An Enquiry into Attitudes Towards Daylight Training, with Special Reference to the Training of Apprentices to the Cabinetmaking Trade

Abstract

On the 3rd March, 1952, these headlines appeared in "The Evening Post". 'Self Assertive Educationists'. 'Employers' Attack on Daylight Training'. The next day under the heading 'Apprentice Training Dispute' -'Learned More at Work than at School'. The report of the third day in the hearing of the case before the Court of Arbitration, where the furniture trade employers asked the Court to delete the clause pertaining to apprentice training from the Furniture Trades Apprenticeship Order, began with the headlines 'Employers' Prejudice' - 'Workers in Defence of Daylight Training' and ended with the word 'Proceeding' in brackets. No further newspaper reports of the case appeared. In May of the same year the writer met three groups of cabinetmaking apprentices who were attending a Technical School presumably to receive the daylight training which, according to the employers' advocate, was "not wanted by the boys nor the employers". The writer was to help in the attempt to provide the daylight training of these three groups of apprentices and it was only too apparent that some of them not only did not want the training but were actively antagonistic towards it. In some cases (but definitely not all) it was not a question of passive resistance to learning but actual refusal to learn. There appeared to be a complete dearth of official information relative to the training scheme and to the Trade Certification examination in cabinetmaking. This thesis was suggested by the urgent need to obtain the reliable information required as a basis for the training the writer was expected to give. The particular emphasis of the research was dictated by an even more urgent need - that of meeting and if possible overcoming the active prejudice of some apprentices towards the training, so that by lessening the disruption in the classes, more effective results could be achieved. The first part is given to a statement of the preliminary background work, and an outline of the survey in the three centres studied: to a brief history of daylight training, and the introduction of the training scheme. A presentation of test results, together with the results of interviews with apprentices and employers, is given in part two. In the third part a summary outline of the findings is presented and conclusions are stated. The decision to undertake the investigation was made in October, 1952, and the interviewing was conducted during the period from May to September, 1953. The field of study was the cabinetmaking section of the Furniture Making Industry directly associated with daylight training in three centres.