Vocational Advisement and Placement BY ARNOLD LEVITAS Instructor of Typography at the College of the City of New York and Stuyvesant Evening Trade School 1920 The Mount Hope School Press New York City (P? Mount Hope School Press Vocational Advisement and Placement BY ARNOLD LEVITAS THE United States Goverment is today confront- ed with no greater obligation than that of ad- justing the unusual conditions created by the war with regard to many of the men who are now returning from the battle-fronts of Europe. By far the most important task will be that of developing to usefulness the men who have in some way been handicapped by the loss of hands, or feet, or hearing, or sight. After these men will have been put into physical shape and be sufficiently strong to take up some kind of work, the Government aims to give them a train- ing which will prepare them for some useful occupa- tion so that it may not be necessary for them to become a burden to the community and to subsist on charity. It is a well-established fact that only a very small percentage of the men so maimed could not be re- claimed to a certain amount of usefulness. While it may not be possible to train a handicapped man to regain his full powers, it is quite probable that many of them will lose only a certain percentage of their efficiency after they will have received the training contemplated by the Government. Besides the training-school for these men, it will also be necessary to establish a bureau which will deal with the vocational advisement and placement of the disabled soldier and sailor. Such a bureau will de- termine the capabilities of the applicant from various viewpoints and his fitness for certain work. It will be necessary, first of all, to ascertain the candidate's general qualifications. If he has been en- gaged in some industrial or commercial pursuit pre- vious to his enlistment, it might be possible to have him adapt himself to the same or some other branch of his previous occupation. Where this is not possible on account of his peculiar handicap or general un- fitness for that kind of work it might be well to try him for some other kind of activity. To keep the man to the work in which he has previously been engaged, or even in some other branch of the same industry, would, of course, be most advantageous all round. It might minimize the efforts in his training; it would tend to keep from overcrowding other trades; and it would not interfere with the rules and regulations of existing trades un- ions. Necessity, however, should not be set aside by any other factor, and the best interests of the can- didate in question should be the most important con- dition to consider. Every man appearing before the bureau officials is presumed to possess certain qualifications. To these should be added his previous training and ex- perience. These may be called his assets. From these assets we are to deduct his liabilities which will be, first of all, in the form of his physical handicap, created by the ravages of the war, and, secondly, by certain deficiencies of his own. The bureau for advisement and placement, com- posed of men possessing the proper experience and qualifications, will be able through a thorough ex- aminationto establish the status of the candidate. When, after carefully weighing all conditions regard- ing the candidate, this is sufficiently established, the man should be recommended for a certain kind of training. The second task, then, of this bureau would be to cooperate with the training-schools of the Gov- ernment, and advise the authorities of those schools of the kind of training to be given to each one of the candidates. If, on report of the officials of the train- ing-schools, some candidate does not show any prom- ise of ability in certain directions, he may be tried- after another examination by the above bureau in some other field of endeavor. The first few weeks of his training in any particular work should be re- garded simply as an experiment; and, if the candi- date shows adaptability for his work, his training may then be approved by. the bureau and he may be permit- ted to continue until completion. Under these circumstances, a man will be given every possible opportunity to find himself in the par- Yicular work for which he is best fitted. In fact, this vocational guidance should prove sVbe'neficial as to neutralize some of the deficiencies created by the maimed condition of the body. 'Another task of this bureau would be to negoti- ate with many of the industrial and commercial estab- lishments of the country regarding the employment of these men, who are to be trained for useful work in these various establishments. It would be well to get the advice of the heads of these firms with regard to their particular wants in the laber market, so that the men may be trained on practical lines and that they may fit into the plans of these industrial con* cerns. . It stands to reason that, in order to get the best results, it would be necessary to take into considera- tion the fact that these handicapped men cannot be made as useful as others who are physically sound. Therefore, the matter of compensation should be so arranged as to result beneficially to employer as well as employee. It may, however, be well to note that in many cases the physical handicap will create only a neg- ligible depreciation in the man's ability; and, consider- ing the good effects produced by proper vocational guidance and training, there should be little, if any, change in such cases from the usual compensation for the work. In negotiating with the buyers of labor, it should be kept in mind that the main object of the bureau will be to create a place for usefulness for the maimed men, and, therefore, we must eliminate any ele- ment which might seem like charity or favoritism. Under these circumstances, it would be necessary to allow for a certain amount of independence on the part of the handicapped employee such, for instance, as would make him feel that his usefulness will not end with his severance of employment in the particular establishment where he was first placed by the bureau, or that, in holding his job, he does so because of his value to the employer and not because the em- ployer is actuated by patriotism or sympathy. Heretofore, employers of labor have generally been dealing with men physically sound, and have paid wages which called for 100 per cent of efficien- cy. Since, under these new circumstances, it will rarely be possible to attain 100 per cent of efficiency, in the strict interpretation of that term, we have a new problem before us. Employers will have to be con- vinced that in employing these handicapped men they will not suffer financially or commercially,. and ways will have to be found where such men may actually prove their value beyond any doubt. That it is possible to make these men valuable to employers of labor may be seen from the following illustration, where one of the useful trades (the print- ing trade) is analyzed for the particular purpose. We may divide the printing trade into 17 .diffe- rent phases of activity, and examine how these handi- capped men may be employed in the various branch- es and their percentile loss of efficiency in each. *PERCENTILE LOSS OF EFFICIENCY IN PRINTING TRADE DUE TO LOSS OF LIMBS, HEARING, OR SIGHT PRINTING OCCUPATIONAL BRANCH 1 BLIND DEAF ONE ARM ONE LEG LEG-!- LESS Estimator.. 50 25 50 2 10 Layout-Man. 100 10 50 2 10 Job-Compositor 100 5 75 5 25 Proofreader. 100 10 2 2 2 Stone- Hand 100 2 100 25 100 Foreman Comp.osing-Room... Foreman Press-Room 100 100 10 15 10 50 1 1 50 50 Machine-Operator 100 5 75 10 20 Platen Pressman . 100 10 60 90 100 Cylinder Pressman. 100 10 60 90 100 Web Pressman 100 10 100 90 100 Printing Salesman 75 5 5 5 100 Proprietor. v 50 1 10 2 10 Compositor (Straight) Feeder (Platen) 100 100 2 2 75 100 5 10 10 25 Feeder (Cylinder) 100 2 85 5 25 Paper-Cutter 100 2 100 20 100 Average Loss of Efficiency.... Average Value to Trade 93 7 7 93 60i 394 25 75 50 50 *Table prepared by F. K.Phillips, of American Type Founders Company 5 It may be worth while, as a matter of illustration, which may also be useful as a specimen for other trades, to explain the various elemental branches of the printing trade, mentioned in the preceding table, and their possible use for the purpose in question. Estimator 1. Work consists of figuring costs of materials and time and furnishing prices of printing. Loss of efficiency due to loss of one arm, one leg, or even both legs, is comparatively slight. Layout-Man 2. Work consists of planning jobs and advertise- ments. Ability to write, draw, and design is neces- sary. Not required to stand or move around in search of materials. Loss of efficiency due to loss of one leg, or even both legs, comparatively slight. Job Compositor 3. Work consists of setting type of various sizes and faces. Requires considerable moving around. Loss of efficency due to deafness or loss of one leg almost negligible. Loss of one arm or both legs would almost incapacitate a man for this work. Proofreader 4. Work consists of detecting errors in the prod- uct of printers. Requires thorough grounding in essentials of grammar, spelling, and structural En- glish. Does not require moving around. Loss of efficiency due to deafness is considerable, as proof- reader requires a copyholder to read to him from copy for his comparison with proof. Loss of one arm, one leg, or both legs would decrease efficiency only slightly. Stoneman 5. Makes up and locks up forms of type. Re- quires much standing and moving around. This 6 work could be done by a deaf person or one who has lost one leg. Could not be useful if a man has lost sight, one arm, or both legs. Foreman of Composing-Room 6. Work is supervisory in character. Could be done by deaf, one-armed, one-legged, or legless person. Foreman of Press-Room 7. Work is supervisory in character. It could be done by deaf, one-legged, legless, or one-armed man. Machine Operator 8. Work is similiar to operating typewriter. Workman is enabled to sit down. Work could be done dy deaf, one-legged, or legless man. Platen Pressman 9. Work consists of making ready jobs on small presses. Workman required to stand and use both hands. Could be done by deaf or one-legged person. Cylinder or Automatic Pressman 10. Work consists of making ready on cylinder or automatic presses. Deaf person could do the work, but with a loss of a certain amount of efficiency. Great skill required. Workman required to stand and use both hands. Web Pressman 11. Work consists of operating newspaper press- es. Deaf person could do the work, but with a loss of efficiency. Loss of sight or one limb would prohibit doing work of this character. Printing Salesman 12. Work consists of soliciting printing business and submitting estimates. Could be done by a per- son with loss of hearing, one arm, or one leg. Proprietor 13. Executive work. Could be done by a person with loss of hearing, one arm, one leg, or both legs. Straight-Matter Compositor 14. Work consists of setting plain matter, usually on country newspaper. Deafness or loss of one leg would not lower efficiency. Loss of both legs would not materially reduce capacity for production, but would reduce efficiency, owing to necessity of requiring assistance in moving about. Feeder on Platen Press 15. Work consists of placing sheets of paper in press and removing same after they are printed. Requires both arms and hands. Deafness or loss of one leg would not decrease efficiency. Loss of both legs would reduce efficiency, owing to necessity of assistance in moving to and from press. Feeder on Cylinder Press 16. Work requires skill in placing large sheets of paper to guides previous to printing. Deafness or loss of. one leg would not decrease efficiency. Loss of right arm would prove a hindrance, but work could be done if left arm is retained. Loss of both legs would decrease efficiency to a great extent, unless a seat attached to press (which could easily be done) were provided. Paper-Cutter 17. This work requires the cutting of paper on either hand-lever or power paper-cutter. Both hands are required. Deafness would decrease efficiency. Loss of one leg would decrease efficiency slightly. Loss of both legs would incapacitate. It will be seen from this enumeration that the printing trade, like many other trades, has a great deal to offer in the proposed reconstruction work which the Government is to take up. It might be added that some of the branches of the trade here enumerated have been taught in some of the schools of the country. They have been taught, in most cases, as supplementary to the regu- lar training in the shop. It has been firmly established, however, that the subjects could be taught with suc- cess and be made to be of positive benefit to the stu- dent. Almost all other trades may be arranged in the same way as the printing trade for the practical pur- poses of teaching the crippled soldiers and sailors. In order to get the most beneficial. results, it would be necessary to employ experts of every trade taught not only in the training-school, but also in the bureau which is to take up the vocational advisement and placement of these men* If an industrial survey were made for the pur- pose of discovering the best opportunities for cripples in the industrial field, it would help to sys- tematize the trades into branches of activity and show in what particular branches these disabled men could best be used. This industrial survey may include visits to the factories, manufacturers' associations, trade unions, and editors of trade journals. Valuable information may be had from all these sources, and may be ap- plied to good advantage. If the placement officer were to come to the em* ployer with a systematized arrangment similar to the one arranged for the printing trade, it wculd be a good deal easier to convince him of the value of the trained cripple for the work in his establishment. The duties of the bureau, however, should not be considered as finished with the placing of the man. 9 It would be necessary, for some time, at least, to fol- low up the fortunes of these people. In most cases, these men may become sufficiently independent not to require any further protection; but there may be expected certain cases where men will have to be taken care of for some time after they have received their first job. It is quite possible that, after a disabled man has been trained and placed, he will not be able, because of his handicap, to earn the normal wage necessary for his maintenance. In a case of this nature, it would be necessary for the bureau to recommend certain adjustment to be made by the Government which will keep the man from want. Although this matter of charity is something from which we desire to get away, we must realize that, probably in a small percentage of cases,that will come into calculation. It is unavoidable. The bureau will be trying to help all the men to help themselves; and, so far as it will succeed in this, it will be of ma- terial benefit. But where this will not be altogether possible, it would clearly be within the province and the duty Government to help to take care of these men who sacrificed their efficiency in its service. Besides,' it would be to the interest of the Government to kee-p these men from becoming public charges. Vocational guidance of this kind should result in time in the solving of this great problem confronting this country and should gradually tend to eliminate the detriments to the individual and to the community created by the war. It is also hoped that this vocational guidance, which has come as a dire necessity, will in time de- velop for general uses so that this work, which is contemplated to relieve a temporary condition, may 10 show its lasting and permanent benefits on a much larger scale. For, it stands to reason that, if people generally were to choose the occupation best fitted for them which is now rarely the case they would not only benefit themselves but also the community at large. One of the important factors in the work of re- construction is the cooperation of the public. Al- though the public is sympathetic, its sympathies are often misdirected, because it has not made a proper study of the conditions. The people are ready with alms, where this is a matter which should be elimi- nated as much as possible. If thoughtful considera- tion were given to the subject, the general tendency would be to make the cripple a useful citizen. The duty of a bureau for advisement and placement of the disabled soldier and sailor is to institute a campaign of public education