Auxiliary Training for Carpenters

Southland Times, Issue 24524, 27 August 1941, Page 4

Auxiliary Training for Carpenters

THE decision of the Government to place its emergency training scheme for carpenters under the direction of the Labour Department has been criticized by technical education authorities in different parts of New Zealand. At a meeting of the Southland Technical College Board last week agreement was expressed with the opinion of the principal of the Wellington Technical College, who declared in a letter that the course should not be controlled by any authority outside the Education Department. A few days later the executive of the Technical Education Association in New Plymouth discussed the matter with the Minister of Education. Mr Mason explained that “it was always expected that technical schools would be the instrument through which the scheme would be carried out, and their staffs and equipment would be the backbone of the scheme.” He went on to mention “other factors” which made it advisable for the Labour Department to supervise the course, and hinted that the “main point” was to be co-operation between the departments. The Minister’s statement made it no easier to see why control of the scheme should be vested in a department which is, or should be, concerned with the supply rather’ than the training of labour. The explanation probably lies in the fact that the new course means a departure in method as well as control from the normal system of technical education. According to a statement made a fortnight ago by the Minister of Labour, auxiliary workers are “to be trained on State houses under competent instructors appointed for the purpose,” although there is also to be “workshop practice.” This clashes with Mr Mason’s explanation, for it seems fairly certain that the trainees will be only partly under the direction of Technical College staffs. The course is intended to meet an emergency. There is a shortage of skilled workers, and many demands are being made on the building trades. But if the posi-

tion is serious enough to justify the introduction o£ the methods proposed by the Government it is reasonable to ask if the fullest use is being made of the labour already available. Can it be said that there is an emergency, or that drastic measures are necessary, while the trades concerned are still working a 40-hour week? A class of auxiliary tradesmen should not be established until more direct efforts to relieve the labour situation have failed, and even then its short-term value might not cancel its long-term dangers. High standards of craftsmanship are not easily attained, and they should be protected tenaciously from dilution. The only way to protect them is to keep technical training under the supervision of the Education Department. A scheme which is also an experiment should be controlled by an authority 'with only one interest —the training of individuals. If “other factors” are allowed to intervene, a breach will be made in the present system, and it will be difficult to prevent the wider adoption of second-best methods, already creeping too noticeably into the industrial life of the Dominion.