APPRENTICESHIP

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23113, 30 January 1945, Page 2

APPRENTICESHIP

Report Presented By Commission Recommendations Made (N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON. Jan. 29. The Commission had made no fewer than 36 recommendations involving important changes in the existing system of apprenticeship. These recommendations would receive the fullest consideration of the Government, said the Minister of Labour (the Hon. P. C. Webb) commenting on the report of the Apprenticeship Commission which was released to-night. Mr Webb said it was of great importance that methods of training should be adopted which would produce the best inventors, engineers, foremen and workmen, and thus provide whatever degree of skill plight be necessary to maintain our industries on the highest possible plane. Mr Webb said he believed that great demands would be made upon both employer and 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 best be 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. The following is a summary of the principal recommendations made by the Commission:—

(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 and devoting his whole time to apprenticeship matters. He should be chairman and the 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 committee.

(4) The Apprentices Act, 1923, should be amended to provide for Dominion apprenticeship orders and such orders only. Committees for Each Trade

(5) Dominion apprenticeship committees for each industry or group of allied trades should be set up. (6) The system of local apprenticeship committees should be retained. (7) Membership of both 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.

(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 a 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 Apprentice 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 other departments concerned. Education (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 be admitted to apprenticeship. (13) Dominion apprenticeship committees should co-operate frith the Education Department to provide or extend education activities that will widen ihe experience of boys in crafts. (14) In the programme of work for “social studies” in schools, there should be incorporated a reference to possible careers, including a broad general knowledge of s the conditions of apprenticeship. (15) A system of bursaries should te inaugurated to help pupils wlie live in country districts not served oy a technical school and who are desirous of further study in technical subjects above the level of the school c -rtifieate. (16) Boards of managers of technical schools should make public the work of their schools.

(17) In technical schools the development and full use of advisory committees from industry should be encouraged. (18) When 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 journeyman 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; and (c) what time must elapse before the necessary arrangements can oe made with the education authorities. (21) The signing of indentures should be made the occasion of a meeting of all parties. (22) in every contract of apprenticeship the title of the person who will undertake or supervise the actual training of the apprentice should be given, together with a definition of the scope of his responsibility. (23) A contract of apprenticeship should contain a brief schedule of the operations and skills to be taught to the apprentice.

Trade Tests

(24) 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 to provide for the compulsory issue by apprenticeship committees of a certificate to each apprentice on the completion of his apprenticeship, indicating that he has served his time in his trade. ~ (26) The Education Departments technological examinations should be revised and more extensively used. (27) Any future changes in the minimum wages and conditions of employment of apprentices should be made applicable to existing contracts. Wage Scales (28) In future, 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 of hardship where it Is necessary for apprentices to live away from home to team their trades. (301 Shift-work should be prohibited in the cases oi 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 toward the total time required to be served under the apprenticeship contract. (3D 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 years as at present. (32) When Dominion apprenticeship orders are being considered the term of apprenticeship for each industry should be reviewed in the light of present, industrial practice. 133 > The Apprentices Act should be amended lo allow of the shortening of the term of apprenticeship on account of special educational qualifications. i34> There should be an extension of correspondence Collises in technical eduction foi the benefit of country apprentices. ,;(•>) Members of Dominion appren tlci-ship committees should be paid tees on the usual scale tor such oir.anls.i tions and be reimbursed for their travelling expenses. Members of local apprenticeship committees should ieceivc out-of-pocket expenses. (36) The present general exclusion of females from the scope ot the Apprentices Act should be removed-