R.A.F. AND TRAINING
Sts,—Your correspondent "Honours Graduate" asserts that the R.A.F. higher authorities have no interest whatever in the further education of their personnel under the Education..! and Vocational Training Scheme. May I go further than this and suggest that, in fact and in practice, the E.V.T. scheme is nothing more than a transparent sop, designed by the higher authorities of all the Services to mollify men and women whom they (generally wrongly) assume to have less intelligence than themselves.
There are many trades in the R.A.F., and smaller numbers in the R.N. and Army, calling for qualifications and training which com- mand a comparatively high remuneration in civil life. The men and women in these trades have received a first-class training at Service technical schools; if they wish to follow these same trades in civil life, they are already well equipped to do so, and require no further training under the E.V.T. scheme.
Many men and women were dragooned in the Services into trades which were uncongenial or overcrowded in civil life. Many more per- formed duties which have no counterpart in civil life. These people arc to be qualified for civilian employment by the E.V. Training. For this purpose, a few odd hours are set aside each week until demobilisation. The time allotted is quite inadequate to teach anyone even the rudiments of a trade; furthermore, no instructor can be expected to plan effective courses for a number of pupils who will be demobilised on different, but as yet unannounced, dates. The compilation of a comprehensive time-table is impossible under such circumstances.
From the practical and educational point of view, the scheme cannot be regarded as a serious attempt to give service personnel the qualifications necessary to obtain them the skilled employment which their fathers were unable to find twenty-five years ago. However, it may be presented as a good political point, and will serve to occupy the time of potential mal- contents whose demobilisation is being unduly delayed. These ends are no doubt the scheme's thinly disguised purpose.
"RIFLEMAN."
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