THE DECIMALISATION OPERATION

This article looks at the part played by programmed instruction and packaged training in preparing British industry — in particular the service industries — for the change to decimal currency. The change to the new currency was a non‐event, and was marked by the withdrawal from circulation twelve months before the original date of the old penny and threepenny piece. The almost complete absence of confusion and ill‐feeling on the part of the public derived to a great extent from the attitude and skill of the front‐line troops: the bus conductors, bank and GPO counter clerks, supermarket checkout girls and all those others involved in the critical tasks of cash‐handling, numerical recording and change giving. No doubt some people ascribed this achievement to the inherent ability of the British to keep a stiff upper lip in a crisis. As it happened there was no call for the Dunkirk spirit. Instead, most staff performed their duties with pre D‐Day assurance and efficiency. They were able to do so because they were well motivated and well trained. Administratively the training exercise had been, of necessity, massive. Moreover as a training problem decimalisation was unique in that there were no experienced practitioners in the subject matter. However, the trainers overcame all the problems. And it is our contention that where they did so to the best effect they succeeded by the use of training schemes and materials which were based upon the principles of programmed instruction. Such schemes may not all have included materials recognisably influenced by what one writer has called ‘the dreaded frame syndrome’! None the less — as will be shown — they were programmed in a clearly observable sense. Furthermore a study of the most comprehensive and carefully structured packages suggests, a priori, certain conclusions about the use of the media in large‐scale training which may be of general application.