LETTERS TO THE EDITOR — Preparing `whiz kids’ with salable

Your editorial “Blue-collar whiz kids” (T.N.M., Nov. 30/92) is timely and accurate. Dropouts aside, there are young graduates from high school without any salable skills. Some government-funded training plans, particularly if designed by local people to suit local needs, have been more successful than others. However, the unemployment insurance bureaucracy is not the proper agency to design and administer job training programs.

There are several levels in the education process and there are several objectives at each level. Job preparation is only one of those objectives. A program either sharpens the wits or teaches a skill. Training in the arts or languages provides young people with knowledge that helps them enjoy living and therefore is not wasted. The basic three “Rs,” proceeding all the way to the highest levels of education, is only part of the skill training required in preparation for today’s high-technology jobs.

Years ago, there were apprentice programs and trades taught at high school level. In fact, one could develop trade skills while preparing for university admission. Industries, in cooperation with the schools, sent apprentices back to school as part of their job training program. The system worked well and one can only speculate about the reasons for dropping it.

Your editorial suggests that a somewhat similar program should be now initiated but should take place all the way up to the university levels. If this is so, then the present tax system cannot fund this change. Industry must assume the total costs of such programs as they are part of the social costs for the introduction of new technologies.

The departments of education have become too large and self-serving. They designed the present failing systems. Therefore, reforms should be kept out of the hands of both bureaucrats and politicians.

R. Thompkins

(Emeritus Professor, Queen’s University)

Ancaster, Ont.