APPRENTICESHIP

Evening Star, Issue 25396, 30 January 1945, Page 7

APPRENTICESHIP

GDHSSION'S REPORT ISSUED

DOMINION ORDERS RECOMMENDED SAFEGUARDS FOR FULL TRAINING (P.A,) WELLINGTON, Jan. 29. The following is a summary of the principal recommendations made by the Apprenticeship Commission, the report of which was issued to-night:— 1. Apprenticeship as the main method of educating and training recruits in skilled trades should continue.

2. There should be appointed for the Dominion a Commissioner of Apprenticeship attached to the Labour Department, who should devote his whole time to apprenticeship matters. He should be chairman and executive officer of the Dominion apprenticeship committees recommended below. 3. In at least the four main cities there should be full-time deputy commissioners of apprenticeship, who should be chairmen and executive officers of the local apprenticeship committees.

4. The Apprentices Act, 1923, should be amended to provide for Dominion apprenticeship orders and such orders only. * 5. Dominion apprenticeship committees for each industry or group of allied trades should be set up. fi. The system of local apprenticeship committees should be retained. 7. Membership of; both the Dominion and local apprenticeship _ committees should include representatives of technical education.

8, It should be made a breach of the Act to employ any person as an apprentice without the prior consent in writing of the appropriate local committee. TRANSFER OF APPRENTICES. 9. The powers of transfer of apprentices, and the provision for joint contracts in the present Act, should be fully used where there is evidence of limited or inadequate training. The power of transfer in the Act should be extended for this purpose.

10. When it is impossible to find a " willing " employer for such transfer, then the apprentice should be transferred on the recommendation of the apprenticeship committee, but only with the approval of the Court of Arbitration, and on the application of the commissioner of apprenticeship to one or other of the Government departments which train apprentices or have power to take apprentices under the Master and Apprenticeship Act, 1908.

11. Provision should be made in the estimates of the Labour Department each year to meet any additional costs that transfers may cause to the other departments concerned. l 12. In trades in which theoretical knowledge is important, apprenticeship committees should see to it that only boys known to have -the capacity to acquire that knowledge should be admitted' to apprenticeship.

13. The Dominion apprenticeship committees should co-operate with the Education Department to provide or extend education activities that will widen the experience of boys in the crafts. 14. In the programme of work for "social studies" in the

schools there should be incorporated a reference to possible careers, including a broad general knowledge of the conditions of apprenticeship. BURSARIES RECOMMENDED.

15. A system of bursaries should ho inaugurated to help pupils who live in country districts not served by a technical school and are desirous of further study in technical subjects above tha level of the school certificate.

10. Boards of managers of technical schools should publicise the work of their schools.

17. In the technical schools the development and full use of advisory com-, mittees from industry should be encouraged. 18. When the salary scales affecting technical teachers are being drawn up, due regard should be

paid to the remuneration of similarly qualified persons in industry. 19, The State should help able, ambitious young men by giving them bursaries for further specialised training beyond the journey- • man stage. 20. Each •Dominion apprenticeship committee should consider as soon as possible—(a) Whether or not daylight training is necessary in its trade; (b) the method of introducing .it; (c) what time riiust elapse before the necessary arrangements', can be made with the education authorities. 21. The signing of indentures should be made an occasion for the meeting of all parties. 22. In every contract of apprenticeship tht title of the person who will undertake or supervise the actual training of an apprentice should be jiven, together with the definition of the scope of his responsibility. 23. The contract of apprenticeship should contain a brief schedule of the. operations and skills to be tagflht to the apprentice.

24. The Dominion apprenticeship committees should consider the institution of a trade test for all apprentices during the final six months of their term. 25. The Apprentices Act ' should be amended tV provide tfor the compulsory issue by apprenticeship committees of a certificate to each apprentice on the completion of his apprenticeship, indicating thai he' has served' his time at his trade. 26. The Education Department's technological examinations should be revised and more extensively used. WAGES AND CONDITIONS. 27. Any future changes in the minimum wages and conditions of the employment of apprentices should be made applicable to existing contracts. 28. In future, the scales of wages in apprenticeship orders should be laid down as percentages of the ruling minimum rates for journeymen applying for the time being in the industry concerned 29. The State should inaugurate a system of boarding allowances to cover special cases olf hardship where it is necessary for apprentices to live away from home to learn their trades, 30. Shiftwork should be prohibited in the case of apprentices under 18 years of age. Overtime for boys under that age should be strictly limited. If any overtime

work is done the actual time so occupied should be counted towards the total time required to be served under the apprenticeship contract.

31. The Dominion apprenticeship committees should consider the introduction of a system by which the term of. apprenticeship is specified in working hours, rather than in calendar vcars. as at present. 32. When Dominion apprenticeship orders arc being considered' the term of/ apprenticeship for each industry should be reviewed in the light of present industrial practice. ii - .The Apprentices Act should he amended to allow of the shortening of the term of apprenticeship on account of special educational qualifications. M. There should be an extension of the correspondence courses in technical education for the benefit of country apprentices. , '.'ls. Members of the Dominion apprenticeship committees should be paid fees on the usual for such organisations, and be reimbursed " for their travelling expenses. Members of local apprenticeship committees should rel ceive out-of-pocket expenses.

36. The present general exclusion of females from the scope of the Apprentices Act should be removed. FULL CONSIDERATION PROMISED. " These recommendations will receive the fullest consideration of the Government." said the Minister of Labour, Mr Webb, commenting on the 'report to-night.' It was of great ■■importance;, he said, that methods of training should be adopted which would produce the best inventors, engineers, foremen, and workmen, and thus provide whatever degree of skill might be necessary to maintain our industries on the highest possible plane. Mr Webb said he believed that great demands would be made upon both the employer and the worker to' provide for the needs of the people when peace was restored. The country having the best means of training individuals as workers and citizens would be best, prepared to play its part in the industrial field, and no effort should be spared for the establishment of the best possible methods and the maintenance of institutions or other means which would accomplish this end.