Dying crafts

There was a time when the craft apprentice had to content himself with five or even seven years of a slow and inefficient process of instruction, during which, if he was fortunate, he learned the skills of his trade from his workmates. The growth of day release which occurred fairly rapidly in the early post‐war years led to the development of craft courses in the colleges. At first, these were mere extensions of previous evening courses but, by the early 1960's, the courses had developed to provide an amount of systematic skill training in addition to technical ‘know‐how’ and understanding. The establishment of CGLI technician courses marked a further step in the development of courses designed to meet the needs of a hitherto neglected section of industry.