WORKERS IN WAR INDUSTRIES

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23168, 4 November 1940, Page 6

WORKERS IN WAR INDUSTRIES

TRAINING SCHEME ANNOUNCED ENGINEERING TRADE AS STARTING POINT (PRESS ISSOCZITIOX TBLZOK«.ItJ WELLINGTON, November 2. The Minister for Labour (the Hoh, P. C. Webb) to-flay announced a scheme to provide training for skilled workers in essential war industries, Investigations have been made by a committee of experts, representing 'Employers, emplpyed and the Government departments concerned, into 1 the ques- 1 tion of speeding up the training of skilled men, and a scheme has t>een, prepared which will afford facilities for training workers in those branches of industry where a definite need for skilled men exists to speed up the war effort. ' \

A start will be made in the engineering industry in the Wellington district, and it is proposed to invite applications forthwith from those workers not eligible for immediate military service, and who have some aptitude for mechanical work. A com-mittee-comprising representatives of the employers and the workers, together with the Secretary for Labour and the Superintendent of Technical Education, will select the requisite number.

The scheme provides for a period of intensive training In workshop practice at the -Technical College under Special instructors, and on completion the worker will be drafted into the less skilled grades of the industry, thus enabling employers to adopt the ptocess of up-grading in l respect of workers already in the trade. During the period off training an allowance .will be paid. i . '■ On being drafted into the industry a person so trained will be regarded as an auxiliary worker), and will be •paid award rates, A committee representing the employers, the workers’ union, and a -representative of the Departmentl of,- Labour will watch the progress of'the auxiliary worker until such time as he becomes efficient in the trade. Applications are to be made I to the placement officers.