ARMY EDUCATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 21, 26 January 1943, Page 4

ARMY EDUCATION

TECHNICAL COURSES

INSTRUCTORS WANTED.

The difficulty of obtaining instructors to carry out the scheme Cor continuing the education of men in the Army unable to pursue their studies was an important issue arising from the report of the director of the Wellington Technical College (Mr. R. G. Ridling) to the Board of Governors last evening. It was decided to approach both the Education Department and the Army authorities, and, so far as girls serving are concerned, the Army and the Rehabilitation Board. A local committee had been set up to advise the Army education authorities upon the availability of accommodation and equipment to enable short, concentrated courses in subjects to be provided, said the report. The administration of that work would not differ materially from that, set up for the training of auxiliary workers, and short courses could be provided in most subjects of a vocational characterwithout any serious difficulty. EVENING CLASSES. ■ Evening class work was arranged to provide approximately 60 hours of instruction per section of a vocational course and the number of 60-hour periods necessary for the course would be governed by the number of subjects in that course. If the military authorities could second groups of students from military training for that time, by alteration of the day school timetable courses could be provided for: Carpenters and joiners; painters, decorators, and sign writers; plumbers;; cabinetmakers; electrical wiremen; radio mechanics; motor mechanics; mechanical engineers; civil engineers. In commercial subjects training could be provided in English, shorthand,; typewriting, bookkeeping, and office practice. In accountancy work, each | stage of the work could be provided for within the time laid down. Mr. Ridling said the difficulty was to get instructors, who had to come either from industries or from the Army itself. The Education Department should be consulted in association with the Army. Colonel T. W. McDonald moved on tho-se lines. Mr. E. E. Brooking said, that instructors would have to be obtained from the Army, as industry could not pro- i vide 'them/ Mr. W. Mill said that getting instructors released from the Army would be a difficult matter. TRAINING OF GIRLS. Little consideration had yet been given to the training of girls who had undertaken military service, continued the report, though the director had been asked by branches of General Headquarters to undertake the training of a group of shorthand-typistes. Their training could be arranged in the same manner as the training provided for the men. ! That did not mean that students would reach the stage of efficiency within the time allotted. It meant J that a single stage in the training could be completed within that period. To cover the courses that were provided in the ordinary part-time work, from four to six periods would be necessary. Certificates of proficiency could be issued at the end of each stage, and such a certificate might be used as the entry qualification for a further stage of training whenever the student could be released from military service. The chairman moved that representations should be made to the Education Department and that the director take the matter up with the Rehabilitation Board so that proper provision would be made for the girls. Mr. Appleton said that after the war thousands of girls would be trained in their own particular wartime sphere, but would not be trained for civilian life. . A vote of thanks was passed to members of the staff who had given up a large part of "their vacatiori to prepare correspondence courses for the Army, for distribution in March.— For each subject the assignments will be arranged in the form of booklets. A subject may spread over a number of booklets, each of which, though complete in itself, will lead to more ad- j yanced study. For apprentices and journeymen the college's ordinary cor- j respondence courses are available, and enrolment may be made through the Army education officers.