in New Zealand, wherever there is a vacancy.

Every centre has a fresh intake of trainees every four months; but there is often a wide disparity between the numbers of men awaiting to enter the various schools. Recently while there were only two men waiting to enter one centre there were over 100 waiting to enter another.

The new arrangement gives an opportunity to those in the larger waiting groups of entering the centres for which are only- small waiting lists. Men already on the lists are being contacted by' letter and asked if they are willing to take their training elsewhere. This question is also being put to all new applicants. Travelling expenses and where necessary separation allowance are being met by the Board, which does not, however, accept responsibility for finding board or accommodation.

Latest available figures revealed approximately 2000 ex-servicemen waiting to take up some form of occupational training, either at the

Board's centres or on subsidy with private employers. The figure was a record, and showed that there was still a large number of men who were not satisfied with their present occupation and needed further vocational assistance.