PARIS TRADE SCHOOLS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 73, 23 September 1938, Page 7

PARIS TRADE SCHOOLS

SUCCESSFUL SCHEME

PRE-VOCATIONAL COURSES !

A special type of trade school he saw in Paris on his trip abroad—the Atelier Ecole —was described by Mr. G. R. Ashbridge, secretary of the New Zealand Educational Institute, in an address at the annual meeting of the Australasian Institute of Secretaries in Wellington last night. These schools provide pre-vocational, pre-apprentice-ship courses to give the young people a broad basis of practical training in crafts and industrial techniques. Mr. Ashbridge said that they are making a rousing success of the job and that , the exceedingly important work they are doing is worthy of the study of anybody interested on educational guidance. The trade schools, said Mr. Ashbridge, are supported by the Chamber of Commerce, and they provided pre» apprenticeship training for 2500 young people between the* ages of 13 and 18. There were nine such schools in Paris, six for boys, two for girls, and one mixed school. Courses for boys included salesmanship, building trades, metal, wood, printing and clothing trades, food trades, and the open-air trades—working in wood and iron,.and gardening. Girls' schools were for salesmanship and for the usual women's trades of tailoring, dressmaking, millinery, embroidering, fur working, hairdressing, dyeing, etc. The mixed school taught trades not requiring such a high degree of skill and took pupils who showed least promise. TEACHERS' ATTITUDE. The Chamber of Commerce took over the first of the schools some 15 years ago as one means of avoiding a special apprenticeship tax which they would otherwise have had to pay, and the result was that in the view of the French Teachers' Union undue emphasis tended to be placed on production and business efficiency and less upon sound principles of education. There could be no doubt that this view was at least partly true; but there was equally little doubt that the trade schools did much important educational work. Under different control, with an eye on the child rather than the industry, one would have n« hesitation in making a claim for widespread public attention to them. To the vocational guidance office* they would be a godsend, for although, a real effort was made to provide pre* vocational training in accordance with the desires of the student, every pupil was given such a broad training in. crafts that there was plenty of opportunity of a change-over if aptitudes were displayed in an unforeseen direction. The view of the Chamber of Commerce was that a practical knowledge of all branches of an industry was ol definite advantage to the individual, even though he specialised later. Their view seemed to be that the happy and contented workman was the one who understood all the implications of what he was doing. There was also the idea that the man with the broad training was less likely to suffer hardship in. times of unemployment than he who specialised and later found that the only trade which he had mastered had gone out of existence. There was, in short, a definite philosophy behind the schools of providing the tradesmen with such a background of training as would relieve the individual employer of all responsibility for his men in times of economic stress. '.' THE BIGHT ATMOSPHERE. An example of the kind of worfc: undertaken in the schodls might-be taken from that dealing with the catering industry. There were a large bakery, butcher's shop, a sausage factory, and a large kitchen iii which all —students and masters alike—were dressed as chefs. Every boy spent six to eight weeks in each department, learning the various cooking and food preparation techniques from teachers who were practical craftsmen. Six hours a day were devoted to manual work and two hours to instruction by professional teachers 'in ordinary school subjects, with the proviso that the subjects were always closely associated with the "occupation." This catering school fed itself and some other large schools in the district, and every now and then special dinners were served for visiting members of the Chamber of Commerce. Each school was under the direction of an experienced school master and all of them were under the control of a director-general, who was assisted by a committee comprising members of the industrial and commercial fraternity of Paris. "The whole scheme,** Mr. Ashbridge added, "works admirably within the limits set by its proprietors. It is a kind of enlightened paternalism which aims at making the present system-of industry and commerce more tolerable for the employee and less of a strata upon the conscience of employers.".