when you get back

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 15, 31 July 1944, Page 14

when you get back

POSSIBLE JOBS FOR SERVICEMEN

We have tried to make the information given here as complete and accurate as possible, but it should be remembered that changing conditions may invalidate some of it. These articles can be regarded, therefore, only as a general guide. They do not bind Korero or any authority.

ENGINEERING TRADE

Fitting and Turning There has been a great expansion in this trade during war years, and there is likely to be a surplus of fitters and turners when hostilities cease. Nevertheless, there will be a scope for some, if not all, of the surplus in related trades or in manufacturing industries. A man who has served his five years’ apprenticeship in an approved workshop can go a long way in the trade, providing his educational background is good. In fact he can, if he is energetic and ambitious, rise from the rank of skilled artisan to the professional status of an Associate Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (A.M.1.M.E.). Good eyesight is needed in this trade, as well as manual dexterity and mechanical ability. A youth who cannot stand up to monotonous work should be warned against entering the trade, unless he can regard the work during the training period as a step towards further advancement in engineering. There is now a tendency for many firms to specialize in either fitting or turning. The Railway Workshops, for instance, employ apprentice fitters who are trained for nine-tenths of their time as fitters and one-tenth as turners. Youths who wish to become marine engineers have to serve their apprenticeship in this trade in an approved workshop.

It should be emphasized that qualified fitters and turners who cannot find employment in their own trade may be able to qualify for employment in allied trades— e.g., in diesel-engine work. Many men in this occupation may also aspire to the professional side of engineering. While a fitter and turner may receive at present about 2S. nd. or 3s. per hour, a foreman’s wage may be up to about £lO per week, while in some cases toolmakers command an even higher remuneration. Pattern-making This branch of the engineering trade is well suited to disabled men, providing that they have the necessary manual dexterity. There is a five years’ apprenticeship period, during which time the trainee needs to attend technical classes in woodwork, mathematics, and drawing. Opportunities are reasonably good, but more limited now than formerly when all patterns were made of wood, which only lasted a limited period. Nowadays they are made of metal, which is much more durable. Pattern-makers are mostly found in the Railways Department. Moulding Moulders are in great demand, but moulding proper —as distinct from platemoulding— heavy, disagreeable work

requiring good physique. However, it requires skill, and is therefore not lacking in interest. A five years’ apprenticeship is needed. A foreman moulder may receive an extra 2d. or 3d. per hour for his work.

Boilermaking

Boilermaking includes many skilled trades, the mastery of all of which requires a five years’ apprenticeship. Hence the general training received by an apprentice in these tradeswhich includes acetone burning and welding and electric welding, as well as structural steel work—should prove of value in many walks of life. Indeed, the processes of acetone burning and welding, and also electric welding, apply to all the metal trades. Training is given in these

processes at any of the larger technical schools. After taking, say, a three 'months’ course, a man could be transferred into industry and so

experience in the more intricate processes. The time was when boilermaking in all its aspects demanded excellent physique and powers of endurance, as well as the ability to stand high temperatures and incessant noise, but modern processes, such as the use of acetone burning, mentioned above, are creating within the trade more and more jobs requiring no great physical effort. Indeed, some processes supply sit-down jobs suitable for disabled men, providing they have reasonable eyesight and manual dexterity. In order to do skilled work the apprentice needs to have at least two years’ technical education, with emphasis on geometrical drawing and mathematics. He will then learn to read from blue prints and so to mark off from the plans. This work requires skill, but again no great physical effort is demanded. The prospects in this trade are good, and the demand for apprentices far outstrips the supply.

Welding At the present time welders are greatly in demand. This is no doubt, in part, due to the present shortage of material which necessitates additional welding to utilize existing stocks of material and to repair parts that would otherwise be scrapped. But, at the same time, the place of welding in industry has grown so large and so important in recent years that it is safe to say that the prospects are good for the expert welder in the post-war world. The really first-class welder has very responsible work to do — e.g., in ships and in the construction of large buildings— will always be in demand.

At this stage it is important to note that it takes much more than six to twelve months to train the real expert. A short period of training is sufficient for some simpler types of welding, but the expert welder must have a wealth of technical knowledge that cannot be picked up in a haphazard way. He must know, among other things, the make-up of metals, their peculiarities, and their physical qualities. Training for the firstclass welder is provided for in the Engineering Trades’ Apprenticeship Order. Ruling wages for welders are at present 3s. to 4s. 6d. per hour.

Blacksmithing This is highly-skilled and important work requiring five years’ apprenticeship. Two years’ technical training is desirable. In modern industry

blacksmithing is chiefly concerned with the forging of iron and steel into a great variety of articles required in general engineering, motor and ship building, and related industries. Good physique is required. Although the opportunities are good, they are relatively limited (in the whole of Wellington City there are just fifteen blacksmiths). The explanation is not far to seek—modern machines for pressing out articles and the ever-increasing use of welding have both combined to limit the blacksmith’s place in industry.