Welcome to the Glass Age

174 Larger glass companies have often created a formal relationship with a local college of education and together developed appropriate courses to maintain a stream of suitably experienced employees. These often include apprenticeship schemes which may receive government support. Pooling of resources across different disciplines within the college can also help ensure viability. In many countries apprenticeships provide an accredited and well structured, more practical environment to formalize the educational process for younger entrants. Of course, for such schemes to attract sufficient applicants, students must be made aware of ‘glass’ early in their education. In the UK, links are being created and teaching material developed on subjects such as glass and recycling (Figure 11.4). The International Year of Glass is an opportunity to stimulate such changes and to increase the awareness of the ubiquitous presence of glass in our daily lives. In Brazil the creation of comics based on exciting developments in glass is another approach. The International Commission on Glass has used the web to make them more widely available. Only through such actions will the best students join the industry. Indeed, as the glass industry has an age distribution which is typically top heavy, such training has a role in giving glass a future. Another educational model designed around upskilling existing employees is the one day/one week course, both on- and off-line, often available from central organizations with a commercial focus and some companies are large enough to arrange their own programs. Similar teaching can be built into the national and international conference structure. It offers opportunities for building understanding through discussion and networking. Organizations such as Celsian (Netherlands) will also travel to give targeted instruction. This model avoids the extended loss of an employee from his normal duties. For a part of the last century when change was particularly rapid and knowledge was expanding exponentially there were undergraduate courses dedicated almost exclusively to Glass, for example in Sheffield (Department of Glass Technology, University of Sheffield, UK) and Jena (Otto-Schott- Institut für Glaschemie, Jena, Germany). They were though exceptions. Targeted education to create the ‘Works Glass Technologist’ has now effectively disappeared at the degree level and the subject has been subsumed within the Materials Sciences. Shorter, specialized postgraduate courses, such as one-year masters degrees can complement specific training in another engineering discipline by adding a detailed appreciation of glass making. Research degrees and sponsored research programs are also needed to develop the subject, create new applications and specifically to help achieve the humanitarian goals listed elsewhere in this volume. Recently the Glass Manufacturers Association in the USA has developed through widespread discussion an optimized syllabus for such educational models. In Australia too those involved in the flat glass processing industry have created an extensive set of online programs for workers in that field. In Brazil, in collaboration with a glass research group, a governmental institution recently created a training course to prepare technicians to work in glass plants and associated manufacturing areas. This initiative has been particularly successful, and the course has already its third cohort. Ensuring a future The discovery of the breakthrough process of float-glass, was based on a simple concept but involved many different steps to bring it to fruition. Since then, there have been numerous other developments in glass production, for example: in measurement and control, energy sources and efficiency, coating techniques, and specialist products such as bioglasses and mobile phone covers. All have needed people of education and imagination.