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THE purpose of this paper is to explain the nature, purposes and functions of 'Shop Steward "Combine Committees" ' in the British 'Engineering industry'. Actually, the so-called 'engineering industry'[1] is a complex of many different industries which produce a large variety of different products. In the context of this paper the 'engineering industry' or the metal trades refers to those firms whose employees' wages and conditions fall within the joint negotiating jurisdiction of the Engineering and Allied Employers' National Federation and the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. Thousands of firms with an employing power estimated at 570,000 workers do not belong to the Federation but are nevertheless within the Federation's jurisdictional area because they produce products that are included in the 'engineering industry'. Consequently, the terms negotiated by the Federation and the Confederation tend to become the minimum terms even for non-federated firms; under section 8 of the Terms and Conditions of Employment Act, 1959, the Federation and/or the Confederation have a statutory right to invoke, through the Minister of Labour, the adjudication of the Industrial Court in cases where an employer in the engineering industry (be he federated or non-federated) is not observing the recognized terms and conditions of employment as laid down by collective agreements. This great industry with its vast numbers of products and great differences in production techniques can only be defined within the institutional context of its collective bargaining system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In studying these two reports certain ambiguities or imprecisions in both the statements and the figures have become apparent. These ambiguities or imprecisions can be divided into two categories, internal or external. The first, the internal ones, relate to lack of Consistency and clarity in the reports themselves; the second, external to inadequacies in the statistical sources. Of these two categories of imprecisions the internal one is the main concern of this paper, for a comparative study of the two reports revealed among others the following areas of difficulty: unexplained change in the base figure for components; obscure comparison of the totals for Electronics; non-differentiation between a part and the whole of the valve and semi-conductor sector. From a general pragmatic point of view N.E.D.C. provides a quantitative statement against which actual changes in the industries can be assessed. N.E.D.C. also-provides a most valuable stimulus to industry by encouraging it to examine in a rational and coordinated way its present position and future prospects.

This article focuses on the relation between the pressure of internal demand and the British export performance. A high pressure of demand, somehow defined, leads to a situation in which manufacturers divert productive resources away from meeting the export orders, towards satisfying home demand. Such a shift of resources leads to lengthening of the order-delivery lags for export orders on the supply side. On the demand side lengthening of the lads may lead to a fall in the new orders. In this paper, distributed-lag model is proposed and estimated.

The article focuses on the impact of the market on the mechanical engineering industries in Great Britain between 1860 and 1914. There has been virtually no analysis at all of engineering technology in Britain. The development of the techniques of standardization and interchangeable manufacture, for example, has been studied almost entirely from the American point of view. Knowledge of production techniques in the manufacture of steam-engines-- stationary and marine--is scarce, but when the market was right, interchangeability was aimed for and achieved from an early date. Clearly the market is not a complete answer to all our questions. To understand more fully the lags and successes of British engineering there is need for more detailed study of its training and institutional patterns. It may be that mechanical engineering differs in important respects from other industries, but in that field at least it is arguable that the slowing down of British industrial growth after 1870 was due more to objective economic factors than has previously been recognized.

The article reports about higher technical education and socio-economic development. It discusses social science, development studies and engineering education. Surveys are conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to present a factual and quantitative collation of data on social science teaching in schools and other institutions of polytechnic education at university level. It deliberates on social science teaching in higher technical education in Great Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany. It also offers a comprehensive view of development in comparative education in social sciences, innovations in higher technical education in India, and the conditions of curricular innovation. Also, it gives a brief discussion on the technologist as the agent of a new diplomacy in teaching and research.

Comments on the education service of Great Britain. Perceived lack of national educational planning by the service; Necessity of establishing a Technician Education Council with adequate manpower resources; Problem of developing engineering courses and making them attractive to students.