IN WORKING TIME

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 80, 2 October 1945, Page 6

IN WORKING TIME

APPRENTICE CLASSES

INAUGURATION URGED

Acceptance of the principle that the continuation schooling of apprentices and other young workers obliged to take such courses should be included in normal working hours, was sought in a claim presented to the Railways Industrial Tribunal yesterday afternoon by Mr. T. F. Gebbie, on behalf of the Railway Tradesmen's Association. He asked for a recommendation' that the compulsory weekly period of theoretical training for railway apprentices, now comprising four hours in the evening at a technical school and three hours on one day at a departmental class, be increased to eight hours, all to be within working hours. In the discussion which followed reference was made to trends on similar lines overseas, and Mr. Gebbie drew attention to recent comment by the director of the Wellington Technical College, Mr. R. G. Ridling, that it was difficult to find any adequate reason for the disappointing attendance of students enrolled at part-time classes, which was not confined to apprentices only but was spread over the whole of the evening classes. Replying to Mr. A. F. Taylor, the Department's assessor, Mr. Gebbie, said it was felt that a recommendation might well be made on the lines of the claim in view of the Government's expressed adherence to the principle enunciated. PRINCIPLE ENDORSED. To Mr. E. Casey, Government representative on the Tribunal, Mr. Gebbie said that he believed the New Zealand representatives to the 1.L.0. Conference in 1938 had definitely committed the Government by endorsing the principle that all compulsory practical and theoretical training should be given in working time. He did not think that compulsory education in the. evenings got the best out of the average boy, who undertook such schooling reluctantly. To suggest that it was a good thing from the point of view of discipline was to confuse education with discipline. "I am quite prepared to admit that the Department's system of education is the best in New Zealand for apprentices," said Mr. Gebbie. "What we are asking for we think would improve an already high standard." No doubt fatigue was one of the factors causing the state of affairs Mr. Ridling had commented upon. The Apprenticeship Commission had expressed itself in favour -of daylight training for apprentices, and it was fitting that it should be introduced in New Zealand by the largest industry. the Railways Department, on the recommendation of .the Tribunal, which had already established its place in giving a lead to the country in in-, dustrial matters. For the Department, Mr. K. G. Reid said that for nearly 20 years it had recognised the value of theoretical training, both during working hours and at technical schools. It was submitted that the present arrangements | were on a liberal scale compared with ! outside industrial practice. Extension !of the hours for such training in departmental classes would encroach unduly on the period of practical training now forming part of a wellbalanced system of apprentice education.

"Railway apprentices are more fully and systematically trained than apprentices in outside industry," said Mr. Reid to Mr. W. J. C. Warrington, the R.T.A. assessor. No difficulty had been experienced by technical classes in coping with the needs of railway students, and in general their attendance at the evening classes was ■ very good. ;