Wage Earning and Education eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 151 pages of information about Wage Earning and Education.

Wage Earning and Education eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 151 pages of information about Wage Earning and Education.
drawing and one-third to mathematics and shop practice.  The instruction in these two latter subjects is based on a series of graded mimeographed or blue print lesson sheets, containing a wide variety of shop problems, with a condensed and simplified explanation of the mathematical principles involved.  In the main the work is limited to the application of simple arithmetic to problems of shop practice.  No textbooks are used, but the booklets on machine shop practice published by the International Correspondence Schools are studied in connection with the course.

In addition to the required classroom work in mechanical drawing, each apprentice serves four or five months of his term in the regular drafting rooms of the company.  The classroom is equipped with models of railway appliances and machinery, together with laboratory apparatus for teaching the laws of mechanics.  No machine tools or other shop equipment are used in the classes.  The course covers about 700 hours of instruction exclusive of the time spent in regular drafting room work.  About 20 apprentices finished the course in 1915.

Several of the building and printing trades’ labor unions take an active interest in the training of apprentices, and in at least two instances the unions maintain evening classes for teaching trade theory.  The Electrical Workers’ Union, made up principally of inside wiremen, conducts apprentice classes taught by journeymen.  The International Typographical Union course for compositors and compositors’ apprentices is undoubtedly the best yet devised for giving supplementary training in hand composition.  It is taught by journeymen in evening classes, under the supervision of the central office of the Typographical Union Commission, to which all the work must be submitted.  In February, 1916, about 100 students were enrolled, of whom approximately one-third were apprentices and two-thirds journeymen.  The course consists of 46 lessons in English, lettering, design, color harmony, job composition, and imposition for machine and hand folding.  The classes are held at the headquarters of the union.  As the students’ daily practice in the shop provides plenty of opportunity for the acquisition of manual skill, no apparatus or shop equipment is used in connection with the course.

The apprentice school conducted by the Y.M.C.A. represents another type of apprentice training.  The instruction is given during the day.  The apprentices are sent to the school by various firms in the city under an arrangement whereby the boys attend four and one-half hours each week during regular shop time.  In February, 1916, the enrollment consisted of 46 apprentices, practically all from the metal trades.  The employers pay the tuition fee, which amounts to $20 a year.  The course requires four years’ work of 40 weeks each, a total of 720 hours.  It comprises instruction in shop mathematics, drawing, English, physics, and industrial hygiene.  No shop equipment is used.  Fifteen boys were graduated from the course this year.

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Wage Earning and Education from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.