SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— L. 401 



The ' acid test ' of any scheme is shown by its results. So far the appreciation of 

 industry of this form of training is interpreted in the fact that students thus trained 

 can be placed without difficulty. 



Mr. A. P. M. Fleming.- — Educational Facilities offered by Industry. 



The portion of the subject assigned to the writer is to indicate how industrial firms 

 themselves have attempted to provide suitable educational facilities for their workers. 



The attempts that firms have made to provide educational facilities of a more 

 or less conventional type have, perhaps, led many who are not intimately associated 

 with industry to form an entirely wrong conception of industrial educational needs; 

 and, more particularly, of what those responsible for the conduct of industry believe 

 to be its educational needs. In this paper it is proposed only to touch upon 

 the more conventional facilities, but rather to indicate those which do not fall 

 directly within the recognised scope of education, whereas industrially they are 

 educational efforts of the most vital kind and apply equally to all types of workers, 

 whether manual or mental. 



The fundamental factor in industry is personnel, and the educational needs of 

 personnel — industrially and individually — are to fit the worker for his environment, 

 whatever it may be. 



Industrial environment is continually changing, and conditions at the present 

 time call for educational effort which will produce an appreciation of the need, to the 

 community, for intensive production ; the ability to work effectively in a ' team ' ; 

 and to exercise independent judgment based on an accurate appreciation of facts ; a 

 spirit of fairness towards one's fellows ; an instinctive desire to improve the means 

 of productive effort in the service of the community ; and all the other attributes 

 that go to the making of a good citizen. 



While it is recognised that these qualities, which are essential to fitting a worker 

 for his environment, can, in a general way, be developed through the more con- 

 ventional educational facilities, the need for the exercise of them cannot be fully 

 appreciated by the juvenile until he enters his working environment, so that it is not 

 until then that the best opportunities for such development occur. 



To some extent organisations of the type represented by the Boy Scouts do much 

 to fit the young worker for his industrial environment, but something much more 

 intimately associated with his work is needed. The writer will outline the types of 

 organisations that exist in some of the large industrial concerns in which the juvende 

 workers are not only given training facilities which enable them to follow effectively 

 their own particular trade or vocation, but which provide the means for training in 

 those aspects of industrial life that involve relationships with their fellows — whether 

 in work, play or in the general communal relations that exist between all sections 

 and classes of workers associated together for industrial production. 



Facilities for continuing this form of education in adult years are needed, and the 

 most satisfactory are those which arise from the outworkings of societies and 

 institutions which are identified with a man's work, or with the welfare of himself and 

 his fellows. Thus, in all the healthy industrial concerns in which sports and general 

 and social activities of every kind are being pursued very actively, the real education 

 of fitting a man for his environment is going forward effectively. 



To gauge the importance of this type of education, one must bear in mind that 

 in a country like Great Britain, industry is a fundamental necessity to the entire nation, 

 and everything that operates against national prosperity eventually diminishes the 

 well-being of every individual. One of the most lamentable features operating 

 against national prosperity is the unrest and want of agreement that exists between 

 employees and the management of industry. An analysis of conditions shows that 

 many of the factors referred to above are involved, and it would seem that the only- 

 way ' of satisfying the educational requirements they represent lies in making the 

 very best and fullest use of the experience of the worker in his particular sphere. 



This ' non-conventional ' type of education must necessardy be closely linked with 

 the more conventional training of the worker for his job and in the general, scientific, 

 and economic principles underlying it. In so far as employment is concerned, it 

 should aim at off-setting the general tendency to ' safety first ' in any job and create 

 the outlook that industry has all the attractions of adventure. The instruction in 

 economics should enable the worker to appreciate the various factors that govern 

 raw material supply, and should enable him to exercise judgment as to the possibility 



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