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Lighting the Fire

When the Long Range Weapons Establishment (LRWE) was established in 1948, John Gordon Brookman, an engineering graduate of the University of Adelaide, was appointed senior engineer. His task was to set up and develop the necessary mechanical and electrical workshops that would be required to service the activities of the Joint Project. However, because there was a shortage of skilled tradesmen the decision was taken that LRWE would recruit and train its own apprentices. This initial process began from late 1949 and between 1950 and 1952 fourteen people were offered apprenticeships. Training was received at the South Australian Government Trade School, Kintore Avenue, Adelaide, and on-the-job at LRWE.

In 1954 the Apprentice Training School (ATS) at Salisbury became fully operational under the direction of Brookman and was able to 'plan, organise and control' all theoretical and practical training of apprentices. While apprentices were still required to supplement in some trades training given by the State Trade Schools, the philosophies of the Apprentice Training School were simple:
1. The specific training requirements of the Department, which were not available through existing trade schools, must be met.
2. Apprentices must be able to do meaningful, skilled work by the end of their first year.
3. Apprentices must be multi-skilled and have a wider range of specialist trade skills than was currently being taught in the trade schools.
4. Apprentices must have the opportunity to acquire skills through practice.

However in 1961, following approval from the Apprentice Training Commission, the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) began to withdraw its apprentices from Trade Schools to provide total in-house training in the trades of Fitting and Turning, Radio, Electrical Fitting and Sheet Metal. Apprentices in trades such as Glass Blowing, Carpentry and Metal Plating still gained their theoretical training within the Trade School system but with practical training in the workshops and laboratories at WRE. Meanwhile, in 1978 the decision was taken to permit female applicants to undertake apprenticeships and from 1979 to 1988, twenty-four young women entered the School.

With an emphasis placed on multi-skilling, the ATS soon gained a reputation for the quality of its training. Indeed, as early as 1955 apprentices were winning prizes at the Royal Adelaide Show, and in later years competed in state, national and international competitions, most notably at Work Skill Olympics. The first Australian national team to compete at these Olympics was in 1983. Work Skill Australia (WSA) was set up in 1982 as a way of raising the skill standards in the work place, and received support from the Evatt Foundation, commonwealth and state governments, and industry.

With the withdrawal of support from the Evatt Foundation, in 1984 the Work Skill Australia Foundation was established to continue the ideals of the Olympics. The Department of Defence had been already accepted as a separate region in 1982 and the first Defence Work Skill competition was held in 1984. These regional competitions ceased at the Department of Defence in 1992 because of the reduction in apprentice recruitment. However, many of the apprentices were winners at regional (64), national (10) or international (1) level and the two Honours Boards, which were prominent at the ATS, note these winners.
Apprentices were also recipients of other Special Achievement Awards such as the South Australian Apprentice of the Year Award that in 1983 was won by Karen Lines (Electronic) who went on to become the Australian Apprentice of the Year. Award winners were also recognised at the Indenture presentation ceremony each year.

On a lighter note, sporting activities, dances and Christmas socials were also held.

The decision to close the ATS came about through the restructuring of Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) in 1987. The ATS closed in 1994, the last of the apprentices having completed their training. In all, over 1,700 apprentices and 122 'sponsored apprentices' from industry and government successfully passed through the School.

Copies of the book ATS Book, “Lighting the Fire” are available from:
Defence Science Communications DSTO – EDINBURGH
PO Box 1500
EDINBURGH SA 5111
Telephone: (08) 8259 6435
Cost is $5.00

References:
Department of Supply, 'WRE has unique school for apprentice training', SCODOS, December 1966, pp. 33, 35.
Ferguson, Gregor, Glanville, Helen and Green, John, 'Lighting the Fire: A short history of the Apprentice Training School (ATS) at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, Salisbury, South Australia', 1966, pp. 11-14, 34-35, 45, 51, 68-71.
'The Apprentice Training Scheme", Missile, Vol. 9, No. 4, July - September 1961, pp. 9-16.
'Duke of Edinburgh Award', Missile, Vol. 14, No. 2, April - June 1968, p. 4.
'Apprentices to the Fore', SCODOS, December 1968, p. 56