Roll for disabled men was inaugurated by Royal Proclamation, and the scheme itself was actually launched on Sept. 15. The basis of the scheme was to ask each industry to take disabled men into its ranks to a proportion of 5 % of the total employees. Individual employers who agreed to come into the scheme were given a certificate to that effect, and were entitled to use a special seal saying that they were inscribed upon the National Roll. Industries, of course, vary con- siderably in their power to absorb disabled men, and the 5 % was not rigidly enforced, but they were invited to take as large a percentage as the nature of the work permitted. The scheme worked with con- siderable success. At Feb. 19 1921 the number of employers on the roll was 24,278. The total staffs covered by them was 4,167,171; the number of disabled ex-service men employed was 270,552.
The Roll was headed by the King and Queen Alexandra. H. M. Treasury were entered upon the Roll in respect of Government departments and Government industrial establishments, and the Roll included the staff of the Houses of Lords and Commons and of the Law Courts. Special efforts were made to include local authori- ties upon the Roll, and at the date mentioned above there were 751 upon the Roll in England and Wales, and 68 upon the Roll in Scot- land. In addition arrangements were made by which preference was given in allocating Government contracts to employers whose names were upon the Roll. It may be noted in this connexion that when the scheme was launched in Sept. 1919 the number of disabled ex-service men who had registered themselves as unemployed was 41,616. There is no doubt that in addition to the men registered there was a considerable number, perhaps as many as 20,000, who had not re- ported themselves a fact which is proved by additional registra- tions which followed upon the inauguration of the scheme. As a result of the scheme the figure fell to 14,849 in Sept. 1920. Of these a considerable number were in Ireland, where the National Roll, for various reasons, could not operate.
Training dealt with three main classes: The disabled ex-service man who could not, owing to his disability, return to his pre-war occupation ; the man whose apprenticeship had been interrupted by war service and could not be renewed without assistance from the State; and the woman who, by entering munitions work at an early age, had failed to acquire a woman's trade. In addition to these classes there was the fit ex-service man whose enlistment in the army or navy at an early age had prevented him from acquiring a skilled trade. For industrial reasons it was soon found that little could be done unless he had commenced an apprenticeship before the war.
On Aug. I 1919, when the industrial training of disabled ex-service men was taken over by the Ministry of Labour from the Ministry of Pensions, about 10,000 men had already been trained, about 12,000 were under training, and some 75,000 more were estimated to be awaiting training. In dealing with this problem the policy of the Training Department was to associate the administration of industrial training with local education authorities, to retain and increase the cooperation already established in training matters with the trades and industries concerned, and to repair the shortage of training facilities by the establishment of Government instructional factories. The organization set up was based on the division of the coun- try into 17 administrative areas, each under a divisional director.
The cooperation of the employers and workpeople of the industries and trades in which men were being trained had already been secured after protracted negotiations with the leading British industries, which were conducted in 1916 and 1917 by the late Mr. St. George Heath of the Ministry of Labour. These negotiations resulted in a series of agreements to which representatives of employers' organiza- tions, trade unions and the State were contracting parties, providing for the precise length of the training courses, the regulation by each trade of the number of men admitted to training in it, and the proportion of the men's pay respectively contributable by the em- ployer and the State. The training schemes were drawn up by the National Trade Advisory Committees, composed of equal numbers of representatives of employers and workpeople, and their super- vision was carried out by Local Technical Advisory Committees, similarly constituted, without whose consent no man was to be placed into training.
The policy of concentrating training in the Government instruc- tional factory, based on the closest possible imitation of the manage- ment, discipline, machinery and productive work of the ordinary factory, but differing from the latter in that its primary function is the output of trained men instead of finished goods, was the out- come of the great and growing demand during the war for semi- skilled workers, capable of setting free the skilled man for more complicated operations. The impossibility of obtaining a rapid supply of such workers through the ordinary workshop, which was too intent upon production to occupy itself with the scientific up- grading of unskilled labour, or through the existing machinery of the technical schools, which were out of touch with the requirements of modern large-scale manufacture, compelled the Government to set up institutions of its own. In these was evolved a system of intensive training capable of teaching in two or three months, to a woman hitherto accustomed only to house work, one or two of the simple operations involved in specialized repetition work and of turning her, for example, into a competent capstan hand. The considerations which led to the adoption of this system for the purpose of dilution applied even more strongly to the case of the disabled man.
Up to Jan. 1921 some 50,000 men had been trained or were in training under the Ministry of Labour in addition to the 10,000 already trained when they took over from the Ministry of Pensions. Fifty Government instructional factories had been set up with accommodation for 20,000 men, providing training in most skilled trades in the country and engaged on productive work ranging from the building of houses to the repairing of watches and clocks.
The chief trades in which training was given were mechanical and electrical engineering, building in all its branches, furniture- making and wood-working, boot- and shoe-making and repairing (hand and machine), tailoring (wholesale and retail), watch- and clock-making and repairing, brush-making, basket-making, motor mechanics and commercial work, besides a great number of smaller trades, or trades, such as textiles and pottery, in which the amount of training given has been more limited. A considerable number of men were trained entirely in employers' workshops, but in the majority of cases a preliminary period in an institution, either a technical school or preferably an instructional factory, was given before placing a man for the completion of his training with an employer. The experience acquired during the war, in connexion with semi-skilled workers, that instruction controlled and directed on scientific principles results in a surprisingly high rate of progress on the part of the learner, was amply confirmed when applied to training for skilled occupations.
Interrupted Apprenticeships. Prior to the Armistice a special committee, appointed by the Ministry of Reconstruction, considered this problem, and, in consultation with the Labour and Resettlement Committee, prepared a scheme to enable those involved to complete their apprenticeship. It was recognized that each industry had its own problems and that no uniform scheme could be adopted. The Committee, therefore, contented themselves with laying down certain general principles which should be observed if State assist- ance was to be obtained. It was left to each industry, through an organization representative of employers and operatives, to prepare a detailed scheme adapted to the needs of the industry concerned and embodying these general principles, which may be summarized as follows:
(i) Men in the last year of their apprenticeship on enlistment should be regarded as journeymen.
(ii) The unexpired period of apprenticeship should be reduced by not less than one-third of the time lost by service in H. M. forces.
(iii) The time, it any, during which a man worked at his trade while in H. M. forces should be counted as part of the original apprenticeship.
(iv) After reaching the age when his original apprenticeship would have terminated, or the age of 21 , whichever was the earlier, the man should be paid not less than three-quarters of the journeyman's rate for the first half of the resumed apprenticeship and not less than five-sixths for the remainder. Towards such wages the State would pay a grant equal to one-third of the journeyman's rate.
(v) Provision should be made in the scheme for allowing the training in the employer's establishment to be supplemented by training in a technical institute, the State agreeing to pay fees and a maintenance allowance.
(vi) An agreement should be entered into by employer and apprentice under which the employer undertook to train the appren- tice as a skilled workman, and the apprentice to complete his training with the employer.
Forty distinct industries, covering about 800 different trades, prepared schemes in accordance with the principles laid down above. These schemes varied in many details, especially as regards the wages payable and the rate of deduction to be made from the unexpired period of apprenticeship in respect of the time served in H. M. forces.
An additional scheme was prepared by the Ministry of Labour to cover unorganized trades and trades where the small number of apprentices did not justify a special scheme.
The number of apprentices brought under the scheme was, at the end of Jan. 1921, 43,500. These figures do not indicate the total number of persons who, whether directly or indirectly, had benefited as a result of the scheme. A large number of important firms, includ- ing the majority of the railway companies, took back their ex-service apprentices under conditions as good as, or better than, those laid down in the scheme, but preferred not to ask for State assistance. Government departments, such as the Admiralty, the Ministry of Munitions and the Post Office, adopted a similar course. Persons in their last year of apprenticeship on enlistment were treated as journeymen but did not receive State assistance.
It has been estimated that the number of persons who in this way indirectly benefited under the scheme was at least as large as the number of those who were formally brought within its provisions.
On Jan. I 1921 the number of apprentices who had applied and were eligible, but for whom employers had not been found willing to enable them to complete their apprenticeship, was 300. It will be seen, therefore, that practically the whole of those desiring to com- plete their apprenticeship were enabled to do so.
One of the conditions attached to payment of State assistance was an undertaking on the part of the employer that he would give to the apprentice the training necessary to make of him a skilled workman. It became, therefore, the duty of the Ministry of Labour to take steps to insure that this undertaking was carried out. Employers
