September marked the start of the new academic year and a busy time for Newport Technical Institute (later Newport Art College) in Clarence Place with many of its courses adapted to the needs of the war effort.

It had been training semi-skilled munitions workers for some time, with daytime classes lasting about two weeks for women and evening classes for men over military age. Its first batch had been sent to work at Ebbw Vale in October 1915. Others were sent to the Uskside Engineering Works and to the new National Shell Factory at Maesglas.

In September 1918 it began a new role. Along with colleges in London and Manchester, the Institute had been selected by the Department for National Service as a centre to run courses in clerical work for new recruits to Queen Mary’s Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. The Institute had been training women to take over clerical jobs from men since January 1916, but had done so with a lack of urgency, insisting that it would take six months to train a typist. In February the mayor complained that he had written to the press pointing out the training available in clerical work but had not received a single reply. Things had changed by 1918. The new intensive course would last for a month after which the recruits would be posted to their units and replaced by another draft. The Argus commented proudly, ‘It speaks well for the reputation which the Technical Institute has gained with the authorities.’

The Institute was also preparing to receive young Serbian refugees, who had been sent to Newport to learn engineering. Following their courses they were sent to local firms for work experience. The aim was that they would eventually be able to go back to Serbia to assist in the physical reconstruction of their country, which had been ravaged by the war. This again was a feather in Newport’s cap. Captain W H Williams, who administered the scheme for the Serbian Relied Fund stated that ‘Newport Technical institute has a reputation for engineering courses second to none in the country’.

The engineering department was also becoming more popular with local people. In September 1918 over 180 students enrolled for evening classes in mechanical engineering and boilermaking. The number doing mechanical engineering had doubled compared to the pre-war level. Classes in crafts such as cabinet making were also being held for discharged and disabled soldiers, work which was to continue well after the war ended.