POST-WAR EMPLOYMENT OF SKILLED WORKERS 183
Some people have formed the conclusion that Government have decided to liquidate the Technical Training Scheme. This is altogether untrue. It is true that Government has closed some of the training centres. We have now 170 training centres with a capacity to train about 32,000 trainees, in place of 400 training centres with a capacity to train 45,000 trainees which we had in 1942. This is due to various causes, foremost among which are two. One is the decreased intake of the Army. The other is the heavy cost of maintaining small centres.
Government’s Intention
These steps only show that what Government has done is to make necessary adjustments called for by the exigencies of the situation. They do not indicate any intention on the part of the Government to liquidate the Technical Training Scheme. If such was the intention of the Government, the Government need not have constituted this Committee. No plan for the future development of the country can be deemed to be complete which docs not provide for technical and scientific training. This is the age of Machine and it is only those countries in which technical and scientific training has risen to the highest pitch that will survive in the struggle that will commence when the war is over, for maintaining decent standards of living for their people. The Government of India is not oblivious to these considerations and would like to sec the Technical Training Scheme not only maintained but extended all over the country and become a permanent part of the country’s educational system.
Industry Should Absorb Trainees
While this is the objective of the Government, the success of the Scheme must depend upon the possibilities of the trainees getting employment. If the trainees, after they are trained, fail to get employment, then the Technical Training Scheme is doomed to failure. The answer to this question must entirely depend upon the attitude of the Industry to the trainees coming out from the training centres. The whole fate of the Scheme depends upon it. If the Industry refuses to employ the trainees it is obvious that nobody is going to bother about technical training, and the training centres will have to be closed down. This unfortunate consequence can be averted only if civil industries were to show eagerness to absorb our trainees.