APPRENTICESHIP ACT

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 67, 13 December 1926, Page 9

APPRENTICESHIP ACT

ADMINISTRATIVE DEFECTS NEW CONTROLLING BODY SUGGESTED. Dominion Special. Auckland, December 11. The formation of an Apprenticeship' Council to deal with apprenticeship matters affecting all industries, and particularly with the educational problems, was advocated last evening by Mr. C. J. Park, director of the Technical College, in nis annual report at the prize-giving ceremony. “Last week the secretary of the Auckland Employers’ Association, told the Rotary Club in an address that there would" be very few vacancies for apprentices in 1927,” said Mr. Park. “The cause of the difficulty was stated to be the quota of aprentices fixed for individual employers and for the Auckland district as a whole. The greatest loss in the industry is caused by discontented and uninterested labour. If schools were allowe dto select for an industry those whose natural aptitude fitted them for particular trades, much industrial unrest, with its huge direct and indirect losses, would be prevented. The quota is an absolute barrier to this. The passing of the Apprentices Act seems to indicate that Parliament felt the necessity for an improvement in conditions of apprentices. It constituted apprenticeship committees to which the Court leaves the control of the apprentices engaged in the industry. The members of these apprenticeship committees are trade experts, and because of this are not well qualified to deal with the education side of apprenticeship. It seems clear that, in addition to many committees, there should be some form of apprenticeship council which would deal with apprenticeship matters' affecting all industries.” Such a council would decide in the first place whether the quotas which at present prevent employers from faking on apprentices whom they could easily train should be abolished. It is questionable whether there should be any restrictions upon, the number of apprentices. To the Apprenticeship Council would also be left such matters as the fixing of qualifications for apprenticeship in the various trades. We should not then find boys going to a trade for which they were entirely unsuited. I believe that defects in the administration of the Act to which attention has been directed recently are mainly due to the fact that there is no provision under our present system for the experience of educationalists being brought to bear upon broad policy questions affecting apprentices.”