Carpentry pilot scheme

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32880, 1 April 1972, Page 20

Carpentry pilot scheme

Fifteen first-year apprentices in carpentry, are now almost halfway through their 18week block course at the Christchurch Technical Institute which, along with the Waikato Technical Institute, is conducting pilot courses in the training of carpentry apprentices. The pilot courses, which aim tq give a broader and more intensive type of training to apprentices, are the result of recommendations made by the National Development Conference for accelerated training. The technical institutes are undertaking much of the responsibility for giving training in skills and operations of the trade, hitherto a preserve of the employer. Full-time training and a later period of part-time study will allow apprentices in the scheme to condense two years of study for their Trades Certificate into one year. A second group of block course trainees are expected to begin at the technical institute soon.

On-the-spot training provided for the Christchurch

Technical Institute pilot group has included the building of a small cottage. Mr J. J. Blay head of the institute’s building department is enthusiastic about the pilot course so far but emphasises that for the success of such schemes to be practical they must have the support of the builders. He expressed some surprise that no support for the pilot scheme had come from builders in the areas outside Canterbury. The photograph shows Mr P. S. Rountree, a tutor, with three of the apprentices. From left, they are Messrs S. Laird, B. Kennedy, and K. Caldwell.