CIVILIAN EXPERTS TRAIN ,RMY MAINTEN ANCE MEN
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WITH the enormous growth of our mechanized forces, it is quite obvious , that the call for driver-mechanics, motor mechanics and motor-vehicle fitters is one of
great moment. Ih fact, were it not for the Army Civilian Training Establishments, which have been running for some considerable time, we should undoubtedly have found ourselves in the position of possessing.. the vehicles but not the experienced personnel to maintain them.
It is quite certain, however, that this can never happen, for the Army now has many of these training centres running, from which hundreds of first-class men are being steadily turned out, their category being governed by the aptitude they have shown, during their course of training, for the specific duties they will thereafter be called upon to perform.
One such training centre is that 'established on the Acton premises of Shaw and Kilburn Ltd., from which many hundreds of men have been turned out during the two-and-a-half years the centre has
been open. .
When these centres were first started no particular care was taken to see that the men who were to take the courses were of the right "material "; the result was that the overall standard reached was not so high as seemed desirable.
Now the practice is that all prospective trainees have to show a reasonable standard of suitability for the work before starting the course, and for this the, practical tests scheme, instituted by the War Office, is responsible. As a result, the greater percentage of the men who now go for training have more than a reasonable chance of getting through to the third category, with a few bonus marks to their credit. A man may qualify for a driver-mechanic, motor mechanic or motor-vehicle fitter, the efficiency grade being in that ascending order.
The men, as can be appreciated, come from all walks in life, and at one time, owing to the fact that many could neither read nor write, only oral tests were possible. In contrast with this, the illustrated " note " books of some of the trainees passing through at the time of our visit. show a high standard of learning. Moreover, they are indicative of the interest and keenness of the men, not only to get through successfully, but to improve on the 60 per cent. efficiency standard which must be attained.
Carpenters and joiners and long-distance haulage drivers are, we were given to understand, particularly good types, and when men of the Canadian Forces were passing through, the best papils proved to be those who had worked on farms. The worst, strangely enough, were ex-garage men.
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The complete period of training, for such men as those who are destined to become motor-vehicle fitters, covers 16 weeks, that for motor mechanics 12 weeks, and for drivermechanics six weeks. All the men go through an initial period of training extending over six weeks, and this gives the instructors some indication of how best td sectionalize them,
The first test is a written one and is made to discover the general intelligence of each man. The questions _o be answered are concerned with the functioning of the main components of the chassis, and the manner in which these questions are dealt with proves a useful guide to the instructors during the initial training period.
In the first week, the men become acquainted with the use of a file, hack-saw, hand drill, power drill, tap, die, scraper and chisel, and each man has, subsequently, to produce a test piece which has called for the use of all these tools. .
For the second and third weeks the men are attached to particular groups. Their instruction, during this period, is confined to main components, such as axles and gearboxes, with particular referenceto steering gears. The cora
ponents are dismantled and the great point is that they must become familiar with the names of the various parts.
A commendable aspect of the training throughout is that, from the beginning, no opportunity is lost in telling the men why certain things happen and the principles underlying specific features. For instance, when dealing with gears, such items as toe-in, camber and castor are explained and their effect demonstrated Daring the same two weeks the trainees also become acquainted with the technique of tyre removal and replacement.
During the fourth week of the course engines are dealt with, but in only a purely elementary way. Cylinder heads are lifted and replaced, and stress is laid on the order in which the holdingdown nuts are loosened and tightened. Carburation and ignition are also touched on at the same time, the engines. concerned being of Austin. Bedford and Ford VS makes.
Engine running and fault finding come into the fifth week of instruction, as does an introduction to the oil engine, both in theory and practice. Trainees, too, are, at this stage, made acquainted with .the 16 daily-tasks system of general maintenance, as laid down by the War Office. Incidentally, it has been found that Service vehicles, in general, have shown an improved standard of,service_ability following the introduction and practice of this routine form of vehicle maintenance, The sixth week's training is confined to motorcycles, the instruction being, more or less, general, and covering the engine, transmission and ignition. The more usual running adjustments...are also fully explained.
It is at the end of this period that the men begin, as it were, to sort themselves out, Those who will eventually become driver-mechanics—although given another six weeks' training—do not receive the instruction which follows and which is taken by only prospective drivermechanics and fitters.
The seventh week, therefore, represents the first week of the course for motor mechanics and fitters, the men now going on to the carrying out of adjustments and the dismantling of main components from complete vehicles. Body removal and replacement; together 'with maintenance, are also included, so that this becomes a somewhat full week.
Passing on to the next fortnight—the eighth and ninth weeks—the men are now concerned more seriously with the transmission side, ail the intricacies of various types of gearbox having to be mastered. Quite a useful test is that in which the component parts of six different units are mixed up, the men having to sort them out and so build up a .complete box using the correct bits and pieces.
If it be noted by an instructor that a box is being incorrectly assembled, the job is allowed to proceed to the finished stage, the trainee being far inure impressed when shown the error of his ways after the box is supposedly complete, than he would have been had the mistake been pointed out to him during its assembly. Propeller shafts and couplings, rear axles, and differential units are also gone into in some detail during these two weeks.
The tenth and eleventh weeks are.spelit in the electrical section, when a thorough grounding in electricity, as applied to the motor vehicle, is given. Starting with such elementary exercises as wiring-up lamps in series and in parallel, the men finish up by undertaking the complete wiring up of a vehicle-.
And so we arrive at the twelfth week of the course, during which the men are engaged in dismantling and building up complete engines. This week marks the end of the motor Mechanics' course, whilst those who have been selected to pass out as motor-vehicle fitters are released into the shops, where they work as mechanics, for a further four weeks, reconditioning Army vehicles.
The foregoing deals with the practical side of the training, but the theoretical side is by no,means overlooked. Every day batches of from 10 to 20 men are taken. to the lecture room where they are given a simple and concise explanation of the principles underlying the working of various units, so that, whilst they know how certain results are brought about, they are also told why.
At the end of each six weeks of the 12 weeks' course there is a written examination, at which each trainee is asked from 200 to 300 questions. These_ questions, by the way, are known to the men from the day that they start training, so that all the time they are 14.illy aware of what they have got to absorb in order to make a reasonable show of the examination paper. The instructors are contacted the whole dine for their opinions and comments on the men under their charge, and it is up to them to award the efficiency marks which govern 1/he men's ultimate status category.
The number of men passing through at one time is between 220 and 230, the centre being fed all the time with fresh batches of trainees_ When the men are through with the cOurse they are drafted back to their own units, and it is of some interest to note that the Army authorities accept the centre's status classification, without calling for further trade tests.
We were also interested to learn that the authorities are particularly well pleased with Army Training -Establishments conducted by the motor trade, particularly from the point of view of the standard of efficiency attained. •