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' ,, .~ ~ I --Y~;-: I~~,,_;• )t, 4-2286 For Rele a se on Deliverv-3:30 PM (CST), Friday," October 31, 1941 0 FRED R . RAUCH SPEAKS ON ~.H..AilHNG UHEMPLOYED FOR DE:E'ENSE I NDDS TRI:ES Tra ining of WPA workers in vocational schools and f a ctories for jobs in defense industries wa s described by Fred R. Rauch, Assi s tan t Co~.missioner of the W ork Projects A~~inistra tion in charge of the Divisi on of Reemploy;nent and Tre.ining, . addr e ssing the I ndiana St a te Conference on Socir>l Work a t Indianapo lis , Fri day afternoon , October 31. "The i n- plant training :program has now pgs sed the experinental sto,ge , 11 Mr . Rauch said. "Our worker s have been trained in d,ef ense plants in 24 St ates , and they have worked on nearl y every type of defens e contract . lHne out of ten a rc hired on the completion of the ir tra ining. Although t he ma.xi mun training period allowed is four weeks , nany tro.ine es Rrc h ir ed afte r on1y a day o,.. two . The a ver age tino is two and n hnlf weeks . tJ> "The tnpo1·tanc e of our L1- pl an t t:c:::,,ining pro gr ~m c 2n hordly be overemphasized. Defense ind:ustr i alists gon0r r,lly contrnct with buyers of def ense ma tcricls or with the ultir:w.to purchns or - in other wora.s , the United States Gove r n;;1ent--to deliver t he ir p roduc tion at a stipula ted J)r i ce and by a g iven date . :But t he demand to day is for grea,ter end greater S!)eed of product i on . A,'lri i nck.stry needs nore work ers to speed up r ro duct i on . Cur t r·e,inees are wo rkers whon we have ca r efully s el ected for defense plant s bec ause we believe they c e.n cto t he work . A.YJ.d their r ecord so far in r riva.t 0 euploynont seons to justify oux belief in tho:m . "The in-plant tra.ining :prog r em is the natural out growth of another type of defense tr a ining pr ogr ar.1 tha t the W"PA has r,&.de a1°ailable to its worker s . I an referring to t he prog rar.: under which the 1iPA assigns selected _.rorkers to defense tr a ining courses in public vocational schools , and pays ther:1 'WPA wages s o that they c an ai'ford to tc1ke the cours e s . • • • • 11Up to the pre sent tine , r.:ore than 150 , 000 vTPA workers havo b een sent to vocational cla ss e s in Dublic school s to train f or def ense job s . Forty thousand of these worl::er s ar e still in training , and t wo-th irds of the others have found jobs in p rivate indu st r y . Thes e nen ~:.r e not lilrnly to r eturn to tho WPA very s oon, b ec aus e ski l l ed ru1d semi-sk ill ed onployr:-1ent i s usually of longer dura tion tha.'1. unskill ed cnploynent . 11 Mr . Re,uch a lso discussed the 0fforts to stir:mlate t ho r eturn of WPA workers to :private po,yroll s by r:m,int nining clo se cont a ct wi t h en:pl oycrs . As a result of the s e effort z and i□proved enployi:ient opportunities , he S[:'.id, the monthly r ate of voluntary se:par ~t ions frol:l WPA rolls is t he highest in the histor3r of the agency . Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
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