Skerry's College was a series of colleges which primarily prepared candidates for Civil Service examinations across the UK and Ireland.
History
1878-1885
Skerry’s College was inaugurated as a small training centre in Edinburgh in 1878 by George Skerry, a civil servant in Edinburgh who saw the need to prepare candidates for the new Civil Service examinations, resulting from the findings of the Royal Commission 1875, whereby entry to the Civil Service, Post Office or Custom and Excise, was to be by competitive examinations. It was the first college in the country to provide Civil Service training for young men seeking to enter H. M. Civil Service, and was an immediate success. It catered for training for Post Office positions, Customs-Excise Officerships and other Government posts.
For those applicants unable to attend classes in person, a system of correspondence tuition by post was developed in 1880. This again was an immediate success and formed an integral part of the College’s expanding empire and played a vital role in supplementing and cementing what was offered in the day and evening classes. To Skerry’s College belongs the distinction of being first in Britain to introduce correspondence tuition for examinations.
1885-1930
George Stewart, at first a partner of George Skerry, took over Skerry’s College entirely in 1885 when the College was only seven years old. Skerry, after severing his connection, settled in London. There are grounds for assuming that George Stewart was a man of vision, judgement and a driving force who ‘remained a firm believer in the freedom and initiative of the private school’.
Prior to the change of ownership, activities were confined to catering for the Civil Service; but, once it was consolidated, the College in the early 1890s embarked on a scheme of important extensions. It broadened its curricula to meet requirements of university and professional preliminaries, and inaugurated office training in shorthand and typewriting.
This office training course was considerably aided by certain inventions of office equipment such as the cyclostyle invented by David Gestetner in 1881; was paper for typewriting copies, introduced in 1888; and in 1899, the rotary method of copying introduced by Roneo.
In 1892, a preliminary examination for entrance to Scottish universities was constituted. The following year Skerry's opened its university department to provide preparation for this examination. Its curricula was also broadened to meet the requirements of school, professional and commercial examinations. This was made all the greater by the extension of correspondence to prepare students for university and other entrance examinations.
Such was the response to Skerry's College that similar facilities were gradually provided during this period in Glasgow, Newcastle and Liverpool with Glasgow eventually becoming the main centre. Thus it became possible for students throughout Britain to study by correspondence for entry to a wide range of careers.
These colleges, along with the development of the Correspondence College, contributed to the country as a whole, as well as overseas, which was to last until the latter part of the twentieth century.
1930s
The keynote of the College was "Progress", and it kept abreast of the times by developing its courses of training and devising new methods to meet altering conditions. Repeated extensions in buildings, staff and equipment were made to cope with ever-increasing enrolments. In the late 1930s offices were opened in London and Aberdeen to deal with the large and growing volume of correspondence enrolments.
The College's eightieth birthday souvenir brochure records the events of Skerry’s College’s Diamond Jubilee in 1938. It brought together in Glasgow the principals and staff from all centres, and many friends. On the platform were principals and executives of the College, and ladies, Lord Provost Sir A. B. Swan, Sir Robert Wilson, I. J. Pitman (grandson of the inventor of Pitman’s shorthand), R. M. Allardyce (Director of Education for Glasgow), Bailie Matthew Armstrong, John M. Jack, Rev. Dr. S. J. Ramsay Sibbald and Rev. Dr. W. S. Provand. The toast "Skerry’s College" was proposed by Sir Robert Wilson and replied to by Mr. George Stewart, eldest son of the late principal. The chairman, Mr. Arthur Stewart, proposed "our guests" and the reply was made by Mr. I. J. Pitman.
1950s
After World War II came the need to re-adjust and develop.
Since World War II – in conditions of ‘overspill’ employment- there had been a considerable falling-off in the number of young people seeking admission to the services of the Crown.