Two centuries of shipbuilding by the Scotts at Greenock

Broadening the Training. 161
The necessity for improvements in the methods of
education and technical training of apprentices has been long
appreciated, but the progress that can be made by an
individual firm in this direction is limited. It has taken the
upheaval of a war to overcome the existing inertia, and bring
together the elements necessary to promote the success of
such a movement.
The firm are in close touch with the latest develop-
ments affecting the question of apprentice training, and
are co-operating in the most whole-hearted manner
with the education authorities. The general subject
is still in the transition stage, and the course even-
tually followed will depend to a certain extent on the
methods which are adopted in the district for the adminis-
tration of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918.
In connection with the training of apprentices a departure
has been made in some of the workshops, where the apprentices
have been put in charge of apprentice masters for trade
instruction with encouraging results, and the principle is being
extended in application. For the older apprentices special
trade classes are provided in the evenings, combined, so far
as is possible, with practical demonstrations in the works.
Apprentices are encouraged to greater diligence by the payment
of graduated bonuses to those who attain a specified standard
of efficiency in the successive years of this educational course.
In the case of the better educated and more promising youths
special facilities are granted for the continuation of technical
education on the " sandwich " system at a technical college
or university.
With a view to extending the area from which apprentices
may be drawn, the firm have had in successful operation for
some years a scheme for the attraction of new blood from
out-of-the-way parts of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Under this scheme the firm assist likely lads by paying travelling
expenses and granting a weekly gratuity to each in order
M