There are at present no adequate courses of training for the jewelry trade. A jeweler is put at the bench and starts in with the simpler processes. He is usually broken in at so-called jewelry work, chiefly at soldering processes. If he is quick, he can be promoted in time to the more expert departments. There is a fixed system of apprenticeship in each factory, covering one, two, or even three years, with a bonus at the end of the period, and limiting the number of apprentices allowed by the unions to 1 apprentice to every 10 employees. The jewelers have for some time been considering starting training classes in New York or Newark, similar to a small professional class recently successfully started by a manufacturing jeweler in Chicago. They are also taking up the question of training classes in their own factories. According to their suggestion, courses ought to last anywhere from six months to two or three years, according to the ability of the worker “to catch on.”
Educational Requirements
There are no essential educational requirements, though a good school education helps and a knowledge of mechanical drawing is “a leg up,” and puts a worker immediately at the more expert and highly paid processes. Any man who has had experience at delicate work of any kind, who has perhaps liked the finer handwork in occupational therapy at the hospitals, who has two good hands and good eyesight, and is not too disabled to reach the shop, will find no handicap in this trade. If he has a mechanical bent and flexible fingers he can become an efficient jeweler. If, in addition, he has any artistic, creative capacity, he can develop into a stone setter, engraver, or designer. His work then becomes of a personal nature, commands a comfortable salary, and can bring him, despite disablement, to the top in the industry.
PLAN No. 961. TRANSPORTATION—INTRODUCTORY
Acknowledgment
This monograph was prepared by Clarence E. Bonnett, under the direction of Charles H. Winslow, Chief of the Research Division of the Federal Board for Vocational Education. Acknowledgment is due to Percy R. Todd, General Manager, Bangor & Aroostook Railroad, Bangor, Me., and to Dr. John Cummings of the Research Division for editorial assistance.
What Transportation Involves
In transportation men are concerned with the moving of persons and goods from one place to another. Transportation requires, however, many other operations than simply loading, hauling, and unloading passengers and freight. Charges must be determined and collected, records must be kept, movements of trains, cars, boats, and other vehicles must be directed, repairs to equipment must be made, and numerous other matters must be handled. These numerous operations call for hundreds of thousands of employees in many different trades and occupations.
Occupations Varied but of Great Responsibility
Thus in transportation there are so many different sorts of occupations that nearly any individual who likes responsibility can become interested in some part of the great field. There are occupations in which responsibility rests upon the employee for insuring the safety of property, and this responsibility is not by any means inconsiderable. In other occupations employees are responsible for lives as well as property, and risk their own lives in the service. There is office work for those who like it and plenty of traveling for those who enjoy that. If a life out of doors appeals to you, transportation can give you a job of that sort. In short, if you have a liking for responsibility you can find a job in transportation service that will suit you.