the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
Click here to learn more!
Bible Encyclopedias
Technical Education
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or The term now generally adopted to designate, the special training of persons in the arts and sciences that underlie the practice of some trade or profession, is called "technical education." Schools in which this training is provided are known as technical
schools. In its widest sense, technical education embraces all kinds of instruction that have direct reference to the career a person is following or preparing to follow; but it is usual and convenient to restrict the term to the special training which helps to qualify a person to engage in some branch of productive industry, and the instruction so provided is generally known as "technological instruction." This specialized education may consist of the explanation of the processes concerned in production, or of instruction in art or science in its relation to industry, but it may also include the acquisition of the manual skill which production necessitates.
The terms "technical" and "technological" (Gr. T Xvrt, art or craft) as applied to education, arose from the necessity of finding words to indicate the special training which was needed in consequence of the altered conditions of production during the 19th century. Whilst the changed conditions of production, consequent mainly on the application of steam power to machinery, demanded a special training for those who were to be engaged in productive industry, the prevalent system of education was not adapted to the requirements of these persons, and schools were wanted in which the necessary instruction could be obtained. Other circumstances resulting mainly from the application of steam power to machinery rendered technical education necessary. condi- Production on a large scale led to a great extension of the principle of the division of labour, in conse- quence of which it was found economical to keep a man constantly engaged at the same kind of work, since the more he practised it the quicker and more skilful he became. Thus employed, the workman learned little or nothing of the process of the manufacture at which he assisted, or of other departments of the work than the particular one in which he was engaged, and his only opportunity of acquiring such knowledge was outside the workshop or factory in a technical school. The economy effected by the division of labour led to the extension of the principle to other industries than those in which machinery is largely employed. There are many trades in which manual skill is as necessary now as ever, but even in these the methods of instruction prevailing under the old system of apprenticeship are now almost obsolete.
In many industries, including trades in which machinery is not as yet extensively employed, production on a large scale has increased the demand for unskilled labour, numbers of hands being required to prepare the work to be finished by a few skilled artisans. Rapidity of execution is attained by keeping a workman at the same work, which after a time he succeeds in mechanically performing and continues to do until some machine is invented to take his place. In most trades, as formerly practised, the master employed a few apprentices who assisted him in his work, and who learnt from him to understand the details of their craft, so that, when the term of their apprenticeship was over, they were competent to practise as journeymen. But now the master frequently has neither time nor opportunity to instruct young lads, and the old relation of master and apprentice is changed into that of manufacturer and workman. In consequence of these altered relations between employer and employed, there has arisen an acknowledged want of properly trained workmen in a number of trades in which skilful hand work is still needed; and in these trades a demand has arisen for technical schools, or some other substitute for what was formerly done by apprenticeship, as a means of suitably training workmen and foremen. The ever-increasing competition in production has led to the employment, in many trades, of, children to do work of a mechanical kind requiring little skill; but, whilst thus employed, these young people have little opportunity of learning those parts of their trade in which skill and special knowledge are needed; and when they are grown up, and seek higher wages, they are dismissed to make room for other children. Numbers of young people are thus thrown upon the labour market, swelling the percentage of the unemployed, who are competent to do nothing more than children's work, and to earn children's wages, and who know no trade to which they can apply their hands. To remedy this, by creating some substitute for the old apprenticeship, is one of the objects of a system of technical education; though in suitable trades an independent movement for reviving apprenticeship (q.v.) under improved conditions has also made some way.
A complete system of technical education should provide the necessary instruction for the different classes of persons engaged in productive industry. It is usual to divide these persons into three classes: - (i) workmen or journeymen; (2) foremen or overseers; (3) managers or masters.
The industries in which they are employed may be grouped under four heads: - (r) those involving the use of extensive machinery, such as iron and steel manufacture, the chemical trades; (2) those which mainly require the use of hand tools, as cabinet-making, brick-work, plumbing, and tailoring; (3) those depending on artistic skill, as wood and stone carving, metal-chasing, enamelling, decorative work, and industrial designing generally; (4) agriculture in all its branches, and forestry. These industries will be referred to as manufactures, handicrafts, art industries and agriculture. The foregoing classification comprises groups which necessarily, to some extent, overlap one another. Every factory contains a carpenter's and smith's shop, and handicraftsmen of group (2) are required in every manufacturing concern. Whilst the industries in which hand labour is exclusively employed are becoming fewer and fewer, there are many trades which, owing to the frequent invention of laboursaving appliances, are passing gradually from the class of handicrafts to that of manufactures. In these trades, of which watchand clock-making and bootand shoe-making may be taken as examples, there is still a demand for goods largely if not entirely produced by hand work. In such trades, owing to the absence of facilities for instruction in the ordinary shops, there is a want of skilled hand labour which there is an increasing difficulty in satisfying, and to supply this want technical schools of different kinds have been established. Then, again, there are many branches of manufacturing industry which greatly depend for their success upon the designer's art, and it is necessary that the industrial designer should possess a knowledge of the processes of the manufacture in which his designs will be utilized, as well as of the properties and capabilities of the material to which they will be applied. Indeed, it is the possession of this knowledge which mainly distinguishes the industrial designer from the ordinary artist. To determine the best training for such designers is one of the problems of technical education. There are many trades, too, in which the handicraftsman and the designer should be united. This is the case in such industries as silversmith's and goldsmith's work. In these and other trades the true artisan is the artist and handicraftsman combined.
In order to reconcile some of the different views which are held as to the objects of technical education, it is necessary to keep in mind the broad distinction, above referred to, between the conditions of production on a large scale, as in those industries in which goods are manufac tured by the use of extensive labour-saving machinery, crafts. and in those trades in which hand work is chiefly employed. Much of the diversity of opinion regarding the objects of technical education is due to the difference of standpoint from which the problem is regarded. The volume of the trade and commerce of Britain depends mainly on the progress of its manufacturing industries. It is these which chiefly affect the exports and imports. The aim of manufacturers is to produce cheaper and better goods than can be produced by other manufacturers at home or abroad; and technical education is valuable to them, in so far as it enables them to do so. It also helps to widen the area of productive industry, and to encourage varieties of activity which the free and unfettered conditions of competition tend unduly to restrict. On the other hand, the artisan engaged in hand industries looks to technical education for self-improvement, and for the means of acquiring that general knowledge of the principles and practice of his trade, which he is unable to obtain in the commercial shop. Hence the artisan and the manufacturer approach the consideration of the question from different sides. To the spinner or weaver who almost exclusively employs women to tend his machinery, or to the manufacturing chemist whose workpeople are little more than labourers employed in carrying to and fro materials, knowing little or nothing of the scientific principles underlying the complicated processes in which they are engaged, the technical education of the workpeople may seem to be a matter of little moment. What such manufacturers require are the services of a few skilled engineers, artistic designers or scientific chemists. From the manufacturer's point of view, therefore, technical instruction is not so much needed for the hands he employs in his work as for the heads that direct it. But in trades in which machinery plays a subsidiary part, technical teaching supplies the place of that instruction which, in former times, the master gave to his apprentice, and the workman is encouraged to attend technical classes with a view to acquiring that knowledge of the theory and practice of his trade, on the acquisition of which his individual success greatly depends. In the former class of industries, technical education is needed mainly for the training of managers; in the latter, for the training of workmen. Hence has arisen a double cry, - for the teaching of art and of the higher branches of science, with a view to their application to manufacturing industry, and for the specialized instruction in drawing, and in the scientific facts which help to explain the processes and methods connected with the practice of different crafts and trades. This double cry has led to the establishment of technical universities and of trade schools.
Owing to the conditions under which manufacturing industry is now carried on, it is difficult to select competent foremen from the rank and file of the workmen. The ordinary hands gain a very limited and circumscribed acquaintance with the details of the manufacture in which they are engaged, and have little opportunity of acquiring that general knowledge of various departments of work, and of the structure and uses of the machinery employed, which is essential to the foreman or overseer. It is in evening technical classes that this supplementary instruction, which it is the workman's interest to acquire and the master's to encourage, can be obtained; and it is from the more intelligent workmen who attend these classes that masters and employers will select as foremen those students who are found to possess the essential qualifications. The history of invention shows how frequently important improvements in machinery machine-making, textile industries, and some of workers. g> > are made by the workman or minder in charge of it, and adds weight to the arguments already adduced for giving technical instruction to persons of all grades employed in manufacturing industry. To these advantages of technical education, as affecting the workmen themselves as well as the progress of the industry in which they are engaged, must be added the general improvement in the character of the work produced, resulting from the superior and better-trained intelligence of those who have had the benefit of such instruction.
It will be seen from the foregoing that a complete system of technical education must make provision for the training of those who are to be occupied as journeymen or foremen in different branches of trade or industry, and also for those who aim at becoming managers or masters or heads of manufacturing firms, scientific advisers or professional engineers. As technical education necessarily implies specialized teaching, the curriculum and methods of instruction adopted in the elementary and secondary schools, where students receive their preliminary training, are matters closely on, related to any scheme of technical instruction, and the trend of educational opinion is in favour of associating the general instruction given in those schools with the specialized teaching of the technical institutions. Indeed, it is daily becoming more difficult to draw any hard-and-fast line between professional and general education. It is now universally recognized that the foundations of technical instruction must be laid in the elementary and the secondary schools, and many of the changes which have been made in the organization of those schools had their origin in the requirements of technical institutions.
A short survey of the methods adopted in different countries to provide the specialized teaching applicable to different pursuits, and of its relation to the general school system of those countries, will serve as a fitting introduction to the consideration of the legislative and other changes which have gradually been made in the British school system with a view to modern industrial conditions. The study of foreign systems of education is serviceable, as showing the relation of such systems to the industrial needs of each country and to the genius and character of the people. In the organization of technical education in England, full advantage has been taken of foreign experience, although no attempt has been made to imitate too closely foreign methods. Detailed information as to what has been done abroad is found in the published reports of the several English commissions which have been appointed to inquire into the subject, and in the valuable series of special reports issued from the Board of Education. From these reports, which show how varied have been the attempts to adapt school training to modern industrial requirements, certain general principles may be inferred, which are equally applicable to the conditions under which the trade and commerce of different countries is now carried on.
These general principles may be briefly enunciated as follows: - I. The education of all persons who may expect to be occupied in some form of productive industry may be con prin- sidered as consisting of two parts, (a) general, ( b) special.
2. The general education is the preliminary training provided in elementary and secondary schools, and the curriculum of those schools should be varied so as to have some reference to the future pursuits of the pupils.
3. The special or supplementary instruction should be adapted to the requirements of different grades and classes of workers, and to different trades or occupations as practised in different localities.
A complete system of technical education would afford facilities of training adapted to every kind and grade of industry; but, owing to the complexity of the problem, such a system is nowhere to be found. In every country the scheme of education and method of instruction have varied from time to time, as the conditions regulating trade and industry have xxvi. 16 a changed. But recently in all civilized countries, the effort has been made to provide a general and specialized education adapted to different pursuits for each of these great classes of workers: (r) operatives, (2) foremen and overseers, (3) masters and managers.
i. Workmen. - Many attempts have been made to provide a substitute for apprenticeship, but hitherto with no great success. Two classes of workpeople have to be considered - (i) those engaged in manufacturing industries, and (2) those engaged in handicraft industries. The education of all classes of workpeople begins in the public elementary schools; and, in view of the future occupation of the children, it may be taken for granted that primary instruction should be practical, and should include drawing and elementary science. It should indeed be closely associated with manual training, consisting of workshop exercises and field work in the case of boys in urban and rural schools respectively, and of instruction in the domestic arts in the case of girls. The lessons in drawing and in elementary science should form part of the manual training, and the school curriculum should be unified - so that all the subjects of instruction should be grouped together as parts of an organized system. The desired diversity should be found in the different kinds and grades of manual work. Reading, writing and arithmetic would be taught incidentally in close connexion with the practical exercises. In nearly every country of Europe, and in the United States, the trend of education practice is in this direction. In France, Belgium, Holland and Sweden handicraft instruction is generally included in the curriculum of elementary schools. Rudimentary science is also taught in nearly all the primary schools of Europe. Modelling is taught both to boys and girls in many Continental schools; and in Sweden "sloyd" (Sw. stojd, manual dexterity, cf. Eng. "sleight"), a system of manual training, in which simple and useful articles, especially of wood, are constructed with the fewest possible tools, is taught with considerable success to children of both sexes.
In Germany and Switzerland, there exists an excellent system of evening continuation schools, known as Fortbildungs- or Erganzungs-Schulen, in which the instruction of the children who leave school before fourteen, and of those who leave at that age, is continued. In all these schools drawing is taught with special reference to local industries. In England great progress has been made in recent years in developing evening classes in which the pupils' elementary instruction is continued with a view to the specialized teaching provided in the technical school.
The teaching in these continuation schools is generally varied according as the pupil is occupied in trade or office work, and the practice is becoming general of requiring him to pass a qualifying examination to secure admission to classes in technology. It will be seen, therefore, that the training of most workpeople, and of nearly all those who are engaged in manufacturing industry, consists of: - (i) primary teaching in elementary schools; (2) practice in the factory or shop, supplemented by further elementary teaching; (3) evening instruction in technology.
In all the principal towns throughout Europe evening classes have been established for teaching drawing, painting and designing, and the elements of science in their application to special industries. The instruction, however, is less practical than that provided in the corresponding schools in England. The classes abroad are mainly supported by the municipalities, by the chambers of commerce, by industrial or trade societies, by county boards, and in some cases by the fees of the pupils. They receive little or no support from the state. They are well attended by workpeople of all grades, who are encouraged by their employers to profit by these opportunities of instruction. In England evening technical instruction is more systematically organized than in any other country. It is under the general direction of the Board of Education, and of the City and Guilds of London Institute.
The Board of Education prescribe the conditions under which grants are paid to schools providing technical instruction. In former years these grants were paid on the results of the examination of individual students; but this method of apportioning state aid has been almost entirely abandoned. The Board still hold annual examinations in science and art and in certain branches of applied science; but the more specialized examinations in technology and trade subjects are held annually by the City and Guilds of London Institute, through its department of technology. These latter examinations are utilized by the Board, and the certificates granted on the results are recognized in the appointment of teachers. The technical schools in which these classes are held are under the direct control of the local educational authorities, and are largely supported by grants from local rates. Year by year a larger share of responsibility is being thrown upon the local authorities, with a view to encouraging greater variety of instruction and further adaptation of the teaching to local needs. The Board continue, however, to indicate the range of subjects to be taught in preparation for their annual examinations, and the City and Guilds of London Institute issues each year a programme containing suggested courses of training in nearly a hundred trade subjects.
In the evening classes in science, art and technology, which have been established throughout the United Kingdom, the workman or foreman engaged in any manufacturing industry has the opportunity, by payment of a very small fee, of studying art in all its branches, science theoretically and practically, and the technology of any particular industry. Provided his early education enables him to take advantage of this instruction, no better system has been suggested of enabling workmen, whilst earning wages at an early age, to acquire manual skill by continuous practice, and at the same time to gain a knowledge of the principles of science connected with their work and explanatory of the processes of the manufacture in which they are engaged.
For those engaged in handicraft trades this evening instruction is equally valuable, and not only in England, but equally in other parts of Europe, there exist evening trade schools in which the workman is able to supplement the "sectional" practice he acquires in the shop by more general practice in other branches of his trade. In Vienna, for example, and elsewhere in Austria, there are found practical evening classes for carpenters, turners, joiners, metal - workers and others. Throughout Europe schools for weaving, with practical work at the loom and pattern-designing, have existed for many years.
To provide a training more like the old system of apprentice - ship, schools have been established in many parts of Europe and Trade in the United States which are known as professional, trade or apprenticeship schools ( ecoles professionelles, ecoles des apprentis, Fachschulen). The object is to train workmen; and the pupils, after completing their course of instruc - tion in such a school, are supposed to have learnt a trade. The school is the substitute for the shop. In such a school the pupils have the advantage of being taught their trade systematically and leisurely, and production is made subsidiary to instruction. Under such an artificial system of production, the pupil is less likely to acquire excellence of workmanship and smartness of habit than in the mercantile shop, under the strain of severe competition. More - over, the cost of maintenance of these schools renders it impossible to look to them as a general substitute for apprenticeship. By sending into the labour market, however, a few highly trained workmen, who are absorbed in various works and exert a bene - ficial influence on other workmen, these schools serve a useful purpose. Schools of this kind have been tried with more or less success in different countries. In Paris there is the well-known Ecole Diderot for the training of mechanics, fitters, smiths, &c.; and similar schools have been established in other parts of France. For many years a society of Christian Brethren has directed a large school situated in the Rue Vaugirard, Paris, in which different trades are taught. All the secular and general instruction is given gratuitously by the brothers, and in the several shops attached to the school skilled workmen are employed, who instruct the pupil apprentices, and utilize their labour. This system combines many of the advantages of shop work and school work, but it depends financially for its success upon the religious spirit which actuates its promoters and supporters. The Artane school, near Dublin, is conducted on somewhat similar principles, but is intended for a lower class of children. In Austria, particularly in the rural dis - tricts, there are numerous day schools for the training of carpenters, joiners, turners, cabinetmakers, workers in stone and marble, in silver and other metals, &c. Schools of the same class are found in Germany, Italy and Holland, and schools very similar in char - acter have been organized to a limited extent in England. The demand that called them into existence in other parts of Europe and in America has been felt in the United Kingdom. The diffi - culty of securing for apprentices in a commercial shop systematic training in handicraft has led to the establishment of a few trade schools which receive children from the elementary school about the age of thirteen for a three years' course of instruction. In these schools the time is about equally divided between ordinary school subjects and the practice of some handicraft, such as cabinet-making, upholstery, waistcoat-making, millinery. Parents are encouraged to allow their children to receive this further education by the offer of free teaching and maintenance grants. Such schools, how - ever, must be regarded as educational experiments, to be superseded if found necessary by reason of changes in the conditions under which the trade is practised. Any system of technical education, however, should be sufficiently elastic to permit of such experi - ments and of the introduction of types of instruction to meet special and even temporary needs. It is only in certain cases that appren - ticeship schools can be said to answer satisfactorily the purpose for which they have been established. Where a new industry, especially in rural districts, has to be created; where decaying industries need to be revived; where machinery is superseding hand work, and, owing to the demands for ordinary hands, there is a dearth of skilled workmen; where through the effects of compe - tition and other causes the trade is carried on under conditions in which competent workmen cannot be properly trained in the ordinary shop, - in these cases, and in various art industries, an apprenticeship school may prove to be the best means of train - ing workmen and of advancing particular trades. Generally, an apprenticeship school should be looked upon as a temporary expedient, as a form of relief applied at the birth of a new industry or to meet some special conditions under which a trade is practised. The proper training school for workmen is the factory or shop.
In the United States there are only a few schools which have been specially organized with a view to the training of workmen for special trades. The line between technical and general educa - tion is not very clearly defined in any of the states' schools. It is also difficult to give any such general review of the system of education in America as can be presented in connexion with France or Germany or Italy, owing to the fact that each separate state has its own organization, over which the Federal government exercises no direct control. In none of the states is technical education differentiated by class distinctions to the same extent as in continental countries. The ambition of every workman is to become a master, and this general ambition gives rise to an enthusiasm for education among all classes, which does not exist to the same extent in any other country. In the United States are found evening technical schools and schools of design for those who have passed from the common schools into commercial work; but the desire for further instruction is so marked that many of those who have received only an elementary education endeavour, by working during the vacations, or by other means, to save enough money to attend the higher technical schools, and so acquire the necessary skill and knowledge to improve their position in the factory or workshop.
2. Foremen
The foreman must be familiar with the various branches of work he is to overlook; and the training which the workman receives in the factory or shop affords him but Training scanty opportunities of obtaining this general knowledge. of The foreman foreman needs also a generally superior education.
How then are foremen to be trained? The problem is somewhat easier than that of training workmen, because the number required is fewer. The variety of schools in Europe devoted to this purpose is very great. There are three distinct ways in which foremen are being trained.
(a) The evening technical classes in Britain and on the continent offer to ambitious workmen an opportunity of acquiring a know - ledge of other departments of the trade than those in which they are engaged, as well as of the scientific principles underlying their work. These classes serve the double purpose of improving the workpeople and of affording a means of discovering those who are best fitted to occupy higher posts.
(b) Special schools have been established for the training of foremen. There are many schools of this kind in which selected boys are received after leaving the higher elementary or secondary school. The best known are those at Chalons, Aix, Nevers, Angers and Lille in France. These schools are intended for the training of foremen in engineering trades. They are state institutions, in which practical mechanical work in the shops is supplemented by theo - retical instruction. The first of these schools was founded in 1803. The course lasts three years, and the students spend from six to seven hours a day in the workshop, and are trained as fitters, founders, smiths and pattern-makers. As in all such schools, saleable goods are produced, but, as production is subordinated to instruction, the school does not bind itself to deliver work at a given date, and therefore does not compete with any manufacturing establishment. The students on leaving these schools are com - petent at once to undertake the duties of foremen and draughts - men. At Komotau, Steyr, Klagenfurt, Ferlach and many other places schools have been established on somewhat similar prin - ciples. In Germany there are special schools for the training of foremen in the building trade, which are chiefly frequented in the winter, and numerous schools are found in all parts of the continent for the training of weavers. At Winterthur in Switzerland a school has been established the main purpose of which is the training of foremen. In Italy there are numerous technical institutes, the object of which is to train young men for intermediate posts in industrial works. In London, the Finsbury technical college of the City and Guilds of London Institute has a day department, the main purpose of which is the training of youths as foremen, works managers, &c.; but in this school the character of the instruction deviates considerably from that given in French schools, and aims rather at preparing youths to learn, than at teaching them their trade.
(c) A third method adopted for the training of foremen is by encouraging selected children of the ordinary elementary schools to continue their education in schools of a higher grade of a technical character. It is thought that, by developing to a higher degree the intelligence and skill of those children who show aptitude for scientific and practical work, they will be able, when they enter the shop, to learn their trade more quickly and more thoroughly, and to acquire that general knowledge of their work, and to exhibit those special aptitudes, which may qualify them for the position of foreman or overseer. The education given in these schools, although having some bias towards the future career of the pupil, is disciplinary in character, and consists of the subjects of primary instruction further pursued, - of drawing, modelling, science, mathematics and manual exercises. The curriculum is varied according to local requirements, the technology of the staple in - dustries forming in many cases part of the instruction. Such schools, under varied forms, have been established in most European countries, some of the best examples of them being found in Paris, Lyons, Reims, Rouen, and in other towns of France. One of the oldest of these schools is the Ecole Martiriiere at Lyons. The school was founded in 1820 by a bequest from Major-General Martin, who had fought against the English under Tippoo Sahib. In this school, in which the education is gratuitous, as in nearly all the higher elementary schools of France, instruction is given in drawing, modelling, chemistry, mechanics and physics, in the working of wood and iron, and in German and English in addition to the subjects of an ordinary school education. Surveying is also taught to some of the pupils, and the instruction generally is of a very practical character. The students visit factories under the guidance of the masters, and on their return write out full descriptions of their visits. The school hours are from seven till eleven in the morning and from one till seven in the afternoon. The boys from this school rapidly obtain places in the commerical and industrial houses of L y ons, and many of them, after a time, succeed in obtaining high positions. A very similar school, on more modern lines, has been established at Reims, and is accommodated in a building especially adapted to the purpose. In this school instruction is directed towards the staple industries of the district, namely, weaving, dyeing and engineering. There are many other similar schools in France, the object of which is to give the children of artisans and small shopkeepers a higher practical education in order to fit them to occupy the posts of foremen, overseers and superior clerks in manufacturing and commercial firms. In Germany the real schools, in which Latin is not taught, known as Ohnelatein Realschulen, have very nearly the same objects as the higher elementary schools of France. The instruction in these German schools is not so practical as in the schools of France. Drawing is always well taught, and the schools generally contain good chemical laboratories, as well as collections of physical apparatus and museums. From the pupils of these schools the ranks of foremen are largely recruited. They receive no special trade instruction, but the general training is so arranged as to qualify them for higher posts in industrial works. The cost of this higher education seldom exceeds £3 per annum. In Bavaria there is found a type of school called Industrie-Schule, which serves very well for the training of engineers and industrial chemists, who aim at occupying intermediate posts, and desire to enter upon commercial work at an earlier age than students attending a university or technical college. The instruction in these Industrieschulen is largely practical, but is combined with some amount of literary and linguistic training. Some of the students proceed to the technical university, but the majority find posts as foremen or overseers soon after completing their school course. In most of these schools, as well as in the chief intermediate commercial schools, the exit certificate exempts a lad from two of the three years' compulsory military service, and this regulation, to which nothing corresponds in England, is an incentive to parents to allow their children to receive higher instruction, which operates very forcibly in largely increasing the number of well-educated youths in Germany.
A special feature of the education provided in the United States is what is known as the "manual training" school. This is a school admirably adapted for the training of foremen, although Manual not especially intended for any particular industrial class.
training The manual training school is a secondary school in which schools a large part of the time is given to workshop exercises.
U.S. The whole subject of manual training is more scientifically developed in some of the states of America than in any European country. The school is pervaded by the kindergarten spirit, and leads up, without break of continuity, to courses of instruction given in the higher technical colleges. The movement in favour of manual training in the United States is general and extends even to the private schools where youths are prepared for the university. At the same time, the purely practical teaching is invariably combined with scientific and literary instruction. In these, as in other schools, the principle is fully recognized that the primary aim of education is to make citizens and not tradesmen. It is difficult to take any one manual training school as typical of others, seeing how the curriculum varies in different states. The practical work includes exercises in carpentry, joinery, wood-turning, wood-carving, forging, foundry-work, machine fitting, stonework, and weaving and appropriate exercises for girls. The general idea underlying the scheme of instruction in these schools is that the teaching must be educative till the age of fifteen, and should then, and only then, develop into specialized and professional training.
3. Masters. - Some of the best schools for the training of future masters, managers, engineers, manufacturers and industrial chemists Training are found in Germany and Switzerland, and are known of man- , as technical high schools. Schools of a similar character f a and are found in other countries.
o asters. In Germany the technischeHochschule or Polytechnicum m is an institution of university type in which the education has special reference to industrial purposes. In many respects the teaching coincides with that given in the universities. The chief distinction consists in the arrangement of courses of instruction in the several departments, in the admission of students having a nonclassical preliminary training, and in the absence of certain faculties found in the university and the addition of others. It is not correct to say that the technical high school is a professional school as distinguished from the university; for the faculties of law, medicine and theology give to the university as distinctly a professional character as the faculty of engineering gives to the technical high school. Nor can it be said that the scientific studies at the universities are less practical than at the technical high school. For, whilst workshops for instruction in the use of tools are found in very few of the German high schools, the laboratories for the practical study of chemistry and physics are as well equipped at some of the German universities as at the technical high schools. At the same time, engineers of every description, architects and builders, besides a great number of manufacturing chemists, find in the technical high school the scientific and special training which the future lawyer or physician, and in many cases the industrial chemist, seeks in the university.
In some of the large cities - in Berlin, Vienna and Munich, for instance - the two institutions co-exist; and in certain cases, in which a very special training is required to fit a youth for his career, the German student, after spending three German or four years at a technical high school, passes on to univer- another institution, such as a dyeing school, in which sides and his st.idies are further specialized with a view to his technical future work. high Taking the technical high school of Munich as a type schools. of other similar institutions, we find that it consists of seven departments: - (1) the general; (2) the civil engineering; (3) the building; (4) the mechanical engineering; (5) the industrial chemical; (6) the agricultural, and (7) electrical technology. In other institutions there are architectural, pharmaceutical and mining schools. The programme of the Munich school gives a list of about 200 different courses of instruction distributed over the several departments. A separate professor is engaged to lecture on that particular subject with which he is specially conversant, and the number of such professors attached to a technical high school is very large. In the engineering department there are several distinct courses of lectures under the direction of professors who are experts in their special subject. The largest of all these institutions is that of Berlin, which was completed in 1884 at a cost of about £450,000. It is situated in what was a suburb of Berlin, and is generally known as the Charlottenburg Institution. It includes departments for the highest specialized instruction in nearly all branches of technology. Other schools in Germany are less complete, but most of them have one or more departments which are specially organized with a view to the highest grade of technical instruction. Both in the universities and in the technical high schools facilities for scientific research are provided, and the students are encouraged to undertake original investigations. The technical high schools are now placed on the same educational platform as the universities and have the power to confer the degree of Doctor of Engineering on students fulfilling the required conditions.
In France, the institutions in which the highest technical instruction is given are concentrated in the capital. There are a large number of provincial colleges such as the Ecole Centrale at Lyons, the Ecole des Mineurs at St Etienne and the Higher Institut du Nord at Lille, where the education is some- technical what more practical, but where the mathematical and t raining scientific teaching is not carried to so high a point. Several France. of the French provincial colleges in which the higher forms of technical instruction are well developed became in 1898, under the law of 1896, separate universities. The Ecole Centrale of Paris, in which the majority of French engineers who are not employed in the government service are trained, is a rare instance of an institution for higher technical instruction which is self-supporting and independent of government aid. Other special institutions in Paris, some of which are associated with the university of Paris, are the Ecole des Mines, the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees, and the College de France, an old foundation in which facilities are afforded for the highest scientific research.
In Switzerland the federal polytechnic of Zurich is in many ways similar to the schools of Germany and Austria. Italy has three superior technical institutes - one at Milan, one at Turin and one at Naples, in which technical education is given In Swit- on the same lines as in German polytechnic schools. zerland Holland has an excellent institution at Delft, which was and eise- opened in 1864. In each of the state universities of Belgium where. there is a faculty of applied science, and degrees are granted on a course of training in science and technology; and in Russia the imperial technical school at Moscow is a high-class engineering school in which the theoretical studies are supplemented, to a greater extent than in the German schools, by workshop practice. It will be seen, therefore, that in nearly all European countries, instruction in engineering in all its branches and in chemical technology has become a recognized part of a university course, and that the faculty of applied science has been so enlarged as to provide technical education of the highest grade.
Some of the best schools for the higher technical instruction - for the training of masters and of those who are to occupy the position of managers in engineering and industrial works - are found in the United States. On leaving the secondary school, the American student may go at once into business: or he may proceed to a college, with a four years' course of general instruction; or he may enter a professional or technical school.
training Some students prolong their education by taking the general course before proceeding to the technical institu tion. As in the lower, so in the higher grades of instruction, the distinction between general and technical education is not very clearly defined. There are some institutions devoted almost exclusively to professional training; whilst in others the engineering faculty exists side by side with other faculties of university rank. The general interest in higher education which is shown by the desire of students of all classes to obtain it, in many cases at considerable individual sacrifice, and by the value which masters and employers attach to a college-trained youth, is partly due to the large proportion of pupils from the ordinary schools who proceed to the secondary or high schools. It is estimated that the pupils between the ages of fourteen and eighteen in attendance at these schools constitute at least one per cent. of the entire population of the United States. In several of the American institutions known as colleges, but not easily distinguishable from the universities, courses of general or technical instruction are provided of all intermediate grades, but above that given in the high schools. In addition to these there are some well-known institutions which provide courses of professional and general instruction of the highest grade under professors of eminence and distinction, and facilities for research which are not surpassed in any German university or technical high school. To the foundation and maintenance of these schools wealthy citizens have given or bequeathed enormous sums of money, and they further enjoy the proceeds of the sale of lands which were set apart under the Morrill Act of 1862 to give assistance to institutions providing instruction in agriculture and the mechanical arts. Several colleges whose work was mainly literary took advantage of this act to establish scientific and technical courses in order to secure the income to be obtained by compliance with its provisions.
Without entering into great detail, it may be said that the schools providing advanced technical instruction may be grouped under three headings: (1) those which are free from state or government control and are maintained from funds arising out of endowments and students' fees, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken; (2) schools which form part of, or are affiliated to, the universities, which are equally independent of public control, such as Columbia University, New York, and the Sibley College of Mechanical Arts, Cornell University; (3) schools and colleges attached to state universities, receiving grants from the state, such as the universities of Illinois and Michigan.
Contributions from private sources towards the establishment and equipment of these institutions are far in excess of those in any other part of the world. Between the years 1890 and 1901 these contributions amounted to about £23,000,000.
The American universities, with which the technical institutions are in many cases closely associated, differ from those in the United Kingdom in their examinations for degrees. In this respect they have adopted the practice of the German and other continental universities. The examinations are almost uniformly conducted by the teachers. The external examiner is practically unknown. This system allows considerable freedom to the teacher, and is said by competent judges to be attended with excellent results. In many of the states, particularly in the east, even the matriculation, or entrance examination, is being superseded by a system known as the "accrediting" system of the secondary or high schools, where the students receive their general education. According to this system, the schools are inspected by the professors of the university, and those in which the equipment, the courses of instruction, and the method of teaching are found to be satisfactory, are included in a list of "accredited" or approved schools, and the pupils of such schools, who produce a certificate of having satisfactorily attended the prescribed course of study, are admitted to the university without passing any entrance examination. An advantage of this system is that it brings the professors of the university into direct relationship with the schools in which the students receive their preliminary training, and closely connects the instruction provided in the school with the higher and more specialized teaching of the university.
The widespread appreciation of the advantages of the higher education among all classes of the American people, and the general recognition among manufacturers, engineers and employers of labour, of the value to them, in their own work, of the services of college-trained men, has largely helped to increase the number of students in attendance at the universities and technical institutions, and to encourage in every state the foundation of schools for advanced professional training.
The institutions in which the highest technical instruction is provided are those devoted to the teaching of engineering in all its branches, including mining engineering, and of chemistry in its application to manufacturing industry; besides schools of agriculture and forestry and schools of design.
Of these the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston is the most typical. It was founded in 1859 with a view to supplying a complete system of industrial education, supplementary to the general training of other institutions. In 1861 an act was passed incorporating a body of persons for the purpose, inter alia, of aiding in the advancement of science in its application to the arts, agriculture, manufactures and commerce. The institute offers thirteen distinct courses. Of these, eight are devoted to engineering, including naval architecture; four to chemistry, physics, biology and geology, and one to preparation for professional teaching. In 1904 there were 183 instructors on the permanent staff of this institution. As indicating the practical character of the teaching in this and in other similar schools, it should be noted that the railway companies co-operate in making provision for tests on a large scale, and in permitting the use of locomotives on their line for the purpose of giving practical training to the students.
At Columbia University, New York, the school of applied science was established in 1864, and consists of a fairly complete school of technology with a four years' course of instruction. An interesting department at Columbia is the professorial school for the study of education and the training of teachers. The importance of manual training is recognized by the fact that the professor of this subject has a seat in the faculty of applied science. Two schools of observation and practice are maintained - the Horace Mann School and the Experimental School. The former comprises three departments, a kindergarten, an elementary and a high school. The experimental school is under the immediate direction of the professor of the theory and practice of teaching. The facilities provided for the professorial and technical training of teachers are one of the most valuable features in the educational system of the United States.
In England there is a growing tendency to associate technical with secondary education. The central technical college of the City and Guilds of London Institute, was an institution established exclusively for the purpose of providing the technical highest grade of engineering education. In this respect instruc- it compared more nearly than any other institution with tio i the technical high schools of Germany. The Royal School of Mines,connected with the Royal College of Science, was a similar institution, providing the highest teaching for mining engineers. In Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield, schools of applied science were established under the names respectively of the Mason College, the Yorkshire College of Science, and Firth College, which gradually developed into technical colleges to which a literary side was attached with provision for advanced humanistic studies. The oldest of these colleges was the Owens College, Manchester, which combined the curriculum of a university with that of a technical high school. Its school of applied chemistry was, for many years, one of the most flourishing in the country. In 1882 a somewhat similar school was founded in Liverpool as a university college, and the Yorkshire College of Science similarly widened its curriculum. To this college, a textile school, including a department for dyeing and design for textiles, was added by the munificence of the Clothworkers' Company of London. This department soon developed into one of the best-equipped institutions in the country for the study of the technology of textile manufacture. The three colleges at Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds were incorporated in the year 1885 into the federal Victoria University. Other textile schools for day students, providing a full course of advanced instruction, were founded at Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax, Bolton, and in other parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. In 1903 University College, Manchester, received a royal charter as the Victoria University of Manchester, and the University College of Liverpool became a separate university. In the following year the Yorkshire College received a charter of incorporation as the University of Leeds. These three universities provide full courses of instruction in engineering and in the industrial applications of science. Charters of incorporation as universities were also granted to the colleges at Birmingham and Sheffield. The Birmingham University, covering an area of over twenty-five acres, contains blocks of buildings devoted to the teaching of mining and engineering, and at Sheffield there is a special school dealing with the metallurgy of iron and steel.
The University of Manchester soon after its incorporation entered into arrangements with the municipal school of technology in that city, by which the faculty of technology was in part carried on in the well-equipped buildings of the municipal school, the largest institution of the kind in Great Britain. It was publicly opened in the year 1902. In these new universities ample provision is made for the teaching of electrical engineering and electro-technics generally, and the laboratories provided for this purpose are well equipped with machinery and apparatus, and compare not unfavourably with some of the most recently erected in Germany. Schools for mining engineers have been established at Wigan and Camborne and Redruth. In Wales, at different times, local colleges of university rank were opened in Cardiff, Bangor and Aberystwith, and those three colleges were subsequently united in the University of Wales. In all these local universities the technical instruction forms part of the ordinary university courses in which degrees are granted.
Other colleges outside London, besides those named, which participate in the government grant allocated to universities and colleges, giving higher grade instruction of a technical character, are University College, Bristol; Armstrong College, Newcastle-onTyne; and the university colleges at Nottingham, Reading and Southampton.
The University of Cambridge has a school of engineering with well-equipped laboratories for the teaching of pure and applied sciences. The universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow recognized at an early date, as part of a university course, the teaching of science in its application to engineering; and at University College, Dundee, there is a good school for the teaching of the technology of spinning and weaving, more particularly with reference to the manufacture of jute and linen.
In London, University College and King's College fulfilled for many years the function of a university and technical high school. Soon The Unl- after the reorganization of the University of London in 1901, by which that institution was changed from an versity U examining body into a teaching university, University Lowden. College and King's College, which were named in the charter as schools of the university, transferred their funds, buildings, &c., to the university and became incorporated therein. The East London College, originally founded as a technical school in connexion with the People's Palace at Mile End, was admitted in 1907 as a school of the university, and under the statutes of the university certain teachers in the Polytechnic institutes became recognized teachers, and their students were admitted to graduation as internal students. Most of the students so admitted graduate in the faculty of engineering. For several years it was apparent that the work of the City Guilds Central College and that of the Royal College of Science and School of Mines overlapped to some extent, and that the teaching in each separate institution was incomplete and needed to be supplemented by that provided in the others. A departmental committee was accordingly appointed by the president of the Board of Education in the year 1904 to consider the working of the government College of Science and the School of Mines and their relation to other similar schools, and as a result of the report of that committee, published in 1906, a charter of incorporation was granted in 1907 to a new institution under the name of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, in which the teaching given in the three schools would be co-ordinated under a new governing body, consisting of members appointed by the Crown, the Board of Education, the City and Guilds of London Institute, the University of London and the principal engineering societies, with power to negotiate with the university for the transfer to the new institution of the engineering departments of University College and of King's College. The Exhibition Commissioners of 1851 agreed to grant unoccupied sites of land at South Kensington for the extension of, and the addition of new departments to, the existing colleges, and large annual endowments were promised by the government and the London County Council in addition to sums of money from private sources. The new Imperial College of Science and Technology is constituted by charter a school of the university, and is intended to provide the highest instruction in engineering and applied science, with facilities for advanced research work. The scheme was intended, when complete, to supply the metropolis with a technical school of the highest grade, similar to some extent to the well-known institutions in Berlin (Charlottenburg) and Massachusetts, but adapted to the special industrial needs of the British empire.
Legislative Enactments
The state organization of technical education in the United Kingdom is mainly the result of enactments passed in and after the year 1890. Before that date, however, as early as 1877, the Livery Companies of London, with a view to fulfilling the purposes for which by charter they were originally incorporated, began to consider how best they could initiate a national scheme of technical education, for which, owing to the depression of trade and the changed conditions under which British industries were conducted, a strong demand had arisen. They consulted leading manufacturers and some of the best-known scientific authorities, and in 1880 an association was formed of the City corporation and some of the wealthier City companies under the name of the City and Guilds of London Institute for the advancement of technical education. The scheme of the institute was to establish a central institution at South Kensington, somewhat on the lines of the high schools of Germany, and one or more technical schools of intermediate grade in London, and to encourage by means of grants of money and by examinations for certificates technical classes and trade schools in different parts of the United Kingdom. In March 1880, an organizing director and secretary was appointed to develop and give effect to the scheme. As indicating the importance of the movement King Edward VII., then prince of Wales, accepted the office of president of the institute, which thus led the way to the establishment, under the direction of the government and under the control of local authorities, of a national system of technical education. The successive steps by which the system was evolved, and how it was gradually Lilo y of incorporated into the general scheme of education, corn- are matters of interest in the history of education. panics of A definition of "technical instruction" applicable to London. the varied teaching of the United Kingdom was, in the first instance, fixed by act of parliament. The term included instruction in science, art, and technology, and also in manual training; and by "technology" was understood the practical application of different kinds of knowledge to a particular trade, or industry, or employment.
The progress of technical education was very much helped by the formation of the "National Association for the Promotion of Technical Education," which was inaugurated at a meeting held on the 1st of July 1887 and dissolved The when its objects had been fulfilled, in June 1907, after National twenty years of useful work. The general objects Associa- of the association were to promote and watch legis- tion. lation, to spread information, and to discuss and assist in giving effect to the recommendations of royal commissions appointed to inquire into educational methods and organization. To its activity the development of technical education in England had been largely due. The first legislative effort to give effect to the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Technical Instruction, whose report was published in 1884, was a bill introduced into parliament in July 1887. The purpose of this bill was to enable school boards and local authorities to provide out of the rates technical schools, or to contribute to their support. A special provision of the bill was that a poll might be demanded by fifty ratepayers before any action could be taken under the powers it conferred. Technical instruction was so defined as to include subjects aided or sanctioned by the Science and Art Department. The bill was read a second time on 9th of August 1887, but never reached the committee stage. In the following March a new bill was introduced on behalf of the "National Association." It empowered school boards to provide technical instruction in schools under their management, and to contribute to the maintenance of higher technical institutes. The definition of technical instruction was widened so as to include the use of tools, commercial subjects, modern languages, and any subjects sanctioned jointly by the Education Department at Whitehall and the Science and Art Department at South Kensington, which at that time were practically separate government departments. The bill gave very extensive powers to school boards. It was withdrawn without a second reading, in view of the avowed intention of the government to deal with the subject. On the 17th of May 1888 the government bill was introduced. It contained several new features which pointed in the direction of subsequent legislation. Whilst school boards were again empowered to provide technical instruction in their own schools, they were also required, under certain Bill of conditions, to aid in the supply of technical and manual 1888' training in voluntary schools. At the same time the local control of secondary technical i
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Technical Education'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/t/technical-education.html. 1910.
