Better Courses For Technicians Urged

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32078, 28 August 1969, Page 18

Better Courses For Technicians Urged

New Zealand desperately needed diploma courses of world standard for its technicians, Mr W. T. Bishop, of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) New Zealand, Ltd, said in a paper he presented in Christchurch yesterday to the national conference on education in electronics.

“If we can provide complete university and diploma courses in agriculture, architecture, journalism and education, why not other subjects? Industry as a whole needs to be provided with a technical university that confers diplomas in subjects such as chemistry, accounting, and electronics,” Mr Bishop said.

In overseas countries there were four to five-year courses at technical universities that led to diplomas in electronics and other technical fields. None of these countries recognised the New Zealand certificate in engineering (telecommunications) qualification.

“When you consider that a student with university entrance can gain an N.Z.C.E. with the equivalent of less than 36 weeks full-time study, is it any wonder?” For a person going to do design work, the existing N.Z.C.E. course was just not adequate, Mr Bishop said. But in both Government and industry, certificate holders were being used in development and design laboratories. “What other course is there for a bright young hoy who wants to enter electronics and be a design technician?”

Mr Bishop said that because of the highly technical and competitive nature of the

electronics industry, a successful firm needed well-edu-cated and well-trained men in every operation. Any moves to make existing engineering degree courses more specialised should be stopped, Mr Bishop said. Professional engineers needed a broadly based edu-cation-lectures on the social and political responsibilities of engineers were just as important in electronics aS in civil engineering.

“Professional engineers need much more training in political science, sociology, management, accountancy, writing and aesthetics. Their training should not make them specialists'. “Technicians should be offered a diploma course with world standing and engineering institute recognition. The diploma should give them the training they need to be the experts and specialists in today’s complicated and exciting world. * “In short, professional de-

gree courses should be made more professional, and technical courses more technical,” Mr Bishop said. Industry did not offer sufficient challenge to many young people, and they avoided technical subjects at school; present figures showed more people at university were “doing arts” than taking technical subjects. New Zealand’s electronic industry was still in its infancy, and had to face the problems which faced many older and more experienced industries. An overseas study had showed how the health of a country, as measured by the gross national product, was directly tied to the number of graduates actively employed in industry, Mr Bishop said. Since a country’s standard of living was so closely tied to the size of its gross national product, it was obvious that New Zealand needed not only more graduates in Indus-

try, but also more industry. There was a world shortage of technical manpower, as was the case in New Zealand, yet the National Development Conference had predicted a rapid expansion in manufacturing industries that would need even more skilled manpower. New Zealand’s electronics industry had never been very strong, Mr Bishop said. Canada’s electronics industry, for example, now had about $45 worth of production a year for each bead of population, while the figure in New Zealand was only $6 a bead. There was obviously plenty of room for improvement Submissions showing reasons for fostering and developing the electronics industry in New Zealand had been made to the National Development Conference, and the conference had recommended more liaison between the industry and the Government and between the industry and the universities.