Principles and Practices of Vocational Education

Abstract

IT is becoming more and more clear to most people connected with British industry that the way out of the present economic crisis will not be by the introduction of new machines. For some time to come industry has to make do with the bulk of its present capital equipment, and, now that the labour force is stretched almost to its maximum, any real increase in production can only come by a change in methods. This will involve considerable modification of the attitudes of many managers and workers, and to-day various agencies are seeking ways whereby time-honoured behaviour patterns can be changed swiftly and efficiently. Among the ways which have been and are being increasingly used to add to overall efficiency is what industry has come to call ‘education and training'. Simple as this may sound, it is surprising that, even in ‘enlightened' firms, the process of providing a man with specific training to do a job is often regarded as something which hinders rather than helps production. Engineers, of course, have to be trained ; so have chemists. They may even need a four-year preliminary course before their training starts. But the semi-skilled and unskilled Workers can pick up their jobs by being put alongside Joe and Tom. In the Services men are given their training before being assigned to a unit ; in industry many men and women have to learn their jobs by picking up all that cannot be concealed from them.

Principles and Practices of Vocational Education

By Prof. Arthur B. Mays. (McGraw-Hill Series in Education.) Pp. viii+303. (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1948.) 21s.