the white paper x-rayed . the future of technical education . these will represent one of the biggest reforms in technical education that we have ever made . thus Sir David Eccles speaking in the House on November 7th , 1960 . unless you belonged to the cynical who thought that reforms in technical education could not have been very great and so could easily be surpassed you were doubtless looking forward to some radical advance . if so a reading of the white paper better opportunities in technical education ( Cmnd 1254 ) and technical education in Scotland : the pattern for the future ( Cmnd 1245 ) will come as a severe disappointment . as there is considerable common ground references below will be in general to Cmnd 1254 ; where there are differences in the Scottish proposals they are dealt with later . better opportunities in technical education is a serious but modest set of proposals to reorganise and rationalise the existing system of technical courses . three reasons , all valid , are presented for the proposals ; the present system has not kept pace with changes taking place in industry and particularly with the need for technicians ; there is often a gap between school and further education ; there is too much wastage on existing courses , i.e too many students are failing to pass the examinations at the end of the courses . the white paper stresses the need for continuing general education after leaving school , a need which is widely recognised . boys and girls should be encouraged to stay on until they are 16 to complete a five year secondary course but it is suggested that it would be more suitable in some cases to spend the fifth year in a technical college . at whatever age a student leaves school he should go direct into a technical college course and not on to an evening course alone . this proposal is long overdue . but having argued its validity the white paper goes on to point out that those who can not get day release must not be deprived of the opportunity of taking evening courses . so we are back where we were . day release for operatives . the proposals cover three grades ; operatives , craftsmen and technicians . operatives are the greatest proportion of young people at work . only 34 per cent of boys and 7 per cent of girls leaving school enter apprenticeships or learnerships in skilled operations and they are the overwhelming majority of those receiving day release at present . and yet there is need for technical training for those in semi-skilled jobs and there are many who , in the words of the white paper , would be better fitted for industrial life if they were able to take suitable courses of a more general character , for , as the industrial training council pointed out recently , with increasing mobility of labour , work-people will require a mental flexibility which can only be developed by further education after the end of full-time schooling . but when we arrive at the proposals for action we read that the government are sure that local education authorities and technical colleges will co-operate with both sides of industry in meeting the need for suitable courses for all levels of operatives on a rapidly increasing scale . judging by the numbers on such courses at present and the rate of development very few people outside the government will be sure that there will be provision on a rapidly increasing scale without compulsory day release . craftsmen and technicians needed . craft courses are being continuously modified and new ones developed : the white paper rightly points out the need for the broadening of these courses . some of the city and guilds of London Institute courses have already taken steps in this direction but the major problem is that of time . the white paper accepts the proposal of the Crowther committee that the length of course should be extended from the 220 hours now common ( 280 where a student attends one evening a week ) to 330 hours , the length of the County College year laid down in the education act 1944 . a similar suggestion is made for courses for technicians . since the white paper on technical education in 1956 there have been growing complaints of the shortage of technicians . various estimates of need have been made and it is generally held that about six technicians are needed to each technologist , although it varies from industry to industry . at present there are only two courses designed specifically for technicians - for electrical and telecommunication technicians . most are trained in craft courses which end at technician level or take a special course after a craft course ( e.g in building and printing ) or take a national certificate course . the white paper recognises the need for more courses designed for technicians . the Crowther committee recommended that the technician &apos;s part-time courses should be replaced by sandwich courses and the white paper says the government would welcome widespread experiments of this nature . the national certificate courses at ordinary and higher levels have provided the training for many technicians and an avenue to full professional status for many students . it is in these courses that the high rate of failures has attracted most attention . the white paper proposes that the ordinary national certificate course , at present a three year course , should become a two year course i.e the length required now of students who are exempt from the first year because they have the appropriate passes at ordinary level in the general certificate of education . entry will be confined to those who have four appropriate passes at O level in G.C.E or who have completed a new general course which is to be started and who show a good prospect of obtaining an ordinary national certificate . those who show exceptional academic promise after completing a three year craft course will also be admitted . the new general courses ( which do not apply in Scotland ) are intended to cater for school leavers of 15 and 16 who show promise of being able to become technicians . they will last one or two years and will be based on part-time day release or block release . they are intended to provide an opportunity to decide whether a student is better fitted for a technician &apos;s course or an O.N.C . the examinations will be externally administered but devised and controlled by teachers . their success again will of course depend on the willingness of employers to grant day release . the crying need in national certificate courses is for more time . it is suggested that 240 hours is necessary to cover the technical subjects ( including maths and science ) and that 90 hours should be devoted to general subjects ( including English and P.T ) . if the lengthening of courses is not to lengthen the college year and worsen the conditions of teachers it means extending day release to at least 1 1/2 days . but this is most unlikely to happen on a voluntary basis . it will also demand a big increase in staff . this problem has received scant attention from the ministry . it is unlikely that sufficient teachers will be found for even these limited proposals unless there is a substantial improvement in salaries and conditions of service . Scottish proposals . the Scottish white paper runs along similar lines but there are some modifications arising from the differences in the educational set up . although the number of students getting day release has risen in Scotland from 28,118 in 1955-56 to 35,609 in 1959-60 the white paper says that it falls far short of requirements . day release for those under 18 is almost stationary and in any case covers only 10 per cent of those in insured employment . at the technologist level the government look forward to an increase in the range of associateships and other advanced courses in the central institutions and have asked them to review their entry requirements with a view to decreasing wastage . a minimum period of 2,000 hours in the 3 year course for the higher national diploma will be prescribed to enable a broadening of the courses . for the ordinary national diploma , a full-time two year course , the entry requirement will be four passes at the ordinary grade of the Scottish certificate of education . for the ordinary national certificate definite entrance requirements will be made : normally 3 passes at the ordinary grade in appropriate subjects , but there is a possibility of entry for those who have completed the intermediate stage of a city and guilds course . there will be no general course of the kind envisaged for England and Wales , but those who have not got the necessary requirements will have an opportunity to get them in part-time day or evening classes in further education centres . it is also proposed to set up a working party to consider means of improving the links between schools and further education , especially for junior secondary pupils . education authorities will be encouraged to provide full-time courses for first-year apprentices . what it all amounts to . the sting is , as often , in the tail . in Para 64 of Cmnd 1254 cost is touched on and it is pointed out that no figures of additional cost can be given . if the total number of students is not affected it will be only the cost of staffing for the extra time in courses and this relatively to the total expenditure on technical education should be small . the cost will be greater if as the government hope the white paper leads to an increase in the number of students . the brave words of a revolution affecting half a million students boil down to a rationalisation of courses covering existing numbers of students . in themselves they will not increase the number of students at all . this is the answer of the Minister of education to the Crowther proposals to raise the school leaving age to 16 and to introduce compulsory part-time day release from 15-18 . what is in the white paper is useful : what is left out is vital . the chairman of the British association for commercial and industrial education is quoted in the observer ( 8.1.61 ) as saying : this white paper is merely an administrative caper . by rationalisation it produces better value for money , but it avoids the peril of a new idea and the cost of major reform . nothing can be achieved without compulsory day release . that accurately sums up the value and the deficiency of the two white papers . polishing up furniture . furniture wears its rue with a difference . for one thing , unlike the motor industry , it has not had an opportunity for six years to prove its productive potential . for another , its whole manpower is less than the vehicle sector gains or loses as the economic cycle turns . it is , in organisation , nearer to the pre-automated era than most of the other consumer durable industries , though it has also among its producing units the most up-to-date exemplars of flow production , allied with styling , in the United Kingdom today . it always will have the two crafts - one the craftsman using tools and the other the craftsman using mass production and flow methods . but there is a steady falling out of smaller manufacturers ; a thousand have gone out of business in the last ten years . less than 2,000 now remain . ten years ago firms with an annual turnover of &amp;pound;1/2 m each accounted for only a quarter of the output . now the proportion is two-fifths . this development has had two effects . it has increased the productivity of the workers in the highly mechanised units , indeed set up two standards of productivity . the medium sized firms are squeezed between the two methods . and it has increased the status and bargaining power of the larger units . for furniture has suffered from the twin facts that ( 1 ) the distribution firms acquired greater power as against the manufacturers by mergers and expansion and channelled sales into H.P ; they could knock smaller shops because they could get higher discounts and afford to carry stocks ; ( 2 ) it has been the victim of the large timber supply units . the rising surplus that was made from higher productivity was either passed on to the retailer or snatched by the material suppliers . 