“Training in the engineering branch of the post office“

Mr. President and gentlemen, I should like to thank contributors to the discussion for their kind remarks. I am glad Mr. Machanik used his considerable influence to lay that ghost of spoon-feeding. I have heard the same remark with reference to our present scheme. I also heard it some 20 to 25 years ago, and Mr. Goodacre has given you a hint as to how the scheme of those days worked I Some of the apprentice courses are easy, and some are the reverse. Some become more complicated every day with the development of new devices and the introduction of new methods and new materials. The days when enough knowledge and skill could be picked up as one went along are far behind us. There are several branches of communication engineering each of which is worthy of a lifetime's study. The apprentices are given an introduction, and we try to give them a sound foundation. They are given enough to enable them to perform an electrician's or a mechanician's duties with reasonable competence, but little more. For a really intelligent understanding of what they are doing and why, a great deal of private study is essential, and I am afraid many of them do not realise this. People who think the boys are spoon-fed are really very ignorant of the facts, or simply succumbing to that human failing of envy for the one who has a better opportunity than one had oneself. The fact is that unless these better opportunities are afforded the department will be unable to discharge its responsibilities properly.