Project work in the training of junior clerks Available to Purchase

In September 1970 about 50 technical colleges offered, for the first time, the shortened full‐time basic course for new entrants to clerical work. These were the new courses of six weeks' duration which had been designed by a group of eight Industry Training Boards to replace the longer courses, started from 1967 onwards, based on the recommendations of the Central Training Council's publication Training for Commerce and the Office (HMSO 1966). The original, longer courses had failed to attract the support of employers, asked to release new‐entrant trainees for almost the whole of one term on block release and full wages. The first of the new short courses were conducted in the colleges during the Autumn term of 1970 and are already completed. After the six‐week basic course, which emphasises the practical aspect of clerical activities, trainees are required to undertake a project of some 18 hours duration. Dunstable College of Further Education is one of the colleges offering the new basic course. In this article Dr L J Collier describes the project work which they designed for their own course.