The path of Les Scannell’s career stretching 65 years has taken some unusual twists and turns that have brought him back to Midland Junction Technical School many times in different roles.
His first involvement was as a student during his
apprenticeship as a mechanical fitter with the West Australian Government
Railways from 1940 to 1944. Classes for apprentices were held at the Technical
Education building shared with the Railway’s Institute. Les’s memories
include the distractions of the billiard table and the day when a fire in the
staircase had the boys on the top floor jumping out of windows. At seventeen Les
was a little older than some of the other apprentices. He had begun his working
life in Britain, helping to make Brenn guns for Vickers Armstrong when World War
II was announced. He and his mother just managed to get on the last passenger
ship from Britain to Australia where the family had previously migrated 15 years
earlier.
During his apprenticeship, the Railway Workshops were geared to support the war effort and Les became involved in repairing large propellers which were taken off mainly Dutch Merchant ships at Fremantle to the Midland Workshops pits, normally used for maintaining steam engines. Each propeller weighed between 30 to 40 tons and exact precision was required to get them balanced to the point where they could be turned a full rotation with the touch of a finger. Les was also involved in working on the production of marine engines for the Corvettes, Navy vessels designed to chase submarines. All components could be produced at the Workshops, where a sharp eyed Navy Inspector was always on the look-out for shortcuts in the workmanship. One of the favourite tricks was to fill pit blow-holes in the metal that had occurred during casting with iron filings or chewing gum.
Air-raid drills were part of life at the Workshops during the War. Employees dug a trench in the clay and when the siren sounded they would all jump in – even once when the trench was half filled with water after heavy rain. Les’s job was to stand in the Power-House armed with a tin hat, ready to run messages. After the war Les completed his Engineering Diploma at night school. He worked for a time in the Drawing Office at the Workshops but was on tradesman’s conditions. He left the railways and worked as a ship’s engineer but became so seasick he decided to return to the railways. Soon after that he transferred to Technical Education lecturing in Engineering subjects. But despite gaining a Diploma in Engineering, Les had never really wanted to become an engineer. He had started his apprenticeship largely to satisfy his father whose apprenticeship as a tool-maker had been cut short with the advent of World War I.
In 1951 he began studying Psychology and worked in the Technical Education Counselling Division, an integral part of which was aptitude testing for the selection of trainees. This had been introduced to Technical Education during the War to assess those suitable for munitions production, and then after the War in retraining returned servicemen and war workers as part of the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme. Les’s work in this area and his engineering qualifications and experience eventually led him to the position of Chairman of the Railway Apprentices Selection Board. Over a period of 25 years he was involved in assessing thousands of applicants for apprenticeships with the railways- each year alone there would be between six and seven hundred applicants for thirty vacancies. He always maintained the philosophy that vacancies should be filled by the strongest applicants. During his time as Chairman, Les simplified the system of union representation to one overall representative rather than one for each of the many trades. Each year for the five or six weeks required for the selection process Les was based at Midland Junction Technical School, then he would return to his normal position at the Technical Education Counselling Division in the city centre.
Les has remained a staunch supporter of the one year Pre-apprenticeship Course which was introduced in the mid-sixties in conjunction with shortened apprenticeships, i.e. reduced from five years to three or four years. He saw the Pre-apprentice Course as enabling those wishing to enter a trade to first learn about the tools, how to use them and any safety requirements, without the pressure of having to produce things at the end of the day.
As part of his involvement at Midland he also headed the
selection of farmers who sought to become Health Inspectors during the rural
downturn in the 1970s.
Now he works for the Phoenix English Language Academy, where he does the bulk of the counselling work in support of the 550 students from over 40 countries who may be sick or worried about family matters, or not performing well for other reasons.
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