John Clayden

  Government Training Centres were I think set up during the war or just after and were nationwide and were set up with trade union cooperation but were later  destroyed by Thatcher. The one in Perivale West London I attended covered the various building trades and engineering trades, sheet metal work as well as tailoring. They were free.
All applicants for a building trade course were first required to climb a ladder to make sure they had a head for heights.
I cannot say how the other trades were organised. I attended the plumbing course it lasted six months and consisted of twelve people. Two were recruited every month and progressed through six stages running concurrently.
The emphasis of each section was on acquiring specific skills needed for different sections of the trade under the guidance of the instructor. He also gave all of us together classes on theory,  legislation and history of the practices. 

As our instructor said ” When it comes to public health the plumber is second only to the doctor. Only the doctor buries his mistakes while the plumber has to dig his up again.” Dr Bob Gill said to me he disagreed, he thought the plumber was more important!

The first month of the course was devoted to acquiring  the skills of lead wiping which is a way of connecting two lead pipes using plumbers metal a mixture of lead and tin which at just the right temperature becomes malleable a bit like very hot putty which requires a fair  level of practice and  skill. You then went on each month to  other aspects of the trade such as roofing and flashings using copper zinc and lead sheet, pipe welding, braising  and cutting threads on iron and gas pipe, working with cast iron and plastic  underground drainage and manholes, waste pipes for sewage rainwater pipes,  lead burning, lead bossing  and finally installing a working  central heating system on three floors with a boiler header tank and radiators. Because we were all in the same workshop and everybody was at a different stage of the course it was possible to get and give advice and anticipate the next stages of the course and help those who were following behind. So we could help each other and share our experiences. Who ever thought it up was a genius.

The instructor had worked in the trade a long time he regaled us with pithy yarns about his experience on the railways and on building sites.
The intake was of different ages. One significant aspect was that it served to retrain people whose trades had become defunct for example we had two lightermen who had worked on the Thames and they told us horrific stories of the dangers of their previous work. One had seen three fellow workers drown before his eyes because in certain sections of the Thames there is an undertow which drags down to certain death anyone who falls in .
We also discussed politics including workers control, as the spirit of the sixties had by then  percolated into the working class. We en masse confronted management to demand and we got an elected committee to advise them on the running of the centre. I doubt it lasted after we left. I remember giving a copy of The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon to one of the Africans on the course who later said ” I thank God for the day you gave me that book”.
When you completed the course you were given at no cost a very good tool kit and canvas bag. It included a paraffin blow lamp and a full set of tools including a complete set of wooden bossing tools used to shape lead. You were also eligible for courses to keep you up to date with new developments in the trade. 
On completion you were considered to be an improver which after a further year in the trade entitled you to become a fully qualified plumber. As previously remarked the system was destroyed by Thatcher and the management were allowed to sell off the premises for their own benefit.  However the structure outlined above had already by then been replaced by a more traditional academic form.