SERIOUS PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 150, 25 June 1921, Page 6

SERIOUS PROBLEM

TRAINING APPRENTICES

DRIFT TO UNSKILLED WORK.

From time to time, Ministers of the Crown, employers, and others have pointed to the need for preventing boys from drifting into "blind alley" occupations and unskilled work by taking steps to encourage them to leaui us«ful trades. In some trades there is now ah absolute dearth of • apprentices, and from the standpoint of the Dominion's industrial development this is a very serious matter. ■ ! The president of the Wellington Trades and Labour • Council (Mr. E. Kennedy) has devoted a good deal of attention to the apprenticeship problem, and in the'course of an interview with a Post representative he remarked that one thing that; had struck him in. regard to'the' "present unemploymentsituation was the number of young men between the ages of 18 and 23 who were looking for work. On inquiry, ' said Mr. Kennedy, it was generally found thao these young fellows' possessed no trades at their finger tips. During the war period these young men had gone into various unskilled avocations and received wages far in excess of what they would have obtained had they been apprenticed to any trade. "For this reason," remarked Mr. Kennedy, "it is to be regretted; /that our apprentice laws, and our different awards, are not more generous in regard to apprentices. Quite recently,' it was reported. in the press tliat the Builders' Association was alive to the urgent' necessity of improving the position in the building industry- with regard to the training of apprentices, but I can remember the time that whenever'the, workers' organisations in that. industry put forward definite proposals for raising the status of apprentices^ they were always opposed by ■ the employers. Anyhow, I am glad to see that the building employers are moving in the matter, and I may say that trades unions will be only too glad to co-operate with' employers in laying down a definite scheme for the training of apprentices. HIGHER WAGES. "I am satisfied that to attract boys into trades we will, in the first, and, perhaps, the second years of their apprenticeship have to pay them higher wages than what they could obtain in some 'blind alley' occupations, such as messengers, etc. In this connection, I should like to quote the remarks of Mr.. Justice Higgins, President of the Australian Arbitration Court, in the case of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. Discussing the question of apprenticeship, his Honour remarked that he proposed to 'prescribe for apprentices such pay as would enable poor parents |to give their boys a place in the craft without . tempting them to put the lads to some dead-end labouring occupation.' The wages a boy receives in any industry should be such that he will not be _a charge upon his parents; he should be able to keep himself." . ■ Mr. Kennedy said it had often been urged in this country that employers should allow apprentices time off during working hours to attend technical schools, the training fees to be paid by the ' employers. An Apprenticeship Bill containing such a provision was introduced by a Labour member during the last session of Parliament. There was nothing extravagant in the proposal, and in Australia Mr. Justice Higgins , was prescribing something similar in his awards. Mr. Justice Iliggins was laying it down that apprentices should be allowed four hours off per week in the employers' time to attend technical schools, the. employers paying the fees. "When we have the expressed opinion of a Judge of such high standing in the industrial world as Mr. Justice Higgins on this matter, there cannot be any unsurmountable difficulties in the way of getting similar provision made in- this country, either in the law, or in the awards of the Court of Arbitration," continued Mr. IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED. "This question of training our youths into skilled workmen will, have to be taken in hand almost immediately, both by the employers' and the workers' organisations. Ido not think the employers will have any difficulty in securing the co-operation of the workers' unions in trying to arrive at some common policy on this matter, and I trust that action will soon be taken."