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London Metropolitan Archives

EDUCATION OFFICER'S DEPARTMENT: HIGHER AND FURTHER EDUCATION BRANCH

IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): LCC/EO/HFE

Held at: London Metropolitan Archives

Title: EDUCATION OFFICER'S DEPARTMENT: HIGHER AND FURTHER EDUCATION BRANCH

Date(s): 1885-1975

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 34.53 linear metres

Name of creator(s): LCC | London County Council x London County Council

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

When the Council became a local education authority in 1904 the provision of further education was a permissive power, not a duty. However the Education Committee continued the practice of the former Technical Education Board of the Council of making grants in aid of institutions on which the Council was represented, as well as providing and maintaining institutions of its own.

After the end of the Second World War there was a remarkable increase in the number of students released by their employers to take courses at day colleges or technical colleges. The day colleges (formerly called day continuation schools) started in 1922. Their curriculum provided an extension of general education, together with some vocational work where appropriate. The Council's numerous evening institutes also provided a wide variety of courses both vocational and non-vocational for many thousands of Londoners.

Employers released that efficiency was increased by further education, and it became common for young workers in many trades and industries to attend a technical college for one day a week or for longer periods for vocational courses. Sandwich courses were developed whereby employees could be released for periods of about six months a time to work towards nationally recognised qualifications.

In 1947 the Council raised the status of its commercial institutes to that of the technical colleges and schools of art. They were renamed colleges of commerce. Their curriculum included courses for students engaged in banking, insurance, and other branches of commerce, with professional courses in law, languages and local government.

For many years before the Second World War the Council helped youth clubs by providing accommodation, instruction and equipment. In 1940 the Council established recreational evening institutes, and the London Youth Committee and borough youth committees were formed to co-ordinate youth work and form youth clubs. The Council also ran a youth employment service, providing guidance to school leavers.

The Council maintained a close and cordial association with the University of London. In addition to the granting of awards to students proceeding to the University, the Council made grants towards the general cost of the University and for special projects. The Council ran a scholarship scheme inspired by the principle that no eligible candidate should be debarred from higher education through lack of means to pay for it. A system of maintenance grants based on parental income was instituted for pupils of 15 to 18 years of age, and a variety of awards were made available for advanced courses in preparation for university degrees, for the professions and for vocational courses.

Other institutions and ancillary features made significant contributions to the London educational system. Among these the Council's schools of art achieved a deservedly high reputation.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the London County Council Education Officer's Department relating to Higher and Further education, 1885-1975. General files on a variety of topics including: Technical Institutes and Polytechnics; reductions in educational expenditure, fees; Further Education Building programme; Art Schools and Industry Conference; refugee students; transfer of scholars from secondary to junior technical schools; the Education Act, 1936; trade schools for girls; assistance to apprentices; Regional Co-ordination in the field of technical education Conference; the University of London; papers regarding training for specific trades; HM Inspector's Reports on training for specific trades; origins and general history of Day Continuation Schools; adult education; continued education of unemployed boys and girls; evening classes; proposed correspondence courses; education for members of the Armed Forces; juvenile organisations in London; London Youth Committee; Borough Youth Committees; training of blind, deaf and disabled persons; schools and the youth service; training ships and barges; juvenile delinquency; World Assembly of Youth; grants; National Certificates in Commerce endorsed by Board of Education; physical education as part of evening institute courses; teaching nursing and health subjects; classes in HM Prisons; the Further Education Scheme; Navy training schemes; links between secondary and further education; correspondence with cartoonist Bert Thomas regarding evening class publicity; the Committee on Higher Education (Robbins Committee); the National Advisory Council on Art Education; Jubilee celebrations of Fifty Years of Evening Institutes; recreational institutes; broadcasting of education programmes by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); Youth Officers and Youth Clubs; annual further education statistics and Inspectors Reports on evening institutes.

Minutes, agendas, reports and papers of various Consultative Committees and Conferences, including the Regional Advisory Council for Higher Technological Education; the Regional Academic Board; the Conference on Technical Education; the Association of Principals of LCC Institutes; the London Youth Committee; Borough Youth Committees; the Federation of London Men's Institutes; the Federation of London General Institutes, the National Advisory Council for Industry and Commerce and Consultative Committees and sub-committees on various classes and courses including book production, furnishing trades, goldsmiths', silversmiths', jewellers' and allied trades, commercial insurance, national insurance, needle trade, civil engineering, electrical engineering, management studies, mechanical and production engineering, garment trade, photography, cookery, waiters, printing and allied trades and the tailoring trade. Also minutes of Sub-Committees and bodies regarding the management of technical institutes, and minutes of Managers of Evening Institutes.

Papers relating to scholarships including senior county awards; trade scholarships; special places at junior technical institutes and trade schools; scholarships for central school pupils; scholarship holders and military service (First World War); Major County Awards; Davenant Exhibitions; Goldsmiths' Company Exhibitions; Kitchener Scholarships; Merchant Taylors Fund Scholarships; organ and choral scholarship at Oxford and Cambridge Universities; Robert Blair Fellowships in Applied Science and Technology; scholarships to the Royal College of Art.

Records of individual technical institutes and schools of art, including papers relating to: curricula, lectures, awards, reports, inspections, Committee papers, policies, building works, scholarships, co-operation with commercial firms, arrangements during the Second World War, replacement of obsolete equipment, Governing Bodies, maintenance and block grants, financial accounts and administration.

Reports, including report on Block Maintenance Grants to Polytechnics and other Aided Technical Institutes; Survey Reports on Polytechnics and Technical Institutes; LCC Inspectors' reports on Polytechnics and Technical Institutes; Annual Accounts of Aided Technical Institutions; reports on Education, Commerce and Industry; Technical Education in the Engineering Trades; Recovery of Cost of Out-County Students at Polytechnics and Technical Institutes; report on Eight Years of Technical Education and Continuation Schools; report on re-organisation of Evening Schools; statistics of Evening Institutes; report of the Section of the Education Committee appointed to consider the question of Apprenticeships; reports on the Manufacture of Gauges and the Training of Munitions Workers in Certain London Technical Institutions during the First World War; University of London - Report of Commission to Consider the Draft Charter for the Proposed Gresham University in London; University Colleges in Great Britain - Grants in Aid - Report to the Treasury by T.H. Warren and Professor G.D. Liveing. Also reports and registers of individual Technical Establishments and Evening Institutes.

Papers relating to County Awards including sample sets of case-papers regarding training of the blind; sample of case-papers regarding Senior County Awards; sample of case-papers regarding Major County Awards and sample of case-papers Declaration of Financial Circumstances of a recognised student beginning a course in a University Department of Education.

Prospectuses, handbills and syllabuses for LCC technical institutes, LCC Schools of Art, LCC Trade Schools, LCC Evening Commercial Institutes, LCC Commercial Colleges and Literary Institutes, LCC aided institutions and LCC evening class centres.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

General: LCC/EO/HFE/1; Conferences of advisory and consultative bodies: LCC/EO/HFE/2; Scholarships: LCC/EO/HFE/3; Individual technical institutes and schools of art: LCC/EO/HFE/4; Individual non-LCC maintained establishments: LCC/EO/HFE/5; Minutes of Consultative Committees and Conferences: LCC/EO/HFE/6; Minutes of Sub-Committees and bodies re management of technical institutes: LCC/EO/HFE/7; Minutes of Managers of Evening Institutes: LCC/EO/HFE/8; Reports: LCC/EO/HFE/9; Reports and Registers of individual Technical Establishments and Evening Institutes: LCC/EO/HFE/10; Case Papers of County Awards: LCC/EO/HFE/11; Miscellaneous: LCC/EO/HFE/12; Prospectuses of Technical Establishments, Evening Institutes and Aided Institutions: LCC/EO/HFE/13.

Conditions governing access:

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: City of London.

Physical characteristics:

Fit

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired with the records of its parent body, the London County Council. Futher accession received in 1998 (B98/120).

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

For further information on the history of the LCC please see Achievement: A Short History of the London County Council by W Eric Jackson (1965), LMA Library reference 18.0 1965, The London County Council 1938, LMA Library reference 18.7 SER 4, and The Youngest County: A description of London as a county and its public services, 1951, LMA Library reference 18.0 1951.

DESCRIPTION NOTES

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