TRADE TRAINING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1938, Page 11

TRADE TRAINING

SPECIAL RESERVE

PERIOD OF SERVICE INCREASED

To enable half the hours of work to be devoted exclusively to the trade the man himself wishes to continue learning, the Army Board has increased the training period for those enlisting in the special Territorial Reserve from three to six months. If a recruit is not already engaged in any particular occupation, he will be given the choice of several trades in which expert instruction is being given by special staffs.

The conditions of enlistment are that the special reservists should be between the ages of 18 and 25 years, not less than sft 7in in height, able to pass the doctor, and be- a British-born subject. This is an opportunity for youths who are temporarily unemployed to undertake a task which is most Valuable from the defence point of view, and is equally valuable to them personally^ Young men who are interested are asked to communicate with the defence authorities at the earliest opportunity, as the numbers who can be taken for this special six months' training are limited. BENEFICIAL RESULTS. Two drafts have already carried out three months' continuous training, either in coast defence-or specialised infantry work, with the addition of a considerable amount of educational or trade training. On completion of this initial period, these men were posted to appropriate fortress defence Territorial units, and as n.c.o.'s and men of those units will carry out ten days' annual training for three years. There were 210 special reservists in the first two drafts, and 63 who were up to the high physical and mental standard required have since been enlisted as regular soldiers. Apart from the military value of their training, the results show that these men have benefited greatly from the regular physical training, good food, and good conditions under which they have trained continuously for three months. The modern Army methods of physical training are the best possible means of building up a man in body and quickening up his, mental reactions. It consists of a judicious, mixture of exercise and games on 'a progressive basis and full of interest. The results speak for themselves. In the two batches which have completed their training the average increase in 1 weight has been 7.41b, the increase in height Jin, and the increase in chest measurement nearly 2in. For only three months' effort, these figures, are most impressive, particularly in View of the fact that.the men spent a large amount of the time on specialised military training and on their educational or trade work.

The third batch of 178 reservists are at present undergoing their initial training at Narrow Neck, Trentham, and Burnham, and are well up to the previous standard.