AID TO INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 49, 26 August 1941, Page 8

AID TO INDUSTRY

AUXILIARY WORKERS

EMPLOYERS SATISFIED

RESULTS TO DATE

"A gratifying feature of the operations of the Dominion Auxiliary Workers' Training Council is the satisfaction expressed by employers generally with the skill of j the trainees," said the Minister of Labour (Mr. Webb) today. That satisfaction, he said, had been expressed in a practical form by a number of employers who had granted auxiliary workers in their employ increases in wages after no more than a brief period of trial.. In many cases employers who had taken auxiliary workers to try out their abilities had shown their satisfaction by taking on further auxiliary workers almost immediately. In addition to the training undertaken in the engineering, footwear, and building industries, assistance had been given to those firms manufacturing equipment for the change-over from butter to cheese by the training of solderers, and a scheme was being developed to train workers in further branches of the metal trade, such as rolling mill operatives and machine and floor moulders. . SCHOOL FOR. CARPENTERS. The net result of the Government's j effort in the training of .'auxiliary' workers was that all labour requirements for firms holding munition contracts had been met, and adequate j steps had been taken to maintain and increase the output of footwear. Moreover, plans were well advanced for j the training of carpenters for the building industry to meet the Dominion's present and / expected demand for houses. It was hoped to start the. first class for potential carpenters at Miramar during the next fortnight. In general it could safely be claimed that those employers who had required the services of auxiliary workers had been particularly pleased with the degree of skill which the men had attained after their relatively brief full-time course of intensive training.