BUSINESS TRAINING SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2955, 15 December 1916, Page 23

BUSINESS TRAINING SCHOOLS

SCIENTIFIC COMMERCIALISM

PRIVATE FIRMS' METHODS

As the war is ccrtain to be followed by a keen fight for trade it is essential that our commercial classes should be well equipped. It is good, therefore, to know that business men are giving ciose attention to the importance of Bcientilic training. - ; . The old policy of introducing juniors iu a business to pick up:.knowledge they go along and "learn from their mistakes" is now discredited. It-ia recognised that something, more systematic and less wasteful must take its place. On these lines, - comments a London journal, a good deal has already been done by far-sighted business men. War-time experience'haspressed the lesson home, and after the war tlio policy of training their own staffs for their own business, -adopted by a number of leading lirms, is- likely/ to receive general recognition.

German methods and German cftinpttition liavo taught us much. Their trado schools and institutes dfivOto their whole attention to turning out tlio.se intended for a business life as well-trained and equipped as possible. Great Britain has facilities only' for those enthusiastic enough to take _ advantage of them on their -own-'initia-tive. Training Recruits for Commerco. One of the biggest British firms •which, in its own time and at its own expense, is scientifically training, the young recruits it enlists every : year,

li3s for four years now granted fifty scholarships a,year to the fifty most successful entrants in an examination i'i elementary commercial requirements, held on the firm's premises during tlio first week in October. Each scholarship entitles the holder to o year's training not only in such ordinary commercial subjects as bookkeeping and shorthand, but in business routine and salesmanship, and ia everything that goes to make the complete assistant. The firm provides the student's meals during tlio year, and he or she is attached to a department of the. stores, so that a practical as well as a theoretical knowledge of the work can be obtained.

All the instruction is done in' the firm's time, the morning being usually devoted to this branch of study, so that the theory then learned can be puc into practice during the afternoon. One of tlio most instructive features is the illustrated lectures by buyers on the goods they buy. On these the students afterwards write essays. The instruction deals not-only with the sale ot gooas, but with their origin, material, and cost. At the end of the year £25 is awarded to the boy and girt who have done the best work in their classes and department, and a careful record of the work of the students is kept, so that they can be put later to that' brauch of the work for which they are best fitwd. The results obtained from this system have far exceeded expectations, and moro than compensate for the expense of securing skilled instruction. Before the war the Board of Education in Great Britain had the example o' r ' this and other large firms under consideration, with a view to similar training wnools being established and supported by the State. Why should we uot have business schools as well as technical colleges and universities? Even now the idea is not likely to be lost sight of. Business training schools may become a strong aid to the reestaßlishment of the British Empire in trade supremacy after the war.