Elaborately developed systems of special Technical Schools provide for all grades of positions iq the building and textile trades. They touch to a small degree the problem of training an apprentice. These great day schools have been very successful. Over 50 of them are to be found for the building trades, and Prussia alone has eight for the textile trades. There are three grades of labor in the building trades: (1) architects; (2) those who execute the architect's plans, and (3) the workmen. The evening continuation school sometimes pro vides for the lowest grade, and at other times the building trades school offers a special sec tion. The textile trades have also three grades, and weaving workshops are provided for the apprentices, either in all-day work, or in even ing and Sunday classes. In some of the textile schools women are admitted, the one at Aix-la Chapelle offering an elaborate course of textile darning, the girls being paid wages according to the value of their work. The School of Tex tile Art in Plauen, Saxony, has also a depart ment for women. Instruction in embroidery and the making of lingerie is given, the aim being to train superintendents of workrooms.
Apprentice Workshops are organized both in connection with public trade schools and as pri vate institutions. They aim at a more compre hensive and systematic training than can be ob tained in the ordinary shop. The Krupp Steel Works at Essen offer a complete course of apprenticeship.
Itinerant Trade Courses are also provided in such industries as weaving, garment cutting, embroidery, machine work, straw plaiting and bookkeeping. These courses have been benefi cial in small towns where there are cottage in dustries.
The effort of organized labor to preserve handwork and the small trades has been of vast service in Germany in the development of trade schools. The various trade guilds have dealt carefully with the subject of apprenticeship and have been untiring in their efforts to have fa vorable conditions attend such instruction.
BeLam& Education is not compulsory in Belgium, but the schools are well attended. The primary school is followed by an excellent system of trade education for both sexes. In many par ticulars the schools are similar to those in the neighboring countries, but they also present characteristic features. For boys the element ary trade schools are followed by superior trade and technical schools, and those again by the great technological institutions.
Trade-instruction is carried on in the indus trial schools (ecoles industrielles) and in the trade schools (ecoles professionelles). The
first gives theoretical instruction in industrial operations with practical courses in design. The second gives trade work combined with theoretical instruction, has all-day sessions, and is the trade school proper, although many of the ecoles industrielles have trade sections. . Trade training of an elementary grade is given in the following institutions:— For boys: Industrial schools, trade schools, Saint Luke trade schools, apprentice shops, trade courses. For girls: Trade schools (including trade schools proper, trade and housekeeping schools, housekeeping and trade schools), trade courses, apprentice shops.
The length of the courses in the trade school proper is from three to five years. The trade schools for girls were organized before those for boys. They offer the most advanced form of trade education for girls. The industrial school is the largest and most important class of institution in Belgium for the training of young men. As these latter schools are supple mentary to the trade and do not give regular trade instruction, and as their courses are given at hours when workmen can attend, they resem ble the continuation schools of Germany. The number of these schools is rapidly increasing.
Trade instruction in Belgium is justly re nowned for certain features: (1) The excellent system of economical administration and wise supervision; (2) the thoroughness of its instruc tion in general education applied to the various trades and also in the teaching of the trades; (3) the importance of art in all of the schools and the practical use made of it in designing in each of the trades; (4) the adaptation of all of the trade work to local needs.
The trade schools are with few exceptions under government control, although no general law governs their formation. Schools have been established by communes (ecoles commu nales), by private individuals (ecoles fibres), and by provinces (ecoles provinciales). Com plete liberty of organization is allowed to local authorities or to private individuals, in order that the schools may be adapted to local needs. This freedom has made these schools really local institutions, conforming to no uniform model. A system of subsidizing them has been d2vised. A certain sum of money is voted an nually for this purpose, and placed at the dis posal of the minister of industry and labor. When the schools desire a portion of this ap propriation they must submit a formal applica tion, accompanied by details of their work which will enable the ministry to judge if the school should receive assistance.