TRAINING APPRENTICES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9417, 2 August 1916, Page 8

TRAINING APPRENTICES

IN THE BUILDING TRADE TECHNICAL COLLEGE DIRECTOR REVIEWS POSITION. The scarcity of apprentices in the building trade was the subject of some comment at a recent meeting of the Wellington Industrial Association, when the existence of this state of affairs was fco a certain, extent attributed to the iFeliington Technical College. As a result of the discussion- a report was submitted to the Wellington Technical Edutation Board last evening by Mr TV. S. La Trobe, giving a few particulars with regard to the training of boys for the building trade. A fair criterion of the relative popularity of the different trades with parents and pupils, he said, might be obtained from the members entering. In the day preparatory classes there were three in the electrical trades classes and two in the engineering trades classes to one in the building trade classes. U 1 the boys who came to the Technical High School with the intention of entering these trades only one in six wished to enter the building trade. The reu sons for this, however, were altogethei outside the Technical College,. As. re gards evening classes for apprentices, provision of tho same bind ts mad© for the building trades as for the engineering trades. Double the present num here could be taken in the present classes in building. Tho director points out that since tho college has no. cn- - dowments and little income, it is obvious that departments of the work in which there is no demand could only be developed at the expense of starving classes in which the demand is, good. The -college can assist in the development of industries, but only in proportion as the industries assist themselves So long as’ Wellington remains essen tially a trading town so long wul tindemand for commercial and civil service subjects oversnadow the demand for training in industrial subjects. In bookkeeping there are over 100 students, while in architecture there. are only some 10 to 15 learners m Welluigton, and these belong to several different years. . , As for the ordinary skilled trades, these must, continue to Fold ou t r®lativ.elv poor inducements to; boys as comparedl with those, occupations which depend on the export trade’ in raw mar terials and foodstuffs. Another reason why the skilled trades do. not attract the boys a- much as formerly is that the-skill required by the rank and file In almost every trade is much less than formerly. -As , the skill required diminishes it naturally follows tuat tm> wage margin between unskilled and skilled labour tends to disappear. Both these reasons .probably operate against tho entrance of boys. into the building trade at the present time. ■