Training

Introduction

Engineering Training Department trained all of the BBC's engineers and technical operators.  Residential courses covered the theory and practice of studio, communications and transmitter engineering.  The high standard of training helped to develop BBC Engineering's good reputation.  Training still takes place at Wood Norton (2008) - click here for details.

The staff of BBC Engineering Training in front of Wood Norton Hall, near Evesham, Worcestershire.  Training took place in the Hall (now an hotel) and in several buildings around the estate. Click the picture for more pictures of the staff. Click here for an article on Wood Norton during the Second World War. New: Click here for a 1986 Guide to the Engineering Training Centre (9.7MB PDF file)

Course photographs

Photographs were taken of the people attending each course and contributions are requested to build up a record of them.  Click here for the email address.  Please see the Publication Policy if you have any concerns.

Some photographs are already on this web site and they are grouped under the type of course, as listed below.
Highlighted links contain relatively old pictures (pre-1970ish) - if you have one then please send it in before it's too late!

The designations A, B and C referred to the level of the course, C being the most advanced of the three.  The suffix (e.g. Television) indicated the the subject area.  Course names and formats changed over the years (e.g. PTA to TA to A) so these are listed separately where appropriate.  Many other specialised training courses took place such as HF Retraining.  Courses are only listed above if course photographs are available.

Names appear on some of the pictures, but it would involve too much work to add them as separate searchable text (unless you would like to send some to me in a form that I could copy and paste from an email).  Further information such as the year of each course might be added in due course.

Thanks are due to Andy Woodhouse for supplying many pictures which started the compilation of these pages.  Other contributors are acknowledged next to the photographs that they have contributed.