Les formes actuelles du Progrès technique et la formation des travailleurs Technological Changes and Workers' Education

Sommaire

Le présent travail a pour objet : a) de chercher à caractériser la nature des développements technologiques survenant dans les sociétés industrielles contemporaines et en indiquer les principales manifestations; b) de rechercher les conséquences de la nouvelle technologie sur le caractère de l'entreprise et sur la structure de l'emploi, et c) d'évaluer les exigences nouvelles que pose la technique moderne en matière de formation et de qualification de la main-d'oeuvre.

Summary

At the outset, we should ask ourselves to what extent technological improvements contribute to social progress. The question is a valid one due to the fact that the outcome of technological changes has been a controversial matter since the first Industrial Revolution.

The history of labour relations, for instance, until the second World War could be written almost entirely in terms of the struggles that have been sustained by workers and their union against technological change. Such a pessimistic attitude has been shared by several intellectuals as well as by the most enlightened spokesmen of the modern «bourgeoisie ».

Adam Smith, Marx, Durkheim and more recently modern sociologists and industrial psychologists have in turn diagnosed our industrial civilization and have tried to characterize its negative effects on the social behavior of individuals. Those critics however have been formulated at a time when the economic systems of the new industrial societies was not yet « run in » and was not stable enough to absorb without any disturbing effect the impact of the new technology upon industrial classes. Amongst other characteristics, this traditional type of technology called mainly for a labour force deprived to a large extent of any professional skill and endowed with a very poor educational background.

To-day it may be asserted with a good deal of realism that the era during which the worker was controlled by the machine is fastly coming to an end. A new age is emerging in which a greater intellectual contribution is required from the worker due to the fact that he has not so much to « feed » machines than to understand a production process in order to exercise a control on it. Therefore we surely are in a position to affirm that in the long run technological change is intimately related to human progress in general, because it implies the need for higher educational levels and greater skills on the part of the labour force. We may therefore conclude that there is a tendency towards an ever closer relation between industrial technology and the cultural improvement of modern industrial societies.

THE NEW TECHNOLOGY

Technological change may be said to have developed along three main stages since the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century; the phase of the mechanization, that of the « assembly line » or « continuous process » and finally that of the «automatic control ».

MECHANIZED INDUSTRY

Having its origin in the scientific discoveries which happened at the end of the 17th century, mechanization results from the combination of different scientific concepts and their application to the new industrial system being then inaugurated. It implies the utilization of new forms of energy, the standardization of equipment and the division of labour.

With the outcome of the second World War spectacular discoveries in the field of electronics have rendered possible the development of various types of automated devices able to utilize principles already developed by the economic and administrative theories. However, such devices are no more than an extension of mechanization to scientific and administrative practices.

THE « ASSEMBLY LINE » PROCESS

During the first years of the 20th century, a second industrial revolution has taken place with the new concept of mass production industry. This new technology was based on what we could call the « continuous process » which in turn was a result of what we call scientific management and industrial engineering.

During the 40's this continuous process in the mass production industries was possible without any direct intervention on the part of the worker. This has been possible with the automatic transfer process according to which a piece of product was transferred from one stage of production to another, the whole cycle being controlled electronically.

THE AUTOMATIC CONTROL

A third principle is to be mentioned however in order to fully appreciate the present state of industrial technology: this is the one American specialists call «feedback». This is a concept of control whereby the input of the machine is regulated by the machine own output so that the output meets the conditions of a pre-determined objective automatically. Unlike the mechanization and continuous process concepts, feedback is unique to automation. So the cycle is completed and tedious tasks are less and less the fact of the industrial worker.

This new technology based on automation appears to some as an entirely new phenomenon having nothing in common with old techniques; for others there is nothing really new in automation: it is but a new expression covering an old reality, i.e. mechanization.

THE IMPACT OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGY ON THE ENTREPRISE AND THE STRUCTURE OF EMPLOYMENT

The recent changes in the automated sectors of industry imply drastic changes in the division of labour and in the nature of occupations. The worker who not long ago was intimately related to the machine becomes more and more independant from it. Instead of having to sustain a constant effort, the worker in the automated process only has to perform a broad supervision. The integrated process of production results in the fact that a reduced manpower is sufficient to take care of an industrial set-up of much broader dimensions and much differentiated functions. In those conditions the tasks to be performed require from the operator a greater general knowledge of the system of production, a deeper technical insight, and a better attitude towards group work.

In the automated industry supervisors and administrative personnel have to possess higher qualifications than those required from them in the traditional context. In order to achieve executive functions, technical skill is a prerequisite; personality and human relations are not enough.

The changes created by automation in the structure of employment call for redefinition of the traditional classes of trades and skills; they also operate major changes in the ordinary promotion processes and lessen the security of employment among workers who, because of their age or due to a low degree of education, are not able to reajust themselves to the new needs of industry.

The enterprise is no longer the same; it becomes more and more dependent upon scientific research. Long term programming is becoming its main preoccupation. Industrial policies and controls are scientifically planned, due to cybernetics, the theory of games and mathematical concepts which are all becoming new tools for administrators. As a consequence staff functions are developing considerably. Technical and professional staffs are becoming larger and they tend to take the place of supervisors in the traditional meaning of the term. Lower rank office personnel is progressively eliminated by electronical devices.

Amongst blue collars the movement is even more spectacular because there is a constant shift from the traditional non qualified production labour force to skilled labour needed for the maintenance of the industrial equipment.

Although nobody would even think to question the positive effects, in the long run, of the new technology and automation, it is however obvious that in the short run these positive results create a number of acute problems for the economic societies which are not prepared to answer what the Americans call the challenge of automation.

The fact is that present issues due to technological change are actually and essentially problems of professional readjustments, better technical qualifications for the new labour force as well as the need for a higher intellectual level for the members of the community as a whole.

Pressure points are mainly concentrated in three groups of people: a) qualified workers in the traditional trades or callings, whose job opportunities vanish with time and who are too old to be efficiently retrained; b) non-qualified workers who are not able, because of a lack in their general education, to acquire the new skills needed from them by automation; c ) young workers joining the labour market with already obsolete technical education or equipped with a deficient scientific knowledge.

TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE CALLS FOR A NEW CONCEPT OF VOCATIONAL TRAINING

What is the best way to transform our educational methods in order to meet the needs of the new technology? What means of preparation young workers and elder ones should acquire to answer the challenge of automation, to reduce its short run negative effects and to benefit from its long term positive aspects? The answer is in a kind of education allowing for the development of a labour force able to create, control and maintain the new industrial equipment as well as to organize production processes in a more rational way.

In order to attain such a result a few suggestions would be the following:

1. The need for a planification of education. By this we mean developing educational policies and programs to which would take part governments, business and other groups having an interest in education at any level whatever (labour unions, adult education societies, etc.). The implementation of such programs and policies should be the fact of groups composed of qualified people in certain academic and professional fields: economists, businessmen, sociologists, specialists in labour relations and so forth.

2. A new concept of vocational training — Vocational training must no longer mean the mere preparation to perform a well defined and limited trade or function; on the contrary, it must encompass every bit of knowledge which is needed by the modern labour force in our economic and industrial societies. In so doing every people should be able to acquire a degree of knowledge corresponding to its aptitudes and personal resources.

3. Along this line general educational levels, particularly the secondary level, should reserve a larger share to technical knowledge and this knowledge must be further integrated to the general educational background of an individual. Psychological and vocational tools should be used more intensively in order to help professional choices by students at this level of their schooling.

4. Finally, we should try to develop what is currently called «-continuous education » in order to allow any individual to readapt consistently and continuously to changes occurring in his position on the labour market.