GIRLS’ EMPLOYMENTS.
Wood Violet (Civil Service).—A well-educated girl, such as the one you describe, is wise to try to enter the Civil Service at the age of sixteen. Under the new rule she is eligible from sixteen to eighteen for one of the posts of girl clerks. These girl clerks receive a salary of £35 the first year, £37 10s. the second and £40 the third. They can afterwards be promoted to the rank of Female Clerks, if they have shown themselves to be possessed of superior intelligence, otherwise they become sorters. The advantage of entering the Service young is, that a girl understands the routine of office work by the time she is old enough to hold a clerkship, whereas women entering for a clerkship as outsiders have their duties to learn. A Female Clerk begins at a salary of £55, and may eventually obtain a maximum of £100, and further may be promoted. A Female Sorter, in London, receives 12s. to £1 a week, and in the provinces 10s. to 21s. 6d. a week. There are also prospects of promotion for sorters. The examination is held in the ordinary English subjects, together with French and German. Edinburgh would be the nearest examination centre for you. The examinations are advertised in the principal papers on a Thursday some weeks before the date fixed. You would doubtless see the announcement by watching the pages of The Scotsman. Having seen the advertisement, write at once to the Secretary, Civil Service Commission, London, S.W., asking for a form of application. This you return, with the necessary details respecting yourself filled up, and you will then be informed the precise address of the place of examination and the other particulars you require to know. We think we have now told you all that is necessary. We have only to add that a girl who intends entering this examination should now occupy herself more particularly in acquiring a neat clerical handwriting, in studying English composition, and in perfecting herself in arithmetic and geography.
La Comtesse (Dairy Work).—You would expend £5 very wisely, it seems to us, in taking a month’s course of training at the Reading Dairy Institute. You had better wait till the spring, as you suggest, and then devote your attention as closely as possible to the practical dairy work and cheese-making. From renewed inquiry which we have made on the subject we still learn that women licensed at such schools as this obtain excellent posts as dairy-maids and managers of dairies, and receive salaries of about £25 with board and lodging. You should try on the completion of the course to get an appointment in the dairy of some large landed proprietor, and you might be willing to forego something in wages at first in order to work under a competent superintendent. The Principal of the Dairy Institute, we imagine, must constantly be asked to recommend trained pupils. In any case you should consult him as to the whole question of your suitability and prospects before engaging to take the course of tuition.
Anxious (Suggestions).—If the sight of your one eye is thoroughly strong and satisfactory, you had better learn dressmaking. But if the eye is at all weak, it would be unwise to try it, and in this event cookery or laundry-work would be better. In the end we believe you will not be sorry that you have been considered ineligible as a shop-assistant. It is only in youth that a shop-assistant can be sure of obtaining employment; whereas the skilled worker at any trade can always earn her living.
Laundress (Superintendentship or Opening for Laundry).—If you have received a thorough training in laundry work, by which we mean not less than a year spent in learning the business, then by all means advertise for a post as superintendent or manageress. The National Laundry Association has lately fully corroborated all that has been said on the subject in the “G. O. P.” by drawing the special attention of educated women to the prospects that this business now offers under the steam laundry system. We hear continually of places where a laundry is required. Harringay, in the north of London, is one of those most recently mentioned to us. Requests have reached us also from Lichfield, Elstree and Richmond-on-Thames to recommend laundresses to establish themselves in those localities.
H. A. T. (Training in a Children’s Hospital).—At nineteen you are too young to be admitted as a probationer to any London children’s hospital. But when you are twenty you would be eligible, so far as age is concerned, for the East London Hospital for Children, Glamis Road, Shadwell, E. The vacancies there, however, are extremely few in proportion to the number of applications. No premium is required, and a salary of £10 is given the first year, £12 the second, and £20 the third, with laundry and uniform.
Teacher.—We infer from your letter that the school in which you taught two years ago was a National School. It ought not then to be difficult for you to obtain employment of the same kind again. The Guardian, The Church Times and The Schoolmistress, are the most likely papers in which to find advertisements of vacancies.
A “G. O. P.” Reader (Hospital Nursing).—You can certainly apply to the matron of any of the chief London hospitals for admission as a probationer. You should enclose a stamp in order that the matron may reply to you.