Engineering apprenticeship and education in Bolton (1900–14)

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Summary During the 1914–18 war new factors were introduced which affected apprentices and their attendances at evening classes but these are beyond the scope of the present article. The period of 1900–14, however, might be summarised in the following way. There was a strong sense of pride of workmanship and quality, workmen were interested in the standard of the product rather than in quantity; hours of work were long and the pace of work relatively slow; dimensions and some elements of design were left to the workman. Through the Technical Instruction Committee some employers, in large firms, were directly concerned with the provision of technical education, and no doubt their influence continued and tended to maintain higher student numbers than in the later (post-war) years of technical education through evening classes. Students enrolled for one or more single subjects, and gradually grouped courses emerged, similar in structure to the later National Certificate courses.