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Wolverhampton TechnicalTeachers' CollegeC.L. Heywood aa Wolverhampton Technical Teachers' CollegePublished online: 30 Jul 2007.

To cite this article: C.L. Heywood (1962) Wolverhampton Technical Teachers' College,The Vocational Aspect of Education, 14:28, 8-14, DOI: 10.1080/03057876280000021

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WOLVERHAMPTON TECHNICAL TEACHERS' COLLEGE

The Present and the Future

By. C. L. HEYWOOD Principal, Wolverhampton Technical Teachers" College

ON MAY 1, 1961, the new technical teacher training college established by the Wolverhampton Education Authority began to function as an independent organisation, no longer an integral part of the College of Technology which had been in a real sense its parent. Like the other three colleges of this type, Wolver- hampton Technical Teachers' College is the product of partnership between the Ministry of Education and the local education authority, in this instance the County Borough of Wolverhampton, which shouldered the responsibility for establishing two training colleges at the same time, the other being a day college for training teachers for work in primary schools.

The first students of the Technical Teachers' College were 14 untrained teachers of engineering seconded by their employing authorities for an intensive ten-week 'In-Service' Course in educational theory and practice. During this term the College was housed in the Adult Education Centre at Compton Grange, adjacent to the extensive Chapel Ash Farm site upon which the new college buildings will be sited. Close contact with the College of Technology was maintained, members of the staff of that college conducting classes for our students, both at Compton Grange and in their own workshops and laboratories, where specialised equipment could be used. Outside help was quite indispensable, as the initial staff of the training college consisted only of the principal and one principal lecturer. The latter was formerly concerned with, the teacher training courses conducted in the College of Technology and was thus able to provide continuity and contact with personnel needed to assist the new college.

Before the Autumn Term the College removed to premises on the College of Technology site. These had previously been the home of Wulfrun College--a college of further education recently rehoused in its own new building, again on the Chapel Ash Farm site. Against the disadvantages of functioning in borrowed premises used in the evenings by the College of Technology must be set the great compensation of enjoying ready access to the splendid facilities available in the workshops and laboratories of that college and the opportunities for enlisting the co-operation of its specialist staff in our work. The rehabilitation of the vacated block was sufficiently advanced for the first One-Year Course to commence on September 25th; and it is currently proceeding with 24 students, all engineers of one variety or another, under the guidance of four full-time lecturers of the College, with the welcome assistance of a number of members of the staff of the College of Technology, supplemented by visiting lecturers

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C. L. H E Y W O O D 9

from university, industry, professional bodies, and so forth. Eleven of the students are 'resident', the rest 'day'. As yet the College has no hostel of its own, but the resident students have been comfortably accommodated in a men's hostel run by the Y.W.C.A.--unlikely as such an arrangement might seem!

During the first term at Compton Grange discussions were held with the Area Training Organisation--the University of Birmingham Institute of Education-- which led to Wolverhampton Technical Teachers' College being granted recognition as a constituent college of that Institute. Our students follow a one- year course leading to the Institute's Certificate in Education which will carry ' qualified teacher' status. The curriculum will embrace the study of educational theory and psychology, history of education, the present educational system and the society it serves, and--naturally of special significance in this College--the further education stage and the special methods of teaching the subjects in which students are already qualified and with which they will subsequently be concerned as teachers. This work will be examined by written papers and course work. In a course of some 35 weeks, 11 weeks are devoted to practical teaching under guidance and will be spent by the students in technical colleges and other further education establishments scattered over a wide area of the West Midlands. At the conclusion of this period the Institute will examine students in practical teaching. Both College Examiners and External Examiners participate in the theoretical and practical examinations.

The College has thus taken its place within the framework of its university institute of education, a step essential in order that it should acquire a proper status among training colleges and for its students passing through the One- Year Course to attain the same standing in the teaching profession as their counterparts entering the schools from the general training colleges and the University Departments of Education. The policy of the A.T.C.D.E.--behind which the training college world is solidly united--is to maintain and strengthen the link between the colleges and the universities. In the safeguarding of academic and professional standards by university institutes is the assurance that counsels of expediency based on short-term considerations will not be allowed to devalue the concept of 'education for teaching' by such devices as developing a plethora of short, and either narrow or superficial, courses of training purporting to result in the production of 'trained teachers'. The term itself is open to criticism in the light of present-day thought about the professional preparation of intending teachers. Gone are the days when members of the teaching profession could be regarded as having been adequately prepared for their task by the acquisition of a smattering of educational theory combined with hints and tips about the methods of teaching their subjects. Nothing short of a thorough 'education for teaching' will ensure that recruits to the ranks of technical teaching are as aware of the need to foster the personal development of their students and to fit them for living in a community as to impart knowledge and skills; and only so can teachers be equipped with the techniques for carrying out all these functions. In the long term, teachers thus trained may well exert an influence in

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10 Wolverhampton Technical Teachers" College: the Present and the Future

further education great in proportion to their numbers; and, indeed there is reason to think that the small streams of teachers issuing from the three older technical teacher training colleges during the post-war period have initiated something of a reformation.

This is not to denigrate the work of untrained teachers in the further education field. It has always been possible for anyone with the urge to teach to learn how to do it by his own efforts, and to retain the divine spark of dissatisfaction long enough to go on becoming a better teacher year after year. It is possible, too, to find teachers who enjoy nothing more than passing on to junior colleagues the rich fruits of their longer experience and mature thought--they also, 'train teachers'! Yet one cannot be complacent about leaving such a vital matter to individual initiative and fortuitous circumstances, nor about the waste of time and effort for students and teacher alike which must inevitably result from the tatter's groping efforts to acquire the art and craft of teaching.

Nevertheless, it is only realistic to recognise that untrained teachers will continue to join the staffs of technical colleges for many years to come. For them the College offers possibilities. These are (i) secondment on salary to the One-Year Course, preferably during the early years of service; (ii) the One-Term In-Service Course of ten weeks' duration--just long enough to deal seriously, if not exhaustively, with major educational issues and to lay sound foundations of teaching method; (iii) short courses, such as the West Midlands Advisory Council General and Special Courses of lectures which will be conducted in this College, as well as at other Midland centres.

The superiority of the One-Year Course to other and shorter courses is generally conceded by those engaged in further education and need not be laboured here. That a higher proportion of new entrants to this branch of the teaching profession do not pass through a One-Year Course in a technical teacher training college is due to the financial disabilities inflicted upon any who chose this avenue. Whereas the intending schoolteacher must seek qualified teacher status, normally by way of a three-year course in a training college, training is not compulsory as a preliminary to entering the further education branch. Secondment of new entrants, for a year, soon after taking up their first teaching appointment is the exception rather than the rule--we have one such student only this year. College authorities find practical difficulties in releasing members of stafffor a year's teacher training, and it may be that not all principals and heads of departments are yet aware that the Ministry of Education approves such secondment and recognises it for grant purposes. These considerations would be less serious if pre-service training brought a financial advantage, such as a substantial training increment appreciably greater than the present training increment, which is only the equivalent of the service increment which the new teacher would have gained by a year's service instead of a year's training.

The future of the technical training colleges seems to be bound up with the grant scheme. In the absence of compulsory pre-service training or substantial

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C. L. HEYWOOD 11

financial reward for having successfully completed a year's training as a teacher, the intending recruit to the further education branch inevitably looks hard at the financial implications of joining a One-Year Course. Assuming he is already in a well-paid job--and, in general, it is only such persons who are needed in further education and are acceptable candidates for training--he will weigh the personal benefit of being given a preparation for teaching before he enters this field against the loss of perhaps half or two-thirds of his income during training. He must take into account the alternative of seeking an appointment in further education without training, an alternative made more attractive by the new and improved Burnham Scale and frequently available as a practical possibility in these days of staff scarcity. It is the relation of the grant system to recruitment to the technical teacher training colleges which is rendering it impossible to answer such fundamental questions as how many places should be provided in the four existing colleges, how rapidly should technical teacher training be expanded, and should additional colleges be envisaged in the future. In short, the first question that must be asked is this: does further education really need trained teachers ?--and the term is used here to denote teachers who have followed at least a One-Year Course recognised by an institute of education for a teacher's certificate award. While all concerned, from the Ministry of Education to the establishments of further education themselves, return the answer, 'Yest', actions--speaking louder than words--deny this belief and make it hard for the technical teacher training colleges to recruit enough well-qualified students to fill existing places, let alone to encourage the hope that expanded colleges will be able to fill twice as many places in the near future. Meanwhile, their principals suffer the frustration of losing excellent potential students who with- draw at all stages of the recruitment process on account of their dissatisfaction with the grant scheme.

Nevertheless, at Wolverhampton planning for the future goes hopefully forward. Appointments of key personnel have been made, all at principal lecturer or senior lecturer levels, and the College has the staff capable of planning for expansion and of meeting the resulting demands. Temporarily, the staffing ratio is rather better than 5:1 (neglecting In-Service and short courses), but every lecturer is fully extended. The most recent appointment, that of a Senior Lec- turer in charge of agricultural studies, foreshadows a major development which will take place next session, when the College will initiate the first One-Year Full-time Course of training for teaching agricultural subjects in farm institutes and elsewhere. This new venture stems from the Lampard-Vachell Report of January 1961, which recommended the establishment of this course at the Wolverhampton college, tt is clear that many new problems will arise, depending for their solutions upon effective co-operation between Wolverhampton Technical Teachers' College and farm institutes in neighbouring areas. The portents are favourable, however, as it is already clear that those engaged in agricultural education are looking to the College to make an important con- tribution to the work of their branch of further education. In this field the

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12 Wolverhampton Technical Teachers' College: the Present and the Future

College will for the time being have a national function to perform, as this course will be available at Wolverhampton only.

While the College remains in its present premises the annual intake to the One-Year Course will be restricted to about 50 students with qualifications in engineering or agriculture (including horticulture). In the Autumn of 1963, however, the College is due to remove to the new buildings on the Chapel Ash Farm site, though it would be naive to expect them to be completely ready for occupation by the scheduled date. Unfortunately for the principal and his staff a complacent policy of 'wait and see' is impracticable, because advertising and recruitment during the twelve months before September 1963 cannot proceed on a rational basis in the absence of a firm and binding estimate about the avail- ability of accommodation and equipment. This will be needed to determine not only the numbers of day and resident students of both sexes who can be accepted, but also the range of specialisms that can be covered in 1963-64. One can only hope that a sufficiently accurate forecast will be available in time to avoid either denying admission to those for whom room might have been found or--and this would be far worse--admitting students for whom only makeshift accommodation and inadequate equipment could be provided, for these students would hardly be expected to act as publicity agents for the College when they took up their teaching appointments. Such a contingency should be avoided at all costs, even if it 'means foregoing the customary scramble to occupy a new building while the workmen are still building it, and continuing to operate for another year with a small intake.

The first stage of building is intended to provide for 240 full-time students, of both sexes, without overcrowding. The Ministry assumes that with some over- crowding 250 can be accommodated, plus those attending one-term and shorter courses. Initially, one hostel for some 70 students will be provided. Eventually, it is hoped to proceed with the second stage which will raise the number of students to some 400. Two further hostels will be added if they are needed.

It is expected that the new buildings will permit the range of one-year specialist- subject groups to be extended to include, in addition to the engineering and agricultural-horticultural groups, commerce (professional and office arts), mathematics and applied sciences, and general subjects groups. The scope of In-Service Courses is likely to be at least as wide.

Such, in outline, are the present position and the future plans. Broad fines of policy have been determined and plans delineated, but these will not preclude modifications as opportunities appear and are seized upon and as new difficulties arise and are surmounted or circumvented, for in this relatively new enterprise of technical teacher training there is a premium on adaptability--and who knows what challenge may arise from the Robbins Report? The Robbins Committee may be reasonably expected to recognise the value of the contribu- tion to the efficiency of the further education system already made by technical teacher training colleges and to advocate the encouragement and extension of this work. It is to be hoped, too, that they will discount such misrepresentations

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C. L. H E Y W O O D 13

as those made to them by the A.T.T.I. who stated, in complete contradiction of the ascertainable facts relating to the work of the older technical teacher training colleges, that there is no recognised method of training teachers of engineering in this country ! To suggest restricting the work of the technical teacher training colleges to the training of teachers for work at the more elementary levels-- up to O.N.C. and in craft courses--while the C.A.T.s take over the training of teachers for more advanced work, shows both a regrettable lack of appreciation of the work that the technical teacher training colleges have done and can do in preparing teachers for work with advanced classes, and an uncritically optimistic estimate of the C.A.T.'s future capabilities asteacher training organisa- tions, for which there seems little foundation, since the functions of the C.A.T.s have been determined and their staffs selected on quite other premises. Enthusiasm for training teachers, combined with experience and judgment as to how this can best be done, are the hall marks and the raison d'etre of the technical teacher training college. Here there are no alternative activities competing for the attention and effort of the staff, no more worth while or status- giving goals, no divided loyalties. These colleges exist only to train teachers for work at all levels in further education, and they have shown that they are capable of doing so supremely well. It is in the national interest that they should be given the support of all who are concerned in any way with this branch of the educational system, upon the greater efficiency of which national prosperity and, perhaps, survival will depend.

How far this College and its fellows should envisage attempting to meet the needs of teachers preparing for work in secondary schools is a problem of some difficulty. Although advertisements in the Press specify that they train men and women as full-time teachers in technical colleges and schools, their courses are, in fact, devised for the former purpose rather than the latter and, moreover, recruitment policy confines admissions to those fitted for teaching in establish- ments of further education and wishing to teach at that stage. Only a very small minority of students take up posts in secondary schools on completing their training. However, it is possible to argue that one-year courses for intending specialist teachers of technical subjects in the upper forms of secondary schools could profitably be conducted in technical teacher training colleges, rather than-- as is now the case--in certain general training colleges. The relegation of such courses to colleges training teachers for work in schools makes for tidy adminis- tration and accords with the Ministry's policy of keeping the administration of secondary and further education separate--a policy which is becoming increas- ingly unrealistic, as the age groups and work of the two stages are no longer consecutive but overlapping. One-Year courses of training for teaching in secondary schools available in certain general training colleges are open to engineers holding the Full Technological Certificate or to men and women holding agricultural or horticultural diplomas. The present writer submits that the schools would gain much if such courses were developed also in the technical teachers' colleges, and that a substantial infusion into the upper reaches of

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14 Wolverhampton Technical Teachers' College: the Present and the Future

secondary schools of teachers trained in colleges imbued as these are with the atmosphere of the world of employment and closely linked to further education, would go far towards solving the twin problems ofmofivatingpupils approaching leaving age and of breaking through the barrier separating the school from post- school life and education.

Curiously enough, one of the courses referred to above provides a striking example of overlap between the functions of general and technical training colleges, but in the reverse direction from that just advocated. In its efforts to initiate an agricultural subjects group, Wolverhampton Technical Teachers' College is handicapped by the existence in a few general training colleges of courses ostensibly solely to train students aged 20 or more as teachers of rural subjects in schools, but which commonly serve also as means whereby students leaving agricultural and horticultural institutes and colleges on completion of diploma courses at the age of 21 or 22 can train preparatory to taking posts as farm institute lecturers. The normal minimum age of entry to the one-year technical training college courses is 25, however. These students can thus be launched on their careers as trained teachers of agriculture and horticulture two or three years before they could be admitted to the One-Year Course at Wolver- hampton Technical Teachers' College. Informed opinion tends to the view that those students who are eager to commence teaching will not wait perhaps as much as four years to avail themselves of the Wolverhampton course, even though it will be designed specially to prepare teachers for farm institute and similar work. So, in this case at least, the general training college is already well entrenched in the territory of the technical tea,.her training college.

In conclusion, a reference to the name of the College might be appropriate. Although the title adopted is rather lengthy, it has the following merits: first, it embodies the name of the town in which the College is situated and the local education authority responsible for it; secondly, it includes the word "technical' which implies its specialised function--' further education' though more accurate would have been cumbersome and in this context unfamiliar; and, thirdly, it avoids the use of the term 'training' which, apart from lengthening the title, would have publieised and fostered an outdated conception of the functions of such a college. This third point is related to earlier references to the importance of 'education' rather than 'training' for teaching, a major function being to provide for men and women qualified in some specialist field within the pro- vince of further education a complementary professional education for teaching. Moreover, it is hoped that the College will come to be regarded as a forum and meeting place for experienced teachers in further education, and truly to serve as a 'teachers' college' catering for the needs of well-established teachers in further education, as well as providing courses for newcomers to the profession.

(Script received: February 5, 1962)

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