Abstract
THE eighteenth annual conference of the Association of Technical Institutions was held at the Stationers' Hall on February 10 and 11. Sir Henry Hibbert, the president for the forthcoming year, delivered his address in the afternoon of Friday. In the course of the address he pointed out that modern labour conditions render it difficult for a boy to learn every branch of his trade. It is therefore necessary that workshop practice should be supplemented by the technical school. Day training classes must be developed in order that those who are to take the leading positions in great industrial concerns—the master, his sons, managers, and foremen—may be scientifically equipped, but the bulk of the provision of technical education must be made by and through evening classes. He would like to extend the day-school life—no boy to leave school before the age of fourteen, and then to have a part-time system up to seventeen. Students should not be allowed to specialise too early. He would make preparatory classes compulsory before students were allowed to join trade classes. To avoid irregularity of attendance, employers of labour must be got thoroughly in sympathy with the organised efforts of education authorities. Conditions have changed since the time when a man could say he had succeeded without education. The education provided at the - secondary schools under the regulations of the Board of Education is not that required by children who are able to remain at school for a limited period prior to entering on industrial pursuits. For these special schools are required. He believed that British employers are not awakening to the necessity of strengthening their producing power by the employment of highly skilled workmen.
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Association of Technical Institutions . Nature 85, 525–526 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/085525c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/085525c0