Advancing Technical Training

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31753, 9 August 1968, Page 12

Advancing Technical Training

The growing pains of both universities and technical institutes arose from their separate histories, , their combined present development, and their common problems of changed economic conditions, Sir Peter Venables, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Aston at Birmingham, said in an interview in Christchurch last evening. New Zealand should be willing to break with traditions if necessary, he said.

Sir Peter Venables said that Britain had realised how much its recovery depended on education and had made massive university ex-

pansion. This had included the advancement of the Birmingham College of Advanced Technology to become the University of Aston. Traditionally the universities disseminated learning, discovered knowledge, and educated the professions while technical institutes trained advanced technicians and craftsmen. But modern times de. manded three technicians for every professional man. Britain was producing nowhere near that number. This had given rise to the new order with some overlap. The “technical universities” produced scientist engineers and engineer scientists, also

trained in social studies and management. Vital to this context was the "sandwich course” —six months in the university and six months in industry for four years. “Yon don’t train a doctor in all the ologies and then confront him with a patient," he said. “He learns to make decisions in the clinical situation first. We marry training and practice and we talk about ‘walking the wards of industry.’ “It is terribly important to wean such institutions from part-time training. The scheme devised in 1919 is quite inadequate today. If you are devising improved

technical training in New Zealand, go hard for blockrelease courses which have already begun here.” This enabled trainees to be released from industry for six weeks, three months, or longer for institute training whereas, part time, they never had long enough sustained study.

Sir Peter Venables said he had had long talks on New Zealand technical development with all sorts of officials and it would be improper for him to indicate more than general recommendations.