Education and Industry

EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY (including COMMERCE). The problem of the relations of the school to industry and com merce is only part of the wider question of vocational training (q.v.), namely that of co-ordinating the preparation for livelihood (specialized training) with the existing preparation for life (gen eral education) , and deciding how much or how little of the for mer should be given in the schools. The wide-spread neglect of the problem till recent time seems all the more surprising, consider ing the practical bent that has distinguished the English-speaking peoples. The neglect is mainly due to two reasons, both historical.

The first is the comparative eclipse of the idea of vocational training in the university sphere, an eclipse which lasted from the Renaissance till the closing years of the i9th century. In the middle ages the university was predominantly professional and vocational, its principal object being to turn out doctors in the ology, law or medicine ; the Latin and later the Greek authors studied were mainly regarded as providing the raw material for the technical equipment of the future graduate whatever his faculty. The Renaissance gave a great impetus to the gospel of the value of learning for its own sake, while in England the in creasing resort of the aristocracy to the university that dates from the same period tended to overshadow and obscure the more strictly professional character of its work by the new ideal of its being the finishing school of the scholar and the gentleman. Yet in the case of the latter this seemingly general education was in a very real sense vocational, since the culture of the day and the power to handle his fellows (mancraft) acquired at the university were the indispensable stock in trade of a member of the ruling classes. On the other hand the ordinary mediaeval school, apart from certain monastic and a few other schools, was either pre paratory to the university or gave a general education, all tech nical training in the then existing arts and crafts being provided outside the school by a very complete system of apprenticeship (q.v.).

It was just this very system of apprenticeship which explains in its turn the absence until recently of the vocational idea from the purview of education below the university. In fact it was only with the gradual decay of apprenticeship since the beginning of the i9th century, and the increased demand for more scientific train ing for the higher walks of industry towards the close of the same century that the question came to the fore and efforts were made by the technical Education Acts of 1889 and 1891 and still more by the Education Act of 1902 to deal with the problem on a national scale (see TECHNICAL EDUCATION) . Today it is realized that it is no longer a problem of technical education pure and simple, to be dealt with as a separate department, but a much wider one of bringing national education in all its stages, primary, secondary and university, into closer touch with commerce and industry without injuring the general education they provide.

The main headings under which the relations between the school and industry may be considered both as regards the present con ditions and future developments are as follows :—(1) The contact between the two as at present furnished by official or other machinery for placing out the products of the school in in dustry and commerce. (2) The contact already set up by means of trade and technical schools and colleges. (3) The contact at present existing in establishments of general education.

On many of these points the report of the committee on educa tion and industry (first part 1927, second part 1928) throws valuable light. For certain reasons however, the committee ruled out of consideration what may be called the counting house side of commerce as well as the university's share in the problem.

Official Machinery.

The first attempts to create official ma chinery for the placing out of pupils dates from the establishment in 1909 of labour exchanges, subsequently known as employment exchanges, some of which contained not only juvenile departments but also juvenile advisory committees. Various legislative modifi cations have since taken place, and today the work is either carried on by the Ministry of Labour through its local exchanges. or else by local education authorities, where they have decided to undertake it through juvenile employment committees. These local authorities comprised in 1935 Io county councils, 49 county boroughs, 45 boroughs and urban councils, while the Ministry of Labour with 197 juvenile advisory committees is responsible for the rest of the country. The Board of Education assists through inspection and advice on buildings and curricula. Advice and information is furnished to boys and girls while still at school, through school conferences or individual interviews. In both cases particulars are collected from head-teachers on the character, ability and physical capacity of pupils on the leaving list. Other features of the work include the interviewing of applicants, the keeping in touch with employers in respect to vacancies, etc., the putting forward of juveniles for vacancies, the keeping in touch with those who have got jobs, generally known as "after care." Every juvenile employment committee contains a member of the local education committee and normally representative em ployers, workers, voluntary social workers and teachers. The amount of after-care work by the committees is of considerable value and volume. The number of situations found in by the Ministry of Labour and the local authorities committees amounted to the impressive number of 764,000. In addition a large number of posts are found by individual elementary head masters and headmistresses, especially by those of central schools, and the headmasters and headmistresses of secondary schools generally make a point of keeping in touch with employers. Those in or around London have also joint agencies for placing out boys and girls. Broadly speaking, a pupil completing the course in a secondary school has little difficulty in securing a job. In trade schools and technical institutes the finished products are readily absorbed by the business world. In the universities again appoint ment boards have been established. There is among certain big trading companies a growing demand for men of a university type, especially for posts abroad, where qualities of character and grit are often a paramount consideration. Increasing numbers of scientific and technically trained graduates such as chemists, en gineers, biologists, statisticians and the like are being taken on by the bigger firms in this country, though the intake is still far be low that of Germany. This tendency is likely to be further fos tered by the growing amalgamations and federations in industry, while still more recently the value of the university student (man or woman) has been appreciated by the larger stores where man ners and ability to manage large masses of employees are recog nized as a business asset. Mention may also be made of the work of the Institute of Industrial Psychology whose tests have proved to be of the greatest assistance in the sorting out of pupils and the prevention of industrial misfits. The Institute has also done some most valuable research with a view to systematizing the haphazard training given in the workshop or counting house and establishing the principle of a scientific technique. It also conducts courses in Industrial Psychology for London University. It provides classes for social workers, engineers and teachers, and trains business administrators `and those in executive posi tions in the application of industrial psychology to their particu lar trade or industry. Sooner or later its work of scientific selec tion will doubtlessly be recognized as an indispensable branch of our educational machinery.

Co-operation of Education and Commerce.

For the direct contact already established with trade and commerce through trade schools, including those run by certain big firms, day and evening continuation schools, technical institutions and schools of art and agricultural institutes, see the appropriate articles on the subject. Reference should also be made to the juvenile unemployment-centres which were started as a sort of "ambu lance" class for juveniles temporarily out of work. The need of some sort of compulsion soon made itself felt. The problem was largely insoluble as long as the school leaving age was 14 and the scheme of national insurance only started at 16. Today the gap no longer exists; the school age has been raised to 15, and even when the pupil has been exempted at 14 from attendance, he at once comes under the insurance scheme as the qualifying age has been reduced to 14 by the acts of 1934 and 1935. The raising of the compulsory age to 15, has by no means settled the prob lems of adolescence and it still seems that the part time continua tion school provides the best solution for its problems. It would be far less costly than raising the compulsory age of the full time school to 16. It would bring the school and workshop into far closer and more fruitful contact than the full-time school can hope to do. It would certainly be more popular with employers (see below) and by combining earning and learning makes a special appeal to the young worker and his parents. At present a good deal of the commercial and technical (including artistic) equipment of the elementary or secondary ex-pupil is provided in the evening by the Junior and Senior Commercial Education and the Junior technical and Senior technical Institutes (see COM MERCIAL EDUCATION). Probably in no country in the world is there more evening work, ranging as it does from simpler courses in the rudiments of commerce and technology to preparation for the higher walks of commerce and industry, and including uni versity work and even postgraduate research. But the whole is run on a voluntary basis and the leakage especially in the lower grades is, owing to various causes, considerable. It also leads to a good deal of overpressure owing to the long hours of business of many of the students, while in rural districts the problem is further complicated by the difficulties of travelling.

As regards its relations with the elementary school, criticism from the business world of the latter has certainly decreased. Taking the elementary school as it is, the main improvements that seem feasible appear to lie in the provision of more handicraft and domestic work and in some cases a closer relation of the school instruction to the pupils' environment in industrial or rural districts (see RURAL EDUCATION), with visits to factories, farms and places of business by the children still at school. One of the most promising developments in this respect has been the policy, especially in East Suffolk, Norfolk and Northumberland, of utilizing more fully the rural environment to provide a basis for the teaching of science and a bias to the curriculum generally, especially in senior and non-selective central schools. It is at long last being realized that of all the books at the disposal of the country child the book of nature is the best, while the slow-motion film of the seasons is most valuable.

The selective central school, especially in the towns, with its technical and commee cial bias seems to have established a sub stantial contact with the business world, which is however capable of further extension. The secondary school, as pointed out else where, incidentally gives in the English, Arithmetic, Geography and other subjects that it teaches a good deal of the technical equipment the pupil will require in commerce and to some extent in industry. Only 15.7% of its pupils enter industrial occupations, of whom only a fraction 0.7%) take up rural occupations as against 43.1% who select professional, commercial or clerical callings. From the point of view of industry and commerce it is clear that a widening of the present form of the school certifi cate is desirable especially in relaxing the two rigid conditions on which it can be obtained (see also EXAMINATIONS), but one is convinced that the necessary elasticity can alone be obtained, when a candidate will be obliged to take only two compulsory subjects (English and Arithmetic) and can select with the consent of his teachers any others on the prescribed list most suitable to his ability. At present a large number of pupils never reach the examination at all. The percentage of failures is exceedingly high, while of those who pass a good many only qualify through the misplaced charity of the examiners. These passes "of no par value" are of no real use to the pupil or to the business man who has been driven to demand the matriculation certificate which does not always test the knowledge he requires from those who desire to enter his office. Ultimately the examination should be so reconstructed and enlarged as to be capable of being taken in their stride, not only by the ordinary secondary pupils but by those of the remodelled central and the newly projected secon dary technical schools (see below).

Recurring to the secondary schools, it is interesting to note that there is a growing tendency for pupils who have passed the cer tificate to enter trade and technical schools, and this should in crease in the future, while as regards commerce, not only many secondary schools but public schools, like Mill Hill and Rugby, have introduced an element of commercial education into their higher classes and the movement is growing. It is worth noting in this connection the foundation of a Public Schools Business Society in London for helping the public schoolboy to adapt him self to the often unfamiliar conditions of commerce. There is plenty of room for creating similar societies for other types of schools. It has been already indicated that the universities are sending an increasingly larger number into commerce and indus try. In some universities the training for the future entrants into the higher walks of commerce is insufficient, especially in useful ness to those who are to specialize in modern languages with a view to going abroad later on. These courses are organized on a narrow linguistic basis rather than the broad cultural one which such candidates really require.

Conclusion.—In spite of much progress in the past, much still remains to be done. While the value of the school has steadily risen in the opinion of the more enlightened members of the business world, a large number of industrialists and traders are still largely unacquainted with the work of the school. To bring the two parties closer together the Ministry of Labour appointed in 1928 two national advisory councils (one for England and Wales and another for Scotland), which have also produced sev eral valuable reports, notably one on courses for the unemployed. Help has likewise been given in the matter by the United Cham bers of Commerce. Valuable work has also been done by the British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education, an amalgamation in 1934 of two Societies which were severally inter ested in industry and commerce. They have either separately or together made some very valuable enquiries, especially into the question of instruction in modern languages (report 1935), and into vocational education after general education up to the age of 16 (report 1936). One very important point emerged from this latter enquiry. A questionnaire which was sent out to the business world elicited some 348 replies. Nearly 5o% favour part-time vocational courses for all classes of workers against about 8% who preferred full time courses—a highly significant indication of the employers' belief in this type of vocational edu cation. Thanks to the Association and other bodies a certificate of efficiency has been established by the Board of Education in the various branches of technology. It has been distinctly suc cessful in the engineering and electrical trades, but less in the chemical and building industries for the simple reason that the possession of a certificate does not exempt a successful candidate from any of the examinations of these latter bodies. The remedy is obvious.

Further Outlook.—Probably one of the most potent ways of furthering commercial and technical education would be to regard the selective central school and the proposed improved trade school (suggested title—technical secondary) as equally impor tant parts of the intermediate state (I 1 + to 16+) in the national system of education. This would involve the gradual raising of the selective central school in staffing, amenities and salaries to the status of the ordinary secondary school and the extension of the school life and curriculum of the present trade school, (1) by starting the course two years earlier at II + and prolonging it to 16+, (2) by reinforcing the proportion of general education, making the instruction in the first two years of the course general and increasing and combining the general subjects more closely with the technical instruction. Instances already exist. The Walthamstow Central School has had its status raised in this fashion. The new Technical Institute at Dagenham contains a day school for pupils from z 1+ to 16+ in which the curriculum fulfils the conditions enumerated above, while the Gate House School at Leicester is largely organized on these lines.

The prospects of commercial and technical education have never been brighter, especially in view of the present boom in trade and the intense demand for skilled workers, but there is one lion in the path which has yet to be faced,—the colossal cost of providing adequate technical training for all the various groups of industry and commerce throughout the country. Great as has been the advance of technical education in the past, there are obviously a large majority of business callings which are only imperfectly if at all catered for under the existing provision of technical education. Possibly the cost can only be satisfactorily met if all the main trades and industries of the country both from the side of employers and of trade unions arrange to make some definite financial contribution to the national exchequer in return for the benefits received by their own particular industry.

(C. BR.) A study of the educational literature of the last half century reveals that the evolution of American education is rapidly tending toward a proper balance of the cultural and vocational objectives over which there has been so much strife in past decades between the proponents of general and practical educa tion. Progressive leaders in the general education field now insist upon adequate provision for the practical education of all per sons seeking occupational preparation, and the ablest vocational educators with equal emphasis insist that all persons seeking vocational preparation should first secure the most thorough fundamental general training which the capacities and resources of the trainees will permit. This balance is being accepted with a full recognition of the principle that educational adjustments must be made to fit individual needs to the extent that these do not con flict with society's interest in that general education which is essential for the common good of all citizens.

Occupational statistics for the United States indicate clearly that population is shifting from rural to urban centres and that the number of workers in industrial occupations is greatly in creasing. This new economic development has brought with it a vigorous demand for industrial education. This demand is being met by both public and private agencies and is resulting in the industrial enlightenment of the general population along two lines, (1) consumption and (2) production.

Education for consumption is largely supported financially through the advertising campaigns of manufacturers who make products of commercial value which satisfy popular wants. In the best elementary and some secondary schools, however, school children are now being taught in carefully prepared lessons the true value of products offered the public to satisfy the desire for food, clothing, shelter, recreation, transportation and other neces saries. This early education in the grades also serves to introduce children to certain general aspects of industrial life and is further strengthened in later grades by handwork courses which develop muscular skill. Interest is also stimulated in the study of occupations through formal courses in the junior high school years and in the practical work of try-out laboratory courses which provide experiences typical and representative of com munity occupations to adolescents who, in many cases, are seek ing early induction into industrial occupations. The steady dis charge of juveniles 14 years of age and older from the schools into industry, whether caused by necessity or lack of interest in school work, has led to the further provision for a public guidance and placement service in many American cities, in order that working children may make better occupational ad justments than would be possible for them were they to seek work unassisted. In such communities continuation schools (q.v.) usually exist to give young workers 14 to 16, 17 or 18 years of age (as the State laws may require) further vocational and civic training on a part-time "learning while earning" programme, which calls for four to eight hours attendance weekly at these schools. This schooling aims to make economic and civic adjust ment more satisfactory and certain than is possible when such children drift about in juvenile jobs without any educational guidance whatever.

Great variety characterizes training for productive efficiency. Public senior, technical and co-operative high as well as continu ation schools give both trade preparatory and trade extension courses in their day and evening classes for the more well defined trades of industry. While public secondary schools for both part and full time pupils have shops in which to give practical training in the more common occupations, it is, nevertheless, an accepted principle of vocational education, that the most effective practical instruction is given on the job in industry. Such practical training may embrace any practical instruction, requiring in some in stances only a few days or even hours to master, as in highly and narrowly specialized operations, or as much as five years in some of the very complex all-round trades. Industry provides the short-time training in vestibule schools and the all-round trade training through apprenticeship under indenture agreements with the trainee. The public day and evening vocational schools give such trainees the necessary related theoretical training.

Private industrial initiative, however, since 1916, has greatly extended educational opportunity in industry. In the larger in dustrial corporations of international reputation extensive in dustrial training of workers and executives (see also EMPLOYEES, TRAINING oF) has been undertaken in the form of foreman train ing classes and corporate trade and engineering schools. One of these, the General Motors Corporation, has established the Insti tute of Technology at Flint, Mich., to which co-operative engineer ing students from the many units of the corporation are sent in alternate months for engineering training to supplement the prac tical instruction received by them in the shops of the units send ing them. So great is the need for industrial education on all levels of maturity that even the units of this corporation make use of available training agencies other than their own. Thus, the Frigidaire Corporation, a General Motors unit at Dayton, O., for example, sends co-operative students not only to, the institute at Flint, but also to the University of Cincinnati and Antioch college in Ohio and augments this effort further by co-operative relations with the technical high school of the city of Dayton. The Ford Motor Company and the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company are other notable examples of the many other large corporations which have established training organizations to meet their own industrial needs. Industrial requirements are further satisfied by absorbing engineering and technical graduates from State and private universities, where the entire training effort is confined to the class and laboratory work at the univer sities. Such graduates, however, seldom find their places in industry without first serving supplementary apprenticeships fol lowing their graduation from the universities. Such apprentice ships usually run from one to two years. Students at these uni versities are usually recruited from the graduates of technical high schools.

Finally, it may be said that the educational opportunities in the United States have been extended and developed to that point where, through public, private and corporate schools, a flexible system now obtains which meets the nation's demand for a citizenry well grounded both in the common essentials and those specialized occupational skills or abilities which ensure economic efficiency. (W. F. R.)