TRAINING SKILLED LABOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 56, 3 September 1936, Page 8

TRAINING SKILLED LABOUR

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Mr. Semple stated once that so great is the superfluity of unskilled labour in New Zealand that we should adopt as coat-of-arms the pick and shovel. How can we most effectively increase the number of skilled workers? By giving all who are willing to learn an opportunity of doing so. Let there be a five years' course for each trade and let the compulsory wage be paid, not according to the age of the worker, but according -to the year of his course. Many a young fellow has accepted a position as a grocer's or mercer's assistant thinking that the prospects were good. At eighteen he finds he has made a mistake and would welcome, the opportunity of learning a trade. Now he is practically blocked, for his employer sees that he would have to pay him the full wage on his reaching twenty-one. The lad himself would be quite willing to work for the first year's wages for the prospect of becoming independent later. Why not I allow him f6 do so? In many cases employers would be willing to pay the worker more than the standard wage, for a youth at twenty, who was in only his second year, would be much more capable than a second-year worker aged seventeen. All principals of schools should urge the Government to adopt this reform. —I am, etc.,