Education and training in industry in Rhodesia

This study follows a series of discussions, during the period March to November, 1963, with the managements and personnel departments of a number of mining and manufacturing companies in what was then Southern and Northern Rhodesia and are now Rhodesia and Zambia. The larger firms had personnel departments with comprehensive records of their labour force, and they also had training departments, or officers, engaged in programmes of basic education or vocational training or both. The smaller firms had no training departments; though they were practising some form of on-the-job training, they had no detailed records of the educational level of the African workers, and were not engaged in programmes of basic education for such workers. As a result of these preliminary discussions there arose three problems, within the general context of the education and training of industrial workers, which appeared to be pressing on employers. These problems were: the low general level of education among African workers; the difficulty of teaching skills to such poorly educated workers; and the consequent limit placed on the advancement of African workers to supervisory and managerial positions. A survey was then prepared, to obtain more detailed information on these matters. The purpose of this paper is to set out the facts obtained in the survey, to present questions of interest to employers and others concerned with the future economic development of the country, and to provide a lead to further investigation into the field of manpower development. The Institute of Adult Education proposes to continue its studies in this field.

A survey to ascertain the educational and training needs of the Rhodesian industry and economy.