SUCCESS DOUBTED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20839, 22 September 1937, Page 9

SUCCESS DOUBTED

APPRENTICE-TRAINEE SYSTEM w By Telegraph—Press Association AUCKLAND, September 21. A conference which the ActingMinister of Labour and Employment (Hon. P. C. Webb) had with representatives of the building and associated trades this morning elicited the statement that the trades’ unions were very doubtful of the probable success of the apprentice-trainee system for young men between the ages of 18 and 25. The Minister stated at the close of the meeting that the unions feared that the projected scheme would provide employers with a loophole to Utilise the services of these young men for purposes other than what was intended by the Government to help the building industry. “Nevertheless the Government intends to see to it that those young men shall have an opportunity of learning a trade and of becoming efficient tradesmen,”, said Mr Webb, “for if we can get skilled labour, the unemployment problem would soon disappear. The employment of skilled men finds its reflex in every other industry, and the Government is determined to leave no stone unturned toward that end.”