Courses and examinations for technicians

Further Education has manfully struggled to implement the course and examination arrangements set up as a consequence of the 1961 ‘Better Opportunities’ White Paper. Criticisms have abounded — the G course is too rigid; the ONC is too strenuous; the new HNC Engineering has been down‐graded, etc — and industry generally has never been quite clear what was the function of a technician, or how he should be trained (educated?). In fact some industrialists regard the technician (as produced by the specific Technician Courses) as being a product of Further Educationalists more than a requirement of industry.