The American Bankers' Association has a branch called the American Institute of Banking. Its pur pose is to educate bankers in their special lines, to maintain a standard of education by official examina tions, and to issue certificates for the accomplishment of certain work. It has 12,000 members, organized into 75 chapters in the principal cities of the country and in Cuba and Hawaii. Employes of country banks are enrolled as correspondence students. The course of study covers the theory and practice of bank ing and allied principles of law and economics. The course requires at least 100 hours of class and corre spondence work under approved teachers.
Spencer Trask and Company of New York City, one of the largest bond-investment houses in New York, gives a course of instruction covering financial organization. This firm requires its employes to study corporation finance, J'oreign exchange, the money market, theory of investments, and to analyze current security fluctuations;speculation and the stock Inasket. Their men are al-so required to pass exami— nations on politica edonomy, money and credit, and the principles of salesmanship.
the National City Bank of New York provides classes in business correspondence, French, German, Spanish, penmariship, commercial arithmetic and bookkeeping. These are given as a first-year course ; a more advanced course is outlined for a second year of study.
8. Special training for the company's work.— Some firms try to give their employes specific training for their own work. Classes are held during work hours or in the evenings. They are. supplemented by lectures on such vital subjects as hygiene, sanitation, diet, first aid to the injured, and the like. The Na tional Cash Register Company has an agents' school for salesmen, one for advertising men, one for officers for the study of business management, and others for foremen, janitors and waiters. The company has a kindergarten for the children of its employes, and con ducts cooking, sewing and millinery classes. It real izes that any training that benefits the home makes better workers. The Heinz Company has cooking and sewing classes for its seven hundred girls, most of whom are immigrants. The Charles William Stores in Brooklyn instructs their salesmen and other em ployes, and provides lectures for the foremen. Many companies provide libraries and reading rooms, with technical literature, popular fiction and magazines.
9. Manuals as an educational factor.—Some firms
distribute manuals describing the details of their work. One corporation publishes a two-hundred-page book with cuts and reports, and gives one to each employe, who is supposed to read it all, with special attention to the parts pertaining to his work. Quizzes are held frequently, and those -svho are deficient in any subject are dismissed. The publication of the book costs $2,000 but the company considers the money well invested. Each new man must read the manual so as to get a general understanding of the whole system. The effect has been good in lessening mistakes among both old and new workers. This system makes it easier for the various departments to work together harmoniously. Each person knows why he is doing certain things, and as a consequence has much more interest in his work and greater enthusiasm. He also has some comprehension of the part his work plays in the whole organization.
10. S pecial training schools for employes.-1Nlany organizations recognize the value of giving employes preliminary training for their work. Some find it worth while to broaden the employes' knowledge of the business as a whole, while a smaller number are far-sighted enough to accept responsibility for aiding their employes to fit themselves thru courses of study for advancement, altho the courses that are given may apparently have but slight bearing upon the immedi ate earning power of the employes.
The methods by which this special training is given differ greatly among corporations. However, if we select the main features of these training schools, it is found that such institutions may be classified under three types as follows : (a) Company business school. In the type known as the company business school, the subjects taught and the training given are related directly to the work of a particular company. The type can be subdivided into three groups of schools, according to the methods that are followed.
The first group is directly connected with those cor porations that expect the student-employe to give all his time to study while he is taking the course ; they do not, therefore, expect him to do productive work while he is in training. Such a school expects to get definite results with the least possible loss of time ; it is organized to accommodate two classes of employes, i.e., new employes and old employes. This principle applies as well to the second and third groups below.