Progress Report Number 5: Getting Things Done

THE MOST frequently‐canvassed solution to the problem of the bulge is to persuade companies to increase their intake of craft apprentices independently of the need for them; the British Employers Confederation has actually set a target of an increase of 20 per cent during the bulge years. In this report I hope to expose this policy as a form of mental bankruptcy by describing a few of the more imaginative alternatives. But there is a second and more serious purpose: this is to examine what needs to be done to promote action. What are, or should be, the springs of action in this context? How can the skeleton of a permissive arrangement be clothed with the flesh of action? This is the really big problem to be solved. Solve this, and the bulge will fade into insignificance.