APPRENTICESHIP.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19946, 13 November 1926, Page 13

APPRENTICESHIP.

'AN ALARMING DECLINE. WANTED, MORE TRADESMEN, TEACHING THE YOUNG IDEA Not a few leaders in thought and industry of late have remarked what hail been popularly termed the decay of apprenticeship in New Zealand, and no little apprehension has been caused in soma circles by the authoritative statements of men who know, to the effect that tha dearth of apprentices and facilities for training them were crippling trade andl bringing about, an alarming decrease in tha standards of craftsmanship. A Daily Times reporter interviewed Mr Thomas Jenkins on the subject this week. Mr Jenkins has a more than passing know? ledge, of things as they were, are, ami should be in the world of trade and mantrfacture. For many years the apprentice question has engaged his attention, and liia views on such a subject show the extent to which he has studied changing comditions. Speaking of the Apprentices Act, he eaid it was the first, and a rfreshing breakaway from the fallacy that the regulation of trades was a matter solely for asm ployers and employees. The State had at last realised that the destiny of its people lay in the lap of the artisan, and that consequently the adequate training of youth in the trades and crafts was a matted of vital and national importance. ? ‘‘For years,” said Mr Jenkins, “we hayp allowed ourselves to be deluded into thinking that education would be a panacea id all our ills. We thought it would replace much of the drudgery of apprenticeship and tradesmanship, but at last we have realised our plight. Murmurs of a decline in craftsmanship, of carelessness in execution, and a refusal to accept personal responsibility for work performed cannot be silenced. Such whisperings have ini duced jn us a feeling of uneasiness that the theory of regulating and executing ,in the mass that which was formerly accomt plished by individual teaching and endeavour may after all be wrong, and in fact dangerous in its effect upon character^ Mr Jenkins referred to the resentment expressed by Professor J. B. Condliffe at the remarks of Sir Morris, the motor car manufacturer, when he said that a university training was useless to a business man, but ventured the opinion that if such a statement were applied to secondary education its truth would be much mar? apparent. A youth’s work, after al], was the greatest education he could have in citizenship. It was admitted that character was the nation’s greatest asset, and when considered in the light of its effect on character a youth’s work assumed imt portant proportions. It became a matter which demanded the keenest study. ■' ‘‘Study and research,” said Mr Jenkins, “are, after all, reaching back. Time is not a vital matter and the thinker’s tool® are unhandy to him. He is not cbncerne<| with immediate effects . His own course of study becomes unconsciously his main object in life. He is a specialist, and until he has attained hjs end, he is not concerned with the immediate and material things of existence. The world needs specialists, but it needs tradesmen more. The tradesman,, he continued, had hia niche in the community, and unless th? ranks were swelled year by year by others learning the work, the community would suffer to a far greater extent than if the specialists ceased operations on account of lack of recruits. The captain of industry saw an opportunity, collected his tools, and pushed on towards an end that was always in view. Hia day was now'. Locomotion, safety, and life itself were dependent entirely upon the hand and brain of the tradesman, and yet the community was watching with a maddening complacency a decline in apprenticeship which few could fail to notice, and which would ultimately have the most faf-reach-ing effects. Speaking of the causes for this decline Mr Jenkins said they could be traced back through the past 30 years. Each noticeable change in apprenticeship conditions; coincided with the introduction of some new labour legislation, which, though intended to accomplish industrial peace, attempted to alter natural laws, and in doing so limited the number of tradesmen coming on. A large factor in the decline was the unreasonable raising of the status ►of the unskilled labourer until he found himself in many cases better than the tradesman. With the prospect of temporary, if immediate, pecuniary gain, the young boy was generally not keen on embarking on an apprenticeship, whicji offered low wages for a start. Cost of living was made the basis on which.remuneration was computed. The question of service to the community was not raised.Thus the war and early post-war years saw few boys entering the trades. Small blama to many parents who asked why their boys should spend five-years learning a trade, which when mastered, was not likely to produce any more money in later years. “Thirty years ago,” said Mr Jenkins, “parents considered it a duty to teach their sons a trade, and many a sacrifice had to be made to do that. But once that boy mastera dhis job he was no longer a burden either to his parents or to the State. He had the blessed gift of inde* pendence. What have we to-day? Th? parents expect the employer to make the sacrifice. They want the State to compcj the master to pay the lad beyond his value, and they ignore absolutely the potential value of the training being received.” The natural home of the apprentice, he said, was the small shop where an owner took on a boy and taught him the trade. When the first boy was half-way through his time another was taken on, and in teaching the later apprentice the first unconsciously learned the more. Boys fresh from day school proved to be 100 per cent, better material for teaching than the boys who, after wasting two years at a high school, came at last to a trade, bandit capped by the exalted ideas of themselves induced by their short excursion into the realms” of higher education. The boy’s best period of assimilation was before he was 16 years of age. A trade became a hard thing to learn subsequent to that period. By starting young he got passed the uninteresting stage early, and his interested and intelligent endeavours were then brought to bear upon the higher branches of the business.

One plan suggested by Mr Jenkins was the establishment of centra] workshops or trade schools in which boys could be taught the use of tools without recourse io machinery. Such a course could occupy two years, after which the machinery side could be taught. The boy would be able to attach that aspect of the trade with a great deal more confidence if he had already mastered the work of tools. Hid creative spirit would not then be crushed by the machine work. The shops could be run under trade conditions and supervised by an apprentices’ committee, td whom the question of what trade a boyl should follow could always be referred. “Of course, such a scheme,” he com eluded, “will require practical men, who understand boys and who have not yet forgotten their own young days. Theorists who are forever saying what a boy should do should be barred. Tact, commonsense, a sense of humour, and above all, strength, are required to teach boys. “The Act makes provision for the tax 4 ing of a trade to train boys, but a small part of the annual Education vote would be found to be quite adequate, and would produce much more satisfactory returns.' Qualification for craftsmanship should ba made a matter for keenest study and a diploma given. Trade union membership would then be a guarantee of capability,and not as a present, the sign of the pay* ment of a fee to a union.