PLAN No. 384. TRAINING SCHOOL FOR OFFICE BOYS
Not that office boys are scarce, by any means. It is only the good ones who are scarce, and it was for the purpose of making all office boys good ones, that a former professor in a prominent Chicago business college took up the idea of an office boys’ training school.
A year or two ago he interviewed a number of leading business men in Chicago on the subject, and found them enthusiastic in their support of the plan, as they had suffered many inconveniences through the tendency of office boys in general to quit just about the time they were broken in to their special duties. The Y. M. C. A. also appreciated the seriousness of the situation, and hailed the proposition as the only remedy.
He asked the business men to outline the requirements of the position, the special qualifications necessary, the routine of their work, and the means through which the interest of the boy could best be obtained.
Through newspaper advertising, the distribution of circulars and the employment of canvassers to call upon and interest the parents of the boys, he soon had a sufficient number of enrollments to open the school, where each was trained in the special line of work to which he was best adapted. Boys were selected for real estate offices, law offices, brokers’ offices, and all other lines where their services were required, and shorthand, typewriting and book-keeping courses were given to those who desired them in order to win promotion to better positions.
The average tuition required in each case was from $10 to $25, with more for special cases, and this was paid partly by the boys themselves and partly by the business men who were either sending their own office boys to the school, or making selections from the graduates.
Where a boy was already employed in an office, his employer would allow him to spend two or three hours each day in taking the training given at the school, and the progress most of the boys made under this course more than made up in efficiency for the loss of time and whatever expense it involved.
While one man looked after the classes, another was busy on the outside, interesting both business men and boys in the enterprise, and approximately 500 boys were thus taken care of by the school each month.
The school netted a good profit, besides giving a great number of boys a good start on the road to success.