S.D. RICHARDSON
S.D. RICHARDSON, of the Department of Forestry and Wood Science, University of Wales, prepared this paper for the 4th Session of the FAO Advisory Committee on Forestry Education, held at Ibadan, Nigeria, 11-12 July 1969.
ONE OF THE MOST indiscriminately used words in the English language at the present time (and, in consequence, most prone to debasement) is " revolution." Apart from its political connotations, we talk of cultural, social and technological revolutions: at our universities-themselves described as the cockpits of revolution-we have student revolutions (almost daily), faculty and curricular revolution. We have also had a " revolution in forestry thought " (Beresford-Peirse, 1962); a revolution in forest products marketing (Rich, 1960); and we are currently experiencing revolution in the forest industries. (To the facetious among us, this latter envisions frenzied hordes of Luddite timbermen, armed with cant hooks and axes, smashing pulp mills and chipboard factories with reckless fury; in fact-in the United Kingdom at least-it means no more than the reluctant abandonment to metrication of an antediluvian lumber measure derived from the space occupied by three dry barleycorns!)
Despite the obvious danger that the word has become hackneyed, revolution is not perhaps an inappropriate term to describe what is needed in our approach to the subject of this paper. In many countries, the forest-based industries are either stagnating or developing at a rate well below their potential; in the technologically advanced economies, wood products are daily losing traditional markets to replacement materials faster than they are developing new ones, and in what we hopefully but euphemistically describe as the developing world, the much vaunted potential of the forest-based industries in economic advancement (Westoby, 1962) has yet to show signs of realization. With a few exceptions, even countries rich in exploitable forests reveal an ever-increasing gap between expenditure on forest development and revenue from forest production. Certainly, the demand for forest products is a rising one (FAO, 1966); but it is questionable whether, at the present rate of progress, the developing countries' share of the market demand will ever approach the proportion that their resources justify. In most tropical regions technological development in forest industries has scarcely begun; sawmills remain small, undercapitalized and inefficient; local processing is still only a phrase in the planners' vocabulary; and the new pulp mills, heralded as a panacea for the ills of tropical forestry, are being installed further and further from the Equator. There are developing countries with more than half their land surface covered with exploitable forest yet relying on imported timber for the bulk of their needs-and, in some known cases, with forestry departments spending more on tree breeding research than on utilization development.
It has been argued elsewhere (Richardson, 1967) that for the translation of development theory into practice, a new approach to forestry training-unencumbered by traditions and attitudes developed in an earlier and entirely different socio-economic climate - is a sine qua non. While retracting none of those earlier arguments, the writer has since come to believe that an even more important and immediate prerequisite for efficient forest development in both developed and developing countries is a substantial improvement in industrial and managerial efficiency in the forest industries - improvements that can only derive from training programmes geared specifically to the needs of those industries. Without these developments, and the attitudes they can inculcate, foresters in the heavily populated developed world stand in danger of becoming resort (rather than resource) managers and open-air museum curators; while in developing countries they will become official receivers in bankruptcy, presiding over the liquidation of once valued assets, in the interests of subsistence agriculture.
This paper purports to examine the quantitative requirements for trained personnel in Africa south of the Sahara, to review the training facilities available in some English- and French-speaking developed countries, and to present some suggestions as to how the problems facing African countries in the provision of trained personnel for the forest industries might be tackled.
The Indicative World Plan for Agriculture has established provisional targets for forest industrial investment to 1975 and 1985 by regions, and tentative projections of personnel requirements at two training levels (professional and technical) in the major forest industries can be related to investment norms as discussed in an earlier paper ([Richardson, 1967). Investment targets and trained manpower requirements derived from them are presented in Tables 1 and 2 respectively. The assumptions underlying these relationships are briefly as follows: for sawmilling, it is postulated that the capital invested per employee will approximate to $2 000 by 1975 and $4 000 from 1975-85 (as industrialization proceeds it is to be expected that employee efficiency will increase) and that the ratio of professional: technicians: total employees will be 1:5:500 for 1975 and 1:6:800 for 1985 for the production of wood-based panels; capital per employee has been taken at $10 000 by 1975 and $16 000 by 1985 with corresponding staffing ratios of 1:3:150 and 1:3:200; to derive the requirements for pulp mill operation, annual capacity has been calculated from a capital/output factor of $400 per ton and assumed personnel requirements of 12 professionals (engineers) and 23 technicians per 100 000 tons capacity for 1975, reducing to 10 professionals and 18 technicians by 1985. All figures have been rounded.
TABLE 1. - INDICATIVE WORLD PLAN: TENTATIVE INVESTMENT TARGETS FOR FOREST INDUSTRIES IN AFRICA
The investment targets shown in Table 1 are provisional and the projected trained manpower requirements of Table 2 are subjective estimates not to be regarded as other than speculative; they do not include requirements for research, extension and development work, or the need in forest departments for men with industrial as distinct from forestry training. They are presented merely to indicate probable orders of magnitude and to underline a feature of manpower planning that is frequently overlooked - that is, the length of time required to bring about changes in the national balance of vocational specialization. As demonstrated in the earlier paper (:Richardson, 1967), if a country has a stock of 100 chemists and requires a yearly outturn of 20 graduates to maintain that stock, even if the facilities for training chemists were doubled overnight and no difficulties were experienced in recruiting suitable students from secondary schools, it would still take 14 years (assuming a 4-year degree course) to increase the stock of chemists by only 20 percent. Consideration of the magnitude of trained manpower needs and the length of time required to supply them-in the face of competing demands - highlights the role of the industrialized countries in the provision of training facilities at all levels for the developing world. It is one that must be played for many years to come.
This continuing role of developed countries in the provision of training justifies an examination of their facilities for forest industrial training, particularly at the professional and technical levels. Such a review cannot be comprehensive; in the present section are discussed a few examples of the kind of courses that are available and that may be of particular relevance to English- and French-speaking Africa.
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
North America
Facilities for professional (degree-level and postgraduate) training in wood science and technology in the United States have recently been evaluated (Ellis, 1964) and, while there have been some changes since this study was made (mainly additions in postgraduate specializations, but including the closure of one well-known Department of Wood Technology - that at the University of Michigan), they do not significantly alter the scene. Some 28 undergraduate degree courses are available, of which 12 were regarded by Ellis as unsatisfactory for reasons of inadequate curricula (largely in mathematics, basic science or engineering) or insufficient staff (fewer than two, fulltime). In addition, seven institutions offer undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in pulp and paper technology and wood and polymer chemistry, while six other specialist programmes (timber and building materials, construction and furniture, but " generally not conforming to minimum educational requirements ") are listed. Sixteen schools provide postgraduate facilities, of which six are in specialized fields and six depend on other schools for recruitment, since they do not provide undergraduate instruction.
The curricula of the United States undergraduate courses (excluding the specialist programmes) generally comprise about 50 percent general and basic science (mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering science) courses, 10 percent wood science, 30 percent specialization (for example wood technology, business studies) and 10 percent elective courses. Although it is notoriously difficult to judge the merits of a degree programme from its advertised curriculum, they appear to be weak in industrial economics and business management, and also in practical industrial processing. Deficiencies in these respects are unimportant in a United States context, where the former can be made good by postgraduate training at one of the many excellent schools of business studies and the latter rectified by further training in industry. From the point of view of developing countries, however, these are serious weaknesses.
At the postgraduate level in the United States, the needs of pulp and paper and of research are particularly well served, while several schools (notably the Forest Industries Management Centre, University of Oregon) offer specialist facilities in timber and wood products marketing. Again, however, the course work in these schools is geared to temperate zone forest production and to industrially advanced economies. The recent upsurge of interest in tropical forest biology in United States universities has not yet been matched by developments in tropical forest industries or product marketing.
In English-speaking Canada, two universities (British Columbia and Toronto) offer undergraduate degree courses in wood science and technology, while the French-speaking Laval University teaches an elective course in a forestry programme. At the University of British Columbia, in a four-year course, there is a first year of basic science (common to most of the science faculties), some 55 percent wood science and allied subjects in the second year, 70 percent in the third and 100 percent in the final year. The Toronto course is essentially similar, but appears to be stronger in materials science, economies and computer programming and allows somewhat earlier specialization. In general, however, the Canadian courses are very similar to the United States programmes, and, from the viewpoint of supplying the needs of developing countries, are similarly deficient. It is significant that virtually all North American courses are provided by schools of forestry (many of them give only a forestry degree) and that they are educational rather than vocational. In the North American approach to training for the forest-based industries (as in higher education generally), the better student invariably moves on to postgraduate work. If he is not research oriented, he takes a Masters degree (generally 2/3 course work and 1/3 project) in a particular area of wood science. His courses are of high academic value and industry gains by his breadth of knowledge in the general field of wood products and his study in depth of a particular area. If the needs of developing countries for professional training are to be met by the North American university system, however, it is clearly necessary to think in terms of a minimum of six years' basic academic training: four years as an undergraduate and two years as a postgraduate.
Western Europe
In contrast to developments in North America, where wood technology is an outgrowth of the forestry schools, professional training in Europe for the wood-using industries is traditionally industry-based. Two examples of this approach may be cited - ingénieur training at the Ecole supérieure du bois in Paris and the Diploma-Holzwirt at the University of Hamburg. The first is a three-year course which has been running for some 35 years and which was geared to meet the needs of a timber industry slowly modernizing and moving away from domination by the family firm. Admission standards are high (in 1966, 34 students were admitted from 425 applicants) and the course has full degree status. Some 30 percent go into commerce-- as sales managers for timber, woodworking machinery, finishes, etc. - 10 percent enter the forestry and sawmilling industries, while the remaining 60 percent are absorbed by the wood-using industries - while the remaining 90 percent are absorbed by the wood-using industries in managerial or scientific posts (though less than 1 percent undertake research). The curriculum is modified every five years in consultation with industrial advisers (the most recent revision in 1966, for example, increased the emphasis on industrial design and machine drawing) and the school is partly financed by an industrial levy.
In the writer's view, the Ecole supérieure du bois offers a training eminently suited to the professional needs of French-speaking Africa. The Hamburg course gives greater emphasis to economies and commerce than the French one and it also treats world forestry and timbers. Essentially it is, a sandwich course, requiring 6 months of practical experience before entry and a further 12 months of supervised industrial experience during the course; it covers a period of 4 1/2 years.
Outside Canada, the only professional courses in the British Commonwealth geared specifically to the needs of the forest industries are the degree courses in wood science and industrial economics, recently introduced in the Department of Forestry and Wood Science, University of Wales. They are offered at pass, general and honours levels over a three to four year period. The standard honours course comprises about 1/3 basic science, 1/3 wood technology and. processing, and 1/3 industrial economics, commercial practice and econometrics (supply and demand projections). It is weak in timber harvesting (which is regarded at Bangor as part of forestry) and pulp and paper technology, but strong in timber marketing and utilization development. The pass degree covers much the same fields but in less depth and with less specialist options (for example, computer programming, research methods and industrial relations are omitted), while the general degree combines parts of the honours degree with another subject taught in another department (such as economics, biochemistry or physics). Since it was envisaged from the start that many graduates would work in developing countries and others would enter the tropical hardwood importing trade, the honours degree course is not geared entirely to the needs of technologically advanced economies; thus, tropical hardwood marketing and the utilization of lesser known species are included in the courses offered (Richardson, 1968a; 1968b).
At the postgraduate level, most forestry schools in Europe offer research facilities in wood science, though with few exceptions the traditional expertise of the teaching staff leads to domination of biological rather than technological aspects. In addition, specialized courses in limited fields of wood technology are available -for example, the engineering departments of Southampton and Durham universities run courses concerned with wood as a constructional material, as does Imperial College, University of London; while, modelled on the American pattern, schools of business studies are being established. apace. With the increased acceptance of taught Masters (and equivalent) courses in many European universities it is not improbable that some business schools may introduce such courses specifically for the timber-using industries; whether they will be strictly relevant to developing countries, however, remains questionable. In any event, if the forest industries have to rely on Master level training for professional manpower, the length of courses will not be significantly shorter in Europe than in North America-and will be impossible to justify in relation to the technological needs of the industry, the economic strength of the developing country, or the potential financial reward to the individual.
Other countries
Several countries of eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, U.S.S.R. and Yugoslavia) offer university training specifically geared to the forest industries, as do Japan, China (Mainland) and South Africa (Stellenbosch). Unfortunately, because of language difficulties or for political reasons, few of these facilities are readily available to African nationals. All of the above-mentioned countries-as well as many others with university forestry faculties-also offer wood science options as part of a forestry degree course, but they suffer from the same biological bias (from an industrial point of view) that characterizes forestry degree courses throughout the world, and must be regarded as inappropriate to the present discussion.
In summary, therefore, it appears that the facilities for professional training most appropriate to the needs of the forest-based industries in Africa south of the Sahara are the courses leading to the ingénieur qualification of the Ecole supérieure du bois in Paris for French-speaking countries and the B.Sc. (Wood Science) degree courses offered by the Department of Forestry and Wood Science at Bangor for English-speaking countries (it is perhaps unnecessary to point out that, at the latter, sales promotion forms an integral and significant part of the degree courses).
TECHNICAL TRAINING
North America
Because of the widespread availability of university education in North America, formal training at the technical level is much less evident than in countries with more restrictive professional facilities. In the United States, technical training for the forest industries is largely within industry or by means of short-term (less than one year) and extension courses in the land-grant colleges or in industrial arts programmes. Some six universities offer one to two-year certificate courses which, vocationally orientated, are geared to local industrial needs. For Canada, despite recent rapid developments in forest technician training (Garrett, 1969), only the British Columbia Institute of Technology provides a two-year course in forest products technology. As with most professional programmes and because it is designed to serve the needs of large-scale capital-intensive and technologically advanced industries, North American technical training is of limited relevance to developing countries, except perhaps in the case of pulp and paper. The needs of small labour-intensive processing units, which require managerial skills combining technical and commercial knowledge, are not catered for.
Western Europe
In contrast to North America, there is a much greater variety of technical level training offered in western Europe-in the form of block and day release courses, specialized certificate courses (for example in timber technology, timber trade commercial practice, woodworking technology, timber design, building practice), and two to three-year fulltime diploma courses. It is of course these last that are of interest to the overseas students. As examples, the diploma in timber technology introduced at the High Wycombe College of Technology and Art (United Kingdom) and courses of the Ecole technique du bois (France) will serve the purpose of this paper.
The former offers a three-year, fulltime course for students without university entrance requirements; it comprises about 20 percent science (basic and applied), 30 percent timber technology, 10 percent commercial practice, 10 percent practical training in industry, and the remainder specialized studies of an option chosen from wood technology, timber utilization, business studies, and production and mechanical engineering. It is designed to produce intermediate level managers and executives in the context of the United Kingdom wood-using industries and the timber trade.
The Ecole technique du bois is organized alongside (and integrated with) the Ecole supérieure in Paris and offers a two-year course; the first year covers applied science, mathematics, languages (French and English or German), industrial design, economics and law, timber technology, wood processing and elementary management. At the end of the first year, students select one of two options, the technico-commerciale or the préparation du travail - méthodes; the former is concerned almost entirely with commerce (and includes further language laboratory courses) while the latter covers design, utilization, industrial operations and work study.
Although technical level training facilities are available in some other countries (including, for example, a new industrial training centre in New Zealand) most of them are not readily available to African nationals, and they will not be considered here.
TRAINING FACILITIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
As far as is known, there are no facilities yet available in developing countries for professional level training geared specifically to the needs of forest industries and other timber marketing, though three countries (India, Chile and the Philippines) are believed to be preparing degree courses in wood science. At the technical and vocational levels, there is a variety of courses open- some concerned only with forest industries (for example, the industrial training centre in Kenya, operated under a bilateral aid programme), and others serving a wide range of industries (particularly at vocational level). In most developing countries, however, vocational and technical level personnel in the forest industries have no formal training and are recruited from within the industry to perform limited tasks; because they have had no opportunity to widen their experience, or to obtain formal training, they are unable to cope effectively with technological advances or to join the ranks of efficient senior management.
It is unfortunately generally true that the most efficient forest industries in Africa are run by expatriates. In the next section of this paper, some suggestions are therefore offered as to how the developing countries of Africa might tackle the problems of providing indigenous manpower, commensurate with existing and proposed capital investment in forest industries.
An essential prior consideration to these problems is a realistic assessment of trained manpower requirements. Suffice it to say that each country must make its own assessment in the light of actual and proposed investment, type of industry, availability of manpower suitable for training, and putative costs, etc. For each training level it is then necessary to decide whether to use facilities available outside the country (accepting that, inevitably, these will have a limited relevance to national requirements) or to develop local or regional training centres. Such decisions rest upon an assessment - however cursory-of relative costs and benefits.
It is perhaps also necessary to emphasize the desirability of separating industrial manpower requirements from those of production forest management. The kind of training required for the forest industries is basically different from that needed in forestry and, in the view of this writer, it cannot be provided by foresters. In the past, we have neglected it-as the present sorry state of forest industries bears witness- and, in the future, we may be in danger of misdirecting it. A recent Secretariat note from FAO (FAO, 1968), while separately calculating the trained manpower needs in forestry and the forest industries in Africa, includes them both under the heading of " forest education." The forester is to be commended for recognizing the need for industrial training, but he should be wary of attempting to provide it within the context of forestry education.
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
The provision of university training in any technological field is expensive and it is contended that unless training facilities for the forest industries can be easily and effectively established within an existing university department, there are few developing countries that can at present afford them.
It is suggested that a sustained demand of at least 15 graduates a year, together with an adequate pool of secondary school pupils from which to attract such numbers (in the face of competing demands), must be demonstrable before an independent university department of wood science is warranted. If, on the other hand, professional facilities can be developed within an existing department, and capital and overhead costs thereby reduced, the demand minimum might be set at 10. These convictions stem from the belief that the range of expertise required to teach a university degree course relevant to the needs of the forest industries is such that it cannot be provided by less than four full-time members of staff; and that an annual outturn of less than 10 graduates would not justify the required allocation of scarce human resources (university teachers) -quite apart from capital and recurrent costs.
Recent estimates (FAO, 1968) of the cost of producing a forestry graduate in Africa (following, a 3-year course) are around U.S.$8 000-11. 000. The present writer seriously doubts that these costs are realistic and would add 50 percent to them; even if they are accepted as a base, however, the costs of producing a graduate in forest industrial technology - because of the more elaborate and expensive facilities required-will initially be about $15 000-20 000.
If a decision is made to provide professional training within an existing department, the question will arise as to which department, is the most appropriate. Obviously it is undesirable to be dogmatic here, since many factors (for example, the extent to which space and equipment are underutilized, the interests and aspirations of existing staff, etc.) are involved, but equally clearly it should be an applied science department and it must have close links with the industries it intends to serve.
In most developing countries these questions are academic, since at the present time even the establishment of university subdepartments of wood science will not be warranted. Of greater interest, therefore, is a discussion of alternative courses of action. There are several: to recruit science graduates and to give them postgraduate training abroad in a wood science or industrial economics specialization; to obtain postgraduate " within industry) " training at home or overseas; or to utilize existing undergraduate schools abroad.
The first of these involves a lengthy training which will seldom be justified economically or by industrial needs; in most, countries the immediate need is for efficient primary processing and there are few operations that are of sufficient size to justify the employment of men with postgraduate qualifications - and few postgraduate courses that would be relevant anyway. (Indeed, postgraduate schools might be positively harmful in that, by orientating a student toward academic research, they could deprive industry of his effective services.) The second course (postgraduate training within industry) is most appropriate to the management of capital-intensive industries, such as pulp and paper or panel products, but because of the restricted and specialized nature of the training that industry can provide it is only desirable when the, establishment of such industries is assured. :Further, if training is provided at home, it wild usually involve an expatriate enterprise -and will only succeed in a political climate where the operator is assured that; he is not training his own successor and that his livelihood is not threatened by nationalization or by discontinuity. In other words, it is only appropriate to a forest economy of active industrial expansion. The third course (the use of existing undergraduate schools) is potentially the most realistic in terms of manpower availability, technological and industrial needs, and cost effectiveness. The provision of a first degree can be accomplished for $8 000-10 000 and, in most developing countries, scholarships are readily available under bilateral and other aid programmes.
It cannot be inferred from this that the undergraduate degree courses at present available overseas are ideally suited to the needs of African countries. To become more so, two conditions must be satisfied. First, those who are involved in providing such courses must develop greater flexibility in both admission requirements and curricula options. Secondly, the forest industries of the developing countries must exert pressure on their governments to ensure that students of adequate quality and number are forthcoming. These two requirements are closely related, since it is much easier for a university department to modify its programmes in the interests of several good students than to do so for a sporadic intake of only one or two of indifferent quality.
In all probability, the first graduates in wood science recruited by a developing country will enter its forest service to work as extension officers with the timber trade and wood-using industries. It is to be hoped (and expected) that, after some years, they will leave the forest service to enter public or private industry. The primary objective of professional training, therefore, should be to give them an appreciation of the role of forest industries in economic development, and a general knowledge of timber technology, primary and secondary processing, business management and economics, and both local and international marketing. Specialist knowledge of particular industries can be acquired later, through study tours, short courses and within industry.
It is only when a man has background experience of industrial operations in his own country-and an understanding of their potentialities and constraints- that he is able to appreciate the relevance of experience in another environment. Here again, however, the universities and industries of the developed countries have a continuing role to play, and, in this connexion, one recent development may be of interest. In conjunction with two United Kingdom-based west African timber companies, the Department of Forestry and Wood Science at Bangor is hoping to organize one to two-year sandwich courses geared specifically to the needs of the west African sawnwood and plywood industry. The intention is to recruit graduates with managerial potential who, after some months experience in indigenous logging, sawmilling and plywood operations, will spend two terms at Bangor, taking selected parts of the forestry and wood science degree courses (with emphasis on economics, marketing and the utilization of lesser known tropical species); they will then return to the field for a further period as management trainees. The objective is to combine practical field training with somewhat broader academic studies and, on successful completion, it is hoped to be able to award a joint certificate, though the feasibility of so doing has yet to be examined in detail. A similar scheme geared to pulp and paper could undoubtedly be organized by North American universities for countries where pulp mills have been established and, if the proposed tropical timber bureaux come into being, it might be hoped that they could establish sandwich courses in marketing.
TECHNICAL TRAINING
It has been argued elsewhere (Richardson, 1967) that in forestry it is the subprofessional, technically trained cadre that provides the backbone of the executive agency. This is, perhaps, less true in the forest industries because of work concentration and the closer supervision that can be provided by professionals. Nevertheless, in developing countries, the problems of technical-level training will not solve themselves; nor can technicians be left - as often happens - to learn the job as they go along; formal instruction is necessary both through course work and within industry.
Because of differences in the level of industrial technology and the overriding influence of local labour conditions, overseas training (despite the range of facilities available) is less relevant to developing countries at the technical than at the professional level, even where there are established forest industries. It is important, therefore, that national or regional training facilities be established. Two problems immediately arise: first, because of the wide range in capital/labour ratios in the forest industries (for example, as between a bush sawmill and a modern pulp mill) different types of training are required; and secondly, since it requires extensive workshops, complex equipment and other facilities, industrial training is expensive.
It - is suggested that a distinction might be drawn here between primary and secondary processing-the first concerned with logging and sawmilling, the second with the more capital-intensive forest industries-and that the provision of training facilities for these different kinds of operation needs to be organized differently. In most developing countries (and in many developed ones) the level of technology and managerial skills employed in primary processing is deplorably low, resulting in prodigality in exploitation and wasteful conversion. Because of its involvement in resource management, it may be appropriate in many countries for the forestry agency to assume responsibility for training in this field, using wherever possible the facilities of efficient private enterprise- irrespective of ownership - but if necessary entering into direct competition with private enterprise. Where a forest department controls a major forest resource it can exert pressure upon concessionaires to provide practical facilities to be used in conjunction with formal courses provided within the department, at local technical colleges or universities, and by research institutes. Where de facto control of forest resource does not rest with the forestry agency, it may be forced establish departmental logging and sawmilling operations as a means of increasing awareness of the advantages of training and creating a demand for it. The latter situation should be avoided wherever possible because, all too often, the forestry agency does not possess the commercial expertise necessary for successful competition. Again, however, what is appropriate for any particular country has to be judged in the light of local circumstances.
Technical training for the secondary forest industries can take one of two forms: it can be entirely within-industry, or it can combine training at a comprehensive training centre serving many industries such as a technical college with forest-industrial experience, through the provision of some kind of junior management trainee scheme. There are advantages in both forms: the first provides highly specialized technicians but discourages personnel mobility and the permeation of technical skill through other components of the industry; the second produces more broadly competent men, able to work in a wide range of industries, but it can result in their being lost to the forest industries through competition from other sectors. Also, in many comprehensive training centres, with a restricted student intake, the claims of the urban servicing industries may receive precedence over the requirements of processing and manufacturing industries in the allocation of funds and resources. In any event there is need for the claims of the forest industries to be vigorously pressed.
There is also a need for universities and research organizations in developing countries to become more involved with subprofessional training. :Few countries can afford to reserve often grossly underutilized university facilities for the creation of a professional glass. Nor is it desirable that the class distinctions of the developed world should be perpetuated in the emergent nations. The universities can perhaps best serve the forest industries by providing short courses properly geared to the needs and abilities of the students undertaking them in technical and commercial subjects.
Perhaps the most urgent need in this connexion, however, is for the establishment of an internationally recognized certificate in forest products technology or similar qualification, thereby creating minimum training standards for all the forest industries, irrespective of specialization. It is suggested that FAO, in conjunction with the other relevant international agencies such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and the International Labour Organisation, should attempt as a pilot operation to set out suitable curricula and examination standards in the context of one English-speaking and one French-speaking African country (perhaps Ghana and Ivory Coast).
One further suggestion is that the implications and operation of the 1964 Industrial Training Act in the United Kingdom be examined with a view to evaluating the relevance of its provisions to developing countries.
This law empowered the then Ministry of Labour (now the :Department of Employment and Productivity) to appoint industrial training boards, comprising representatives of industrial employers, trade unions and education, with a mandate to improve the quantity), quality and efficiency of training and to share the costs of training more evenly between industry and government. Separate boards cover all industrial sectors-there is, for example, a Furniture and Timber Industry Training Board as -well as one for agriculture, horticulture and forestry-and they are partly financed by an industrial levy based on company payroll. They are concerned with all aspects of training from the assessment of manpower requirements, through the evaluation of existing training facilities to the provision of training courses; the bulk of the industrial levy is used to subsidize training courses (whether organized by the Board or not) and to make grants to companies prepared to release their employees for approved training courses. It is not suggested that the Industrial Training Act as it stands would be relevant to the needs or the facilities of developing countries; the principles on which it rests, however, most certainly are.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Industrial training at the vocational level is " concerned with imparting specialist skills to serve the needs and improve the technical standards of existing forest industries and to form a skilled labour pool for the development of major forest-based industries in the future. Industrial trainees, therefore, should be men with mechanical aptitude who, by means of specialist, practical courses at trade centres and on-job coaching in industry, can be trained as mechanics, plant and equipment operators, engineering maintenance personnel, etc. As such, they will be much more mobile than men trained at the vocational level in field forestry and a high rate of transfer to other industries must be expected." (Richardson, 1967.)
If these premisses are accepted, much of the discussion above relating to technical training is also relevant to vocational level training. There is a need to attract suitable men into the forest industries and to keep them there; there need be no fears of overrecruiting.
Two features of vocational level industrial training have not received adequate consideration in relation to the forest-based industries: the first concerns the use of apprenticeship schemes; and the second, the role of trade unions. In discussing the first of these, access to the experience of the International Labour Organisation in designing and, in some cases, operating apprenticeship schemes and vocational training institutions in developing countries would be most helpful. It is a deficiency that should be remedied, since the extended use of apprenticeships within existing forest industries would prima facie be a logical means of increasing the skilled labour pool with a bias toward these industries and, at the same time, ensuring a return to the particular enterprises that provide the training. It would be of interest to have some quantitative measures of skilled labour movement within and between industrial sectors; and it would be valuable to have access to case studies, including historical cost data, of apprenticeship schemes in other industries.
On leaving school, the present writer went to work in a sawmill; and his university education was subsequently made possible by a scholarship financed by a trade union. In consequence, he has a particular interest (and, possibly, a biased one) in the role of trade unions in industrial training; and he makes no excuse for repeating the argument put forward in an earlier paper (Richardson, 1967) that, in developing countries, more use should be made of trade unions in setting training targets and improving standards of practice.
It is in the interests of the trade unions to ask for adequate training facilities, since only by developing as graft unions - representing the trained elite of the labour force - can they hope to develop their own economic strength in countries with an excess of unskilled labour. And if the employing industries actively stimulate that demand and seek the unions' cooperation in setting up vocational training institutions and apprenticeship schemes, in devising curricula, and in selecting trainees, they will exercise an influence on the development of the unions, and create a relationship with them, that can only be beneficial.
It has been suggested that at the professional level the facilities for forest industrial training already available in developed countries are sufficient to serve the immediate needs of Africa; and that, while there is scope for improvement, their inadequacies are not so great as to justify the costs that would be involved in the establishment of such facilities locally. Several specific proposals have been made that, perhaps, merit discussion:
1. the suggested distinction between primary and secondary processing and the need for different types of training;2. the establishment of a certificate in forest products technology;
3. a study of the United Kingdom Industrial Training Act of 1964;
4. consideration of apprenticeship schemes;
5. examination of the possible role of trade unions in vocational training.
Underlying all these proposals is the need for more realistic estimates of trained manpower requirements and for objective assessments of the costs involved in providing facilities.
The provision of institutional facilities and the establishment of education and training programmes are not, of course, the whole of trained manpower formation, nor do they ensure the optimum development of human resources. The assessment of trained manpower requirements at professional and technical levels must be related to the outputs of the primary and secondary education systems; and an estimate has to be made of the proportion of the available human resource that the- forest industries can justify in terms of national benefit. In many countries, such estimates-influenced as they will be by the past record of the forest industries contribution to economic development -will fall far short of investment proposals. A decision has then to be made either to revise the targets, or to devise means of increasing the productivity of trained staff. Even if the forest industries demand can be justified nationally, there remain serious problems of attracting and retaining entrants to all training levels. These problems cannot be treated here, but they are not unimportant.
In conclusion, even when training programmes have been established and an adequate supply of trainees is forthcoming, there will still be institutional deficiencies in many countries that militate against the efficient use of trained manpower. Administrative " featherbedding " and supine attitudes in national executive agencies; unrealistically high living standards demanded by expatriates, and their counterparts' inevitable desire to imitate them; seduction by the international agencies of the best administrators from the developing countries. All these things can restrict the development of human resources, despite the most effective training programmes. We must recognize and openly acknowledge these deficiencies; to paraphrase the late Adlai Stevenson: A little self-criticism is harmless, as long as you don't inhale!
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