FOREWORD.

This bulletin, prepared under the direction of Mr. Frank Cushman, Chief, Industrial Education Service, by Mr. C. F. Klinefelter, regional agent for industrial education for the Central States, is based upon the experience of Mr. Klinefelter in part-time cooperative work in Ohio, where he assisted in pioneering work, both as a coordinator and in State supervision.

As the cooperative part-time plan represents a special phase of Vocational education in which considerable interest has been manifested, and has a wide application throughout the country, it has been deemed advisable to publish this bulletin to satisfy a constant demand for information on the organization and problems of such

courses.

The specific information herein outlined will prove of interest to cities where it is desired to offer trade training in the public schools while providing pupils with an opportunity to complete their highschool education. This form of industrial education may be installed and maintained, at very little expense to the community, in cities as small as 8,000 or 10,000 population which have some one dominant industry. It should, however, prove of equal interest to larger cities, since the organization would be identical, involving merely additional teachers and equipment because of the larger enrollment.

J. C. WRIGHT, Director.

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PART-TIME COOPERATIVE COURSES.

NEED FOR COOPERATIVE COURSES.

During the past few decades the population of the country has been concentrated more and more into large cities and industrial centers, and modern industrial production has reached a high degree of specialization. In the face of these rapidly changing conditions it would appear that the process of training apprentices directly by industry or in the crafts, where it has not fallen largely into disuse has tended to become less well adapted to present conditions, so that the problem of effective vocational education in the field of trade and industrial pursuits has become increasingly urgent and difficult. Partly as a result of these developments, public interest in vocational education in general, and particularly in those forms of vocational education which undertake to provide some form of special trade or apprenticeship training for young workers, has been increasing.

Under the stimulation of the Federal and of State vocational education acts, great progress has been made throughout the country in this field within the past five years. The needs of industrial workers who have definitely and finally severed all connection with the regular full-time school program have been met in part through the organization of general continuation, and trade extension part-time courses and evening classes.

It is, however, generally recognized that satisfactory progress has not yet been made in meeting the needs of those who are interested in securing effective and practical training, which will prepare them to enter the trade and industrial field as trained or semitrained workers. That there is a demand for trade preparatory training, of a magnitude which should make it of public interest, can not be denied, in view of the hundreds of private schools offering such work, which are maintained by heavy tuition fees at the expense of the individuals enrolled.

Unit trade courses are costly, demanding a large outlay for equipment, supplies, and maintenance, and are difficult in their administration. The per capita cost is extremely high, since the physical conditions are such that they can offer intensive training to only a small, selected group. The general industrial school, which was provided to meet the needs of small cities, has not developed to any considerable extent. There are a number of reasons why this is true, one of the chief ones being that the type of course which must be

developed is often more difficult in its organization and administration than are unit trade courses. The per capita cost also is high, and the instruction reaches only a small group.

However, there is one type of industrial course which in a very large measure overcomes practically all of the disadvantages of the unit trade course and of the general industrial school, and in addition has some real advantages peculiarly its own. The cooperative parttime course has successfully demonstrated its real value and enduring qualities in a large number of instances, and under diversified and varying conditions.

This type of course is extremely flexible, and may be contracted or expanded to meet the needs for trade preparatory training in communities of almost any size, from the small city of 8,000 to 10,000 population, to the largest city in the country. In the case of small cities, the principal limiting condition is that the employing industries shall be able to insure positions for placement training for a minimum number (30 to 40) of student apprentices, and absorb the graduates of the course from year to year. Such a course also offers effective trade preparatory training at a per capita cost to the community less than that of any other form of industrial training which may be established. Its organization, furthermore, does not disrupt the existing public school organization, but merely adds another course to the curriculum.

With the exception of a small amount of demonstration machinery in the school, the community offering this course is put to no expense for machinery, equipment, or shops, since the industries which are cooperating serve as the practical shop laboratories for the course. There is also no difficulty in maintaining the practical work done in the shop by the pupils enrolled on a useful or productive basis, since they are working in commercial shops at commercial production.

The cooperative part-time plan should be of especial interest to manufacturers and employers, since under it they are assured of a steady supply of apprentices, who are not only working in their shops but are in addition securing valuable technical and related instruction, as well as general academic training in the public schools.

Past experience in the organization and administration of cooperative courses in various cities and States has demonstrated that this form of industrial education is generally acceptable to organized labor. No difficulties arise over disputes as to "exploitation" by the public schools of juvenile unpaid labor in the production of articles of commercial value, as sometimes happens in the case of unit trade courses. It is almost invariably the practice for both employers and labor unions to give full credit on the apprenticeship period for the half time spent in school by the cooperative students.