Educational Requirements for Navy Yard Trades
You have some education and you will naturally be interested in knowing how much general education a good man must have in the different navy yard trades and occupations. Through your vocational adviser you can get a copy of Aids to Employment Managers and Interviewers on Shipyard Occupations with Descriptions of Such Occupations issued by the United States Shipping Board, Emergency Fleet Corporation, which will give you considerable information along this line. The following may give you some general ideas of the amount of education that a man would need in the different sorts of trades and occupations.
In general you can not have too much education for any navy yard jobs. The more education you have the better workman you will be, the better your chances for promotion and, in general, the greater your opportunities. So do not be afraid of knowing too much. On the other hand, if you have had only a common-school education, or even less than that, you need not feel discouraged, not only because many of the men now making good on their jobs have had only a limited school training, but because, with the approval of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, you can secure such additional general education as you may need to equip you for the work that you wish to do.
Most navy yard occupations require only a common-school education. That is, if you can read, write, and speak English, and can do ordinary work in arithmetic, you probably have as much general education as most men in these occupations were able to secure before they went to work. Such occupations as draftsman, tracer, electrician, patternmaker, and a few others, especially office work, call for some high-school education.
In addition to the general educational requirements the different trades vary in the amount of technical training required. In many trades, such as, for example, that of the machinist, patternmaker, coppersmith, boilermaker, or plumber, a man must be able to read drawings and blue prints, and to follow specifications. This is true of many of the shop trades. In many of these trades a man must be able to make necessary calculations in connection with his work. In some cases a man must have special knowledge about the particular kinds of material that he works on, such as brass, steel, copper, and so on.
You should consider carefully what technical training you require for the sort of work you intend to follow, remembering that the opportunity to secure this technical training is a part of the offer for training made to you by the Federal Board for Vocational Education.