Nature of Training.

The men in the urban non-residential centres receive a course of “handyman" training with a view to employment in this country. Recruitment for these centres is confined to men who reside within daily travelling distance.

In the two residential centres a certain proportion of the men are given a general course as handymen for employment in this country, adapted also, so far as practicable, to rural requirements. The remainder, who are all young unmarried men, are being trained specifically with a view to employment on the land in the oversea Dominions.

The object of the courses of training for employment in this country is to teach the men the use of tools, to accustom them to ordinary workshop practice and discipline, and to improve their general employability. Instruction is given as far as possible on productive work, which has been found in practice to provide the most effective training. It was not considered practicable to train the men for specific skilled trades. Such training would have involved a longer period than six months, which is the maximum length of the courses given, more expensive equipment, and elaborate arrangements with the industries concerned for the transfer of the trainees to private workshops at the end of their training-centre course. In no trade, except possibly the building trade, where special considerations apply, is there at present any such shortage of skilled men or apprentices as would justify the Department in asking the representatives of the trade to agree to arrangements for an influx of additional candidates for the limited number of "skilled" jobs available.

The oversea training courses, which have been arranged in co-operation with the Oversea Settlement Committee, and with representatives of the Australian and Canadian emigration authorities, are limited to single young men who have undertaken after training to take up work on the land oversea. The training is mainly agricultural in character, but some training as handymen is also given with a view to increasing the suitability of the men for employment in the Dominions.

Conditions of Eligibility.

All applicants for training must be :

(a) Registered as unemployed.

(b) Between the ages of 19 and 25. (For men who served with the Forces during the war, the upper limit of age may be raised to 29.)

(c) Unskilled, i.e., men who have had no opportunity of learning a skilled trade.

Men who have received a course of training at public expense. or financial assistance from the Civil Liabilities Department or the King's Fund, are not eligible under the new scheme.

Single men only are accepted for oversea training; they must be provisionally approved by a representative of the Dominion

authority, be passed as medically fit, and must sign an undertaking to remain throughout the course and as soon as possible thereafter to proceed to the Dominion concerned, if finally approved for employment there.

Allowances, &c., to Trainees.

Men undergoing instruction in the non-residential centres receive :

(a) Any unemployment benefit to which they are, for the time being, otherwise entitled.

(b) A personal allowance at the rate of 2s. 6d. per week for any period while under approved training.

(c) A free midday meal on each day of attendance at the centre.

(d) Reasonable daily travelling expenses if resident more than two miles from the centre.

Men accepted for training in the residential centres are given free travelling facilities to and from the centre at the beginning and at the end of the course. They are required to reside at the centre, where board and lodging are provided by the Ministry. Men who are being trained with a view to employment in this country continue to receive any unemployment benefit to which they may be entitled, and are required to pay 13s. per week towards the cost of board and lodging. The men in training for employment oversea receive free board and lodging, together with a personal allowance at the rate of 5s. per week for any period while under approved training.

Syllabus of Training for Employment Oversea.

The course of training for employment oversea may be varied. from time to time, but it includes instruction in :

(a) The handling of horses (including ploughing) and the care of live stock.

(b) Milking.

(c) Simple agricultural operations.

(d) Elementary woodwork, including the use of such tools as plane, chisel, saw, crosscut, maul, wedges, axe and billhook.

(e) Erection and repair of wire fences and wire netting.
(f) Erection and repair of wooden huts and fencing.
(g) Timber felling, and

(h) Simple repairs to agricultural implements and harness.

The course of training is so planned that during the six months every man will be given an opportunity of gaining experience in each of these branches. The aim is not to produce skilled agricultural labourers, but to give the trainees some experience of life on the land and some elementary knowledge of the work that has to be done. Skilled instructors are employed and training is given in thoroughly practical work.

The length of each course of training, whether for employment in this country or oversea, is limited to six months, and no extension of the course is granted. Strict discipline is maintained and the instructional course of any man may be terminated summarily for bad timekeeping, unsatisfactory conduct, lack of diligence, or other cause.

Progress of the Scheme.

The Birmingham centre, with accommodation for 400 men, was opened on 20th October, 1925, in a building which, during the war, was a munitions factory, and from 1919 till 1925 was an instructional factory for disabled ex-service men trained under the Industrial Training scheme.

The Wallsend-on-Tyne centre, also with accommodation for 400, opened early in January, 1926, in a building formerly a skating rink, which was bought and adapted for the purpose of this scheme.

The residential centre at Claydon, near Ipswich, opened on the 3rd November, 1925, with 200 trainees, of whom 100 were oversea men. The building was formerly a workhouse and was used for a time as an instructional factory for the training of disabled ex-service men.

The second residential centre, near Brandon, in Suffolk, was partially opened in February, 1926. It consists of a large country house with considerable acreage of land, forming part of a large estate acquired jointly by the Ministry of Labour and the Forestry Commissioners. This centre will not be fully occupied until additional hutting has been provided.

It is, of course, still too early to say how far this experimental scheme of training will achieve its objects, but the results obtained by the end of the year were encouraging. By 31st December, 1925, over 550 men had already entered training at the Birmingham centre, more than 150 who started the course on 20th October having already left in order to take up employment. The improvement in the morale and the general bearing of the men undergoing training has been most marked. They have taken most readily, indeed enthusiastically, to their work, and the regular hours and discipline, with the new hope of employment which the training opens up, have changed their outlook on life. There was no difficulty in obtaining an adequate supply of men likely to respond to the facilities offered to them and to give value for the money expended upon them.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON WOMEN'S TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT.

An account of the work of the above-named Committee is given in the Report of the Ministry of Labour for 1923 and 1924, pp. 222-226. The main work of the Committee during 1925 has fallen under the following heads :

Home Training Courses.

These are courses of 13 weeks' duration for unemployed women who it is hoped on the completion of training will enter some form of domestic service.

The training centres are established by the Committee or by the Local Education Authority at the Committee's expense, in those areas in which there are groups of unemployed women considered suitable for domestic service and unlikely to be re-absorbed in their former occupations. Individual Vocational Training.

Under this scheme unemployed women, for whom the Home Training courses are not considered appropriate, are specially selected for training in such occupations as nursery nursing, midwifery, advanced cooking, institutional housekeeping, comptometer operating, shorthand typewriting, hairdressing.

Outfits for intending Domestic Servants.

Under this scheme suitable women who have obtained a post in domestic employment but are unable to take up work owing to lack of suitable clothing are provided with an outfit not exceeding £4. 10s. in value.

A grant of £80,000 was made by the Ministry of Labour in July, 1925, on the following terms:

(a) The grant will cover domestic outfits, individual training, and Home Training centres, and will be limited. to £80,000.

(b) Admission to Home Training centres to be limited to women who are considered likely to enter domestic service, but it will be open to Committees to admit, on grounds of hardship, a small percentage of women who do not strictly satisfy this criterion.

(c) Married women with husbands living and in work will not be eligible.

(d) No definite undertaking to enter domestic service. will be required except from juveniles.

(e) No new classes shall be started between the beginning of June and the end of September, 1925, and all classes shall terminate by 30th April, 1926.

Home Training Courses.

Under the terms of the grant, it was not possible for the Committee to continue the courses which had been held in 1924 in such places as the textile areas, where the majority of the women were industrial workers awaiting revival of their own trade, and where only a small proportion were likely to consider the possibility of taking up domestic work.

The main part of the work of the Central Committee has been concentrated in areas where, owing to the lack of staple industries

for women, outlets for employment are difficult to find, and where there are groups of women who desire to take advantage of a 13 weeks' course of training, and are willing to enter domestic service. Training centres have also been in operation in some industrial areas where there were a large number of unemployed women who have been engaged in some form of unskilled industrial work, for whom domestic service appeared to be a suitable occupation.

The women attend the training courses for 30 hours a week, usually for five days of six hours. The curriculum consists of practical training in cookery, laundrywork, housework and needlework, together with instruction in hygiene and certain. general subjects. During the course the women are paid a maintenance allowance of £1 a week, from which they contribute about 3/- a week towards the cost of materials, which they are taught to make into garments for their own use, and thus are provided with a suitable outfit when they take up posts in domestic work. Girls between the ages of 16 and 18 are paid a maintenance allowance of 10/- a week, from which they are expected to contribute 2/- a week towards the cost of materials. Unemployment benefit is not payable during the period of training.

In setting up courses of 13 weeks' duration, the Committee have had to deal with many practical difficulties in obtaining suitable premises. They have found that from the point of view of technical training, the best opportunity for practical work can, as a rule, be obtained in places where it has been possible to rent and equip an empty house.

The Committee have experimented once or twice in setting up a residential centre for training in areas where candidates for training are scattered, and where it is desirable that they should be concentrated in one centre. Two courses of 10 weeks' duration have been given. The results have been very satisfactory but, owing to the fact that it is difficult to obtain equipped premises for short periods of time, and that only a small number can be dealt with in a residential centre, it has not been possible further to develop this side of the work.

A marked feature of the training has been that in spite of the fact that the course is a short one of only 13 weeks, the employability of the women has been substantially improved by the training given. After a centre is closed the Committee endeavour to obtain after-care records regarding the employment found by the women who have been trained. From the results thus collected, it is satisfactory to find that about two-thirds of the women are known to take up domestic work after training.

Individual Training Scheme.

Under this scheme, in the year 1925, 1,042 women applied for training and 258 grants were sanctioned for the various occupations. The results so far have been very satisfactory. Out of