A RUSH FOR APPRENTICESHIP.
Page 9
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By the inspector.
IS NOT A word of warning necessary to those parents who, faced with the puzzling task of making a choice of a career for their boys, are, with remarkable unanimity, turning to the motor inchastry as the most promising field for their offspring's dormant but suspected talents ? Many of us who are closely associated with the manufactuaing side D i the industry will be able to bear witness that parents and guardians, who have not, for one reason or another, the opportunity to assign to their boys a course of, training for the higher professions, seem inevitably to be attracted by the supposed opportunities that lie ahead of the ycnngster in the part of the manufacturing world that is, and will continue to be, concerned with the production, maintenance and disposal of motor vehicles of one kind or another.
It is, perhaps, natural that not only the parents but the boys themselves—with little enough knowledge indeed of the requirements that will be: made of them, and a still more shallow acquaintance with the conditions of the industries into which they desire to enter—should feel that not only in there a possibility of a very good living to be made as an engineer, but that there is still much glamour in the calling. One very seldom hears, in many other trades, of deliberate choice being made by parents, unless those parents have been associated themselves, or by marriage, or in some other way, with the industry they choose. Very few boys, for instance, become cabinet makers, or joiners, or builders, or farmers, or one of a number of other trades when they come from farai' lies which have had no representation in such trades up to that point. Yet, it ía no uncommon thing co find a boy apprenticed or articled to engineering who belongs to a family ef which not a single member has ever got nearer to mechanical-engineering knewaledge than the ownership of a bicycle or -a sewing machine. * T-his brings us to the point, and it is a very important one indeed, that sufficient judgment is by no means exorcised by patents who have the opportunity of making a choice when they have to decide fortheir youngsters what they shall be in after life. Very feW parents have the. ability to make such decisions, and stilt fewer are blest with -sufficient knowledge of the trades they choose, to satisfy themselves properly as to the suitability of the choice they make. All too frequently, a decision of this: kind rests very largely upon the influence of a fondand proud mother, and it is indeed surprising how many mothers are convinced that a. boy, when he is perhaps no more than 14, has a brilliant career before him as a builder of Forth Bridges, main line locomotives, or giant liners, after he has once successfully dismantled the lawn mower or a. partially defunct clock. The fact that such a boy very seldom indeed succeeds in putting the thing together again han no weight whatever with her She is convinced that he must. be an engineer—and far more convinced than she would have been in the unusual event of her having made up her mind that he should be a parson, a doctor, or
a lawyer.
A very large percentage of the choice of careers is hopelessly wrong, and industries are loaded with boys
and men whoa a few yews later, as a rule, reveal theii total unfittedness for the-job -they are at. Here and there they disclose some degree of evidence that an entirely different occupation should have beenselected in the first place. The motor industry is particularly
affected in this way. Probably owing to its rapid , expansion, and still more probably due to the public
evidence in our streets of its rapid developments, parents are readily persuaded that they can see well into the future in this, matter and can prophesy with the certainty of experts as to its future further extension. They know nothing of the different gradhigs of occupation, as towhether a boy is likely to be best trained as a mechanic and a craftsman, whether he will show ability an a designer with knowledge of materials and the higher branches of applied mechanics and mathematics, or whether he will display in after years capacity for the Management of men--an increasingly important branch of factory life. Too many of such .boys, Who are 'additionally furnished with,a fair education, are pitched forth into" the eommercial 'and. sales aide of engineering ,organizations with 'little or newregard for their capacity for this highly-specialized work.
This all points to the fact that, in these coming days, much gresstercare should be taken in the choice of beginners in industry of any kind, and particularly ..in our own industry. For, so vast have been the atrides u commercial. motoring during the east few -years,. so great its share in the Gre-at War, that nunsberless parents have even Ventured on some little degree of discrimination, and have 4ecidod with emphasis that not only has the motor vehicle f` a great :future," but -that the particular bright stars of the industry are to be the lorry and other types of industrial self-propelled machines., It behoves those who are responsible for the future staffing of our factories and of our administration and sales organizations and, too, those who are shouldering the care of big operating concerna, to make a strong stand, at this present time when they axe, no doubt, being exceptionally bothered by numberless applications for opportunities for their boys to become motor engineers. It would be infinitely better, in a great many &sea if, once it had been decided that a boy gave eanaiderable promise of successful development in this direction, he were trained en an intensive system for general mechanical knowledge, leaving the choice of the branch of engineering to a, ,much later stage in hi a career. There is no very special significance with regard to a boy ultimately becoming a successful motor engineer in his receiving his earliest mechanical training in a factory manufacturing motor yehieles. As a rule, he and his parents think that the one thing to understand is the engine the gearbox, and the back axle, whereas he wants o-get much further back tha-n that; and understand something of materials, and a good deal of how to work them and machine them. Something, too, of design at first, perhaps, and not necessarily solely as pplied to engine cases and clutch gears. Many, if not most, of the best engineers in themotor industry, whether manufacturing or operating, were trained for years beforehand in branches of the profession far-removed from internal-combustion engines. The industry waists, plenty of recruits, but it only wants promising ones. The time to get rid of the inefficient is before be ataatja training—this may be difficult, but it is not improa&able.