Instructional factories and training courses: the inception and implementation of training courses for un-skilled and semi-skilled munitions workers during the great war

Abstract

The Great War shell scandal of 1915 was as much to do with a lack of skilled workers as it was to do with the early inability of the Munitions Industry to manufacture the war materials required by the war. The number of skilled workers had never been large and volunteering for the Army on a large scale had drastically reduced that pool. Attempts to avoid ‘dilution’, or the use of un-skilled and semi-skilled workers, particularly women, in the munitions industry in the early months of the Great War failed. The Volunteer Scheme was an initial disaster for the newly created Ministry of Munitions. Recalling skilled men from the Army failed in equal measure. The only way for the Ministry to plug the skills gap, was to bring in semi and un-skilled workers. In 1916/17 Technical Institutes like Loughborough and Aston began to run short training courses for workers.