VOCATIONAL TRAINING

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 136, 21 August 1942, Page 7

VOCATIONAL TRAINING

Work For Disabled Servicemen CENTRE IN WELLINGTON Plans for the erection in Wellington of a vocational centre have been approved by the . Rehabilitation • Board. This first step in the Dominion-wide scheme to: enable disabled ex-service-men to return to normal , peacetime pursuits has been announced by the chairman of the board, Mr. M. Moohan. It is expected that extensive building operations '■ will be . begun within a month, and these will later be reproduced in the other main centres.

The centre would 'be the result of negotiations between the Rehabilitation Board and the Disabled Servicemen’s Re-establishment League, said Mr. Moohan. It would embody the best features of similar institutions overseas and at the same time would provide additional , amenities ,to meet typical New Zealand conditions.

. Disabled men from the • last ; war would be transferred ' ; from their present unsuitable workshops to the new accommodation. . In many cases teachers would be selected from their midst for this war’s returned men, for they were now fully. skilled in the crafts for which provision was being made. Already a number of men had returned from this war who would qualify for

instruction, and they would find new hope in the facilities to be provided. 7 I x n Funds Provided. “Cabinet has made substantial funds available ’ for this work,” said ‘ Mr. Moohan, “and the Commissioner of Defence Construction has agreed to provide the men and materials as-soon as possible. ■ The site selected has been occupied by the Brougham Street tennis courts, near the Basin Reserve. Mr. Edmund Anscpmbe has instructions to proceed with working drawings, and it is expected that the tender will be let and work begun within the next few weeks.”

The building will be of two stories, the ground floor of reinforced concrete and the upper floor of timber. There will be an elevator, but ramps will replace stairways. The largest area on the ground floor will be the artificial limb department, and this, at first, will probably be the most important. In addition to the workshop and plaster and leather fitting rooms, there will be provision for the men to practice walking when the limbs are first fitted. This will overcome the embarrassment often felt when wearers are accustoming themselves to the use of the limbs. The walk will be provided with handrails to steady the first essays, and big mirrors will help in gaining a natural gait.

Also on the ground floor will be the important woodwork shop.. Other industries to be covered will include painting, basket-work, leatherfabrication of articles from skins and paua shell, and modelling of show window figures, the manufacture of dust

shields for locomotive bearings. There will be a spacious entrance vestibule opening on to a display room with show cases. Nearby will be the administration suite, with surgeon’s, inspector’s, and interviewing rooms, and a loading and dispatch dock. For those who are unfitted to take up any permanent training there will be a hobbies room, and there will also be a cafeteria, a rest and reading room, sun decks and a bowling green.