Note 55 — Chapter V · INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.
Reading edition
LEADING LONDON HIGH-CLASS STATIONERY FIRM:
Paging Department.—Girls come for a few months for nothing, i.e. six months, no premium. They go on getting quicker.
Lithographic Department.—Girls come in and pick it up: show one another how to do it.
Vellum-binding Department.—Girls come for three years and are paid 5s. per week.
LEADING EDUCATIONAL SUPPLY FIRM:
Copybook and similar Work.—"Has several little girls running about on errands for a few shillings a week, and if any of them seem promising they are helped on. Training nothing like what it used to be; girls learn only one branch."
LARGE LONDON PRINTING FIRM:
Vellum-sewing Department.—"Regular apprenticeship still the system here." Three years given as the period for training and during this time no wages are paid. Girls come straight from school.
Folding, etc., Department.—"No regular apprenticeship. Girls come in and pick it up; if quick they are taught other branches, like numbering, relief stamping, etc."
LONDON STATIONERY FIRM:
Envelope Folding and Hand-cementing Department.—"Girls are put under an experienced party to whom they pay 10s. For six weeks, they receive nothing. For next six weeks they receive half earnings, then they are put on piecework."
Black Bordering.—"A regular hand teaches and gets any benefit of the work during six months in return for the time she wastes in teaching." This practice is also adopted in some firms in envelope folding by hand.
LONDON PUBLISHING FIRM:
Bookbinding Department.—"System of indenture has just been revived because it was found that otherwise the firm had no hold over the girls, so that the quick ones as soon as they had learnt went off elsewhere as full earners." Indenture for two years.
An ex-forewoman in bookbinding, who knew the London trade well, stated that much less trouble is taken with learners now than formerly. In her own case she was apprenticed without indentures for two years, and learned "all the branches right through," old work included.
Another forewoman in work stated she was in training for four years: two years at bookbinding, one year at vellum work, and one year at stationery.