§ 71. Mr. Roebuckasked the Postmaster-General whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the evidence on which he has reached the decision that people over 35 years of age have difficulty in training as overseas telegraph officers in his Department unless they already have typing or teleprinter skills.
§ Mr. Joseph SlaterI am circulating in the OFFICIAL REPORT figures which show that older recruits have difficulty in completing the training course as overseas telegraph operators. However, we are having a further look at the position of candidates over 35.
The details are:
Overseas telegraph operator recruits who failed to reach the required standard or needed supplementary training in the past six months were:
- Under age 25–16 out of 105 (15 per cent.).
- Age 26–30–21 out of 79 (27 per cent.).
- Age 31–35–41 out of 94 (44 per cent.).
None of the above was required to have typing or teleprinter skills. These figures demonstrate how the training difficulty increases with age.
Of the recruits accepted over 35 and who already had such skills before they started training, the corresponding figures were 7 out of 19.