Articles
As mechanical engineering began to develop as a profession in the late 18th century, the question of how best to educate and train engineers became increasingly important.
In Britain, the preference was strongly in favour of on-the-job training. Initially, an apprenticeship would be purchased in a firm or with a consulting engineer and you’d be indentured to learn the trade for a set number of years; this training was typically hands-on and practical.
However, engineering companies’ in-house training for apprentices and pupils was increasingly formalised. At Mather and Platt, a Day Continuation School operated from 1873 and attendance was compulsory. Another business with well developed in-house programmes was the Ashington Coal Company, which operated a Continuation School, nicknamed the Miners’ University, from 1920. Each selected pit boy attended the school for two days a week and was paid as if he had been working in the pit, which he did the rest of the week.
Having received thorough training in the running of a coal mine, the boys were eligible for the Mine Manager’s Course. By 1936, the school had 80 boys in the charge of two full-time teachers. By the 1930s, it was jointly run with the education authorities and was able to fill most vacancies for mine officials.
The shipbuilders Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson made attendance at an approved arts and science course a condition of employment. At Swan this attendance was expected to be in the evenings but many employers did allow apprentices to be released to attend daytime courses. Other companies offered a so-called sandwich system – apprentices would attend courses in the winter and be in the yards during the summer.
Thanks to research by Sir Michael Sadler in 1907, we know that a third of railway companies allowed daytime attendance and all but two paid towards external training. At one unnamed railway company, apprentice wages would be increased upon recommendation from the technical college and the superintendent of the railway workshops. Payments for fees, apparatus, books and so forth were common among all engineering firms.
The first professorship of engineering was established in 1840, at Glasgow. It was not until 1875 that a similar position came into being at Cambridge, while engineering science was not taught at Oxford until 1908. In the field of university engineering education, Europe was far in advance. The École Polytechnique in Paris, established in 1794, set the standard with a two-year course in mathematics, mechanics, physics and chemistry, continuing with courses led by practising engineers about the design, construction and operation of machines and structures.
By the 1830s, polytechnics had been founded in Berlin, Karlsruhe, Munich, Dresden, Stuttgart, Prague and Vienna. They prepared students for industry by concentrating on the study of machine design.
By the second half of the 19th century, the situation in Britain was beginning to shift. Universities or university colleges with engineering courses had been established in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Bristol, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Birmingham. But the general perception had not changed: there was a suspicion of learning among many practical engineers. However, by 1907 Vickers, Sons and Maxim’s apprenticeship scheme was being operated in co-operation with Sheffield University.
At the same time as the universities were being established, mechanics’ institutes were formed around the country. They began as places were workmen could attend evening classes ‘to improve themselves’, and over time many developed into excellent technical colleges. In 1876 the City and Guilds of London Institute was established, and conducted examinations for workers studying in institutes around the country. These courses began to supplement the apprenticeship system, and eventually, along with the increasing number of university courses, replaced apprenticeships as the usual route into engineering.
Of course now it has been generally recognised that apprenticeships are extremely valuable.
A selection of images of apprentices is available to view at archives.imeche.org/archive/institution-history