Comprehensive report on building training

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33425, 5 January 1974, Page 13

Comprehensive report on building training

Elimination of evening classes from apprenticeship training in favour of full-time day courses, and the reduction of the number of bodies concerned with building training are among 29 recommendations on building industry training in a report prepared by Mr M. H. Alford, executive officer of the Building Industry Training Board.

Mr Alford also recommends the establishment of pre-apprenticeship courses, and a formal system of adult training and retraining for those within the Industry, those wishing to join it,

and those displaced by redundancy in other industries.

Mr Alford wrote the 99page report after making a six-week study tour in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, West Germany, and Britain.

The tour was made possible by a grant from the Winstone Centennial Education Trust Board, which has said that Mr Alford’s report is the best-documented to come before the board, and has met the cost of printing it.

Mr Alford says the emphasis of Ills report is on training up to tradesman level, both under apprenticeship and adult training schemes. The training system in Sweden was the one that impressed him most, he-says in the report. In that country, more than 90 per cent of building workers are trained outside the apprenticeship system, by a three-year course.

In recommending that formal instruction during apprenticeship be on a fulltime basis, Mr Alford says that nowhere in Europe did he see a system which included evening classes.

Instructors in countries which once had evening classes said that a change to day courses had brought increased productivity and motivation, and fewer disciplinary problems. Mr Alford also recommends that no attempt should be made to introduce specific vocational training into the general school programme for those aged less than 15. Danger of streaming Such a move, he says, introduces the danger of a formalised system of streaming, and where streaming is done before the age of physical maturity, there is a strong likelihood of wrong decisions. However, he says, school curricula should give proper recognition to the teaching of language and mathematical skills at the level required by industry and commerce. At secondary school, pupils should have the opportunity of being confronted with the demands that will be placed oh their English and mathematical ability by such things as invoices, work! applications, and calculating | yolumes and discounts, Mr Alford’s report says. He also recommends the ! establishment of a full-time ! pre-apprenticeship course of |six to 12 months. i Such a course would combine general building theory with practical experience, plus studies in English and mathematics, the entire course having a strong practical emphasis, he says. Pre-apprenticeship courses should be run at technical institutes, and recognised as an extension of general education. Trainees should be able to enter the course before the school-leaving age, completion of the course to a set standard should be marked by certificate, and the certificate should carry credits against the apprenticeship period. The holders of preapprenticeship course certificates should .also be granted credits against other training courses. Mr Alford say-, and certificate holders should

have the choice of joining the building industry as “general building workers” as an alternative to continuing to an apprenticeship in a specific area. "A waste” Training only specialists can represent a considerable waste, Mr Alford’s report says, and it would be better to train in general skills those who now receive no formal training at all, then encourage those with ability to progress to specialist training under a shortened apprenticeship programme.

Those who wish should be allowed to enter an apprentice training scheme direct from school without taking the pre-apprenticeship course, but without any reduction in the term of apprenticeship. Mr Alford also recommends the establishment of a formal programme of adult training and re-training for the building industry, with a minimum entry age of 21, and a standard of achievement that would confer recognition as a tradesman. Redundant workers from other industries entering the building industry’s adult training scheme on the recommendation of district labour offices should receive a Government subsistence allowance during the training period, the report says. Adult trainees should be permitted to proceed to Trade Certificate examinations if they wish. On the number of authorities having jurisdiction in building industry training, Mr Alford says there are five such bodies in New Zealand, and a reduction would lead to greater efficiency and economy. He also recommends that the development of training courses for the "structural” sector of the building industry should be consolidated under one body. Other recommendations in the report include the systematic checking of on-the-job training given by employers, retention of the Trades Certificate and Advanced Trades Certificate, and integrated practical and theoretical training during formal apprenticeship instruction periods. 1 The Winstone Centennial Education Trust Board has sent copies of Mr Alford’s report to trade union executives and the Federation of Labour.