What Training Can Do for You in Navy-Yard Occupations
If you wish to take up any navy-yard occupation you can, by taking advantage of the opportunities for taking training that are offered by the Federal Board for Vocational Education, decidedly better your chances of getting a job and of getting a better job.
In the first place, if you are handicapped, you can, by taking special training, equip yourself so that you can hold down a great many navy-yard jobs that, without training you could not do at all. A great many jobs like those carried on in the shops and offices of navy yards have been successfully held down by men who had lost a hand, an arm, or a leg, and who had taken special training so that they could overcome their handicap.
Aside from this special training, if you are interested in navy-yard employment, the training that you can secure will enable you to get a better job than you otherwise could. For example, perhaps you followed some trade similar to some navy-yard trade before you entered the service. You did not know all about that trade—there are always some things that a fellow does not know about his trade. For example, you might have worked in a shop where the foreman could read the blue prints and you could not; you can take training in blue-print reading. Perhaps you could not lay off work; you can learn to do it. Perhaps there were some machines that you did not know how to run, or certain jobs that you did not know how to do; you can take training on these machines and on those special jobs. Perhaps you are well up in your trade, and would like to become a quarterman or leading man but need to know certain things about the job; you can take training for that, so that you can get yourself in line for promotion.
If you did not know anything about a trade before you entered the service, but learned something about some trade or occupation while in the service, you can complete your trade training. For example, suppose that you learned something about pipe fitting, or electrical work, or machine-shop work, or sail making, or yeoman’s work while you were in the service; you can complete your training so that you will have the entire trade at your command; and you can not only get the shop training, but you can also get whatever drawing or other technical training a first-class man in that trade needs to know.
If you never had any trade or think that some navy-yard trade would suit you better than the one you followed before you entered the service, you can take training for that new trade.
In any case, if, in order to take the training that you desire, you need to take some general school training, such as arithmetic or English, you can take that training in addition to the training for the work itself.
These are only a few examples of the possibilities for training for navy-yard jobs that are open to you through the Federal Board for Vocational Education.
If you are interested you should, of course, take your plans up with your vocational adviser and secure the necessary approval.
In any case carefully consider if, through training, you can not either hold down a job that you could not hold down now, or fit yourself for a better job than you could hold down with your present knowledge and skill; that is, see if you do not think that out of all the different kinds of training open to you, there is some training that will help you to secure or hold down a better job in a navy yard than you could without the training.
If you can secure the approval of the Federal Board for Vocational Education for the particular sort of training that you desire, almost any sort of training is open to you.