Portsmouth Royal Dockyard School At 1952

Course & Career Development

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The syllabuses have been widened and in order to give breadth to the education of the apprentices, French and current affairs have been introduced. The syllabuses of the technical and school subjects have also been widened in order to bring them into line with modern naval architecture and engineering.

The standards of education reached by those apprentices who complete the course of four years in the upper school is accepted by the Civil Service Commission as being equivalent to a B.Sc degree with third-class honours, and that reached after three years in the upper school as equivalent to Intermediate B.Sc or Higher School Certificate.

Each year shipwright apprentices who take very high places in the final fourth year examinations are recommended for appointment as constructor sub-lieutenants and go to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich for a further three years of specialized instruction before they join the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors. Electrical fitters are similarly eligible for further specialized training as electrical engineers in the Service. Constructor Sub Lieutenats Lou Daniels & Malcolm Oliver were awarded these distinctions in the 1955 Upper School examinations and are congratulated by John Goss, the Principal.

Apprentices of other trades who take high place in the upper school examinations at the end of their second year have the option of changing to the trade of Shipwright in order to compete for the Admiralty cadetships. An apprentice who does well in his school courses can be sure of early promotion in the Dockyard, and if he elects to leave the Admiralty service has little difficulty in securing a good appointment elsewhere. Many apprentices who reach the final course compete for Whitworth Royal and other engineering scholarships and have been remarkably successful in this field.

Diligence and attention on the part of the apprentices have formed the school into a vital part of the Dockyard. Ships of today are, to the layman, bewildering masses of mechanical and electrical device and the apprentices with their tradition of a hundred years are required to carry out the skilled work and employ the modern methods they have learned in workshops and in school.

Text Source: Hampshire Telegraph and Post, Friday, June 6, 1952