Training in South Africa

Take a bit of history Prior to the Second World War industrial training in South Africa meant the training of white artisans and officials for employment in the gold and coal mines and the comparatively modest industrial enterprises. The war resulted in greatly intensified training activity in the South African Defence Force, in industry itself and as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme for the Allied Air Forces, notably South African Air Force and the RAF. This latter training effort involved the importation of expertise and equipment on a large scale and left a post‐war legacy of men who found the country congenial and stayed — or returned. Many of those men are still to be found on the industrial training scene. The greatly reduced volume of imports of consumer goods, the need for the equipping of the forces and the stepping up of mining production which were caused by the war initiated industrial growth which has continued ever since. It has been positively encouraged by Government policy based on national self‐sufficiency for strategic reasons.