Florida Labor Advocate

New York Mental Hospital Employes To Have Apprentice Training Program
ALBANY, N. Y.-(ILNS)-For the first time since the establishment of the New York State Apprenticeship Council in the State Department of Labor, the Department of Mental Hygiene, a state agency, has taken advantage of the council's services by setting up an apprentice training program for its employes in the state mental institutions. Industrial Commissioner Edward Corsi announced.

As the first step in embarking upon the program, Corsi said, apprenticeship training courses in 12 trades are soon to be offered to regular mental hygiene employes in the Utica State Hospital. Similar courses will later be established in at least a dozen more of the department's institutions.

The new program is the first state-wide apprenticeship training opportunity offered civil service employes.

Under the plan, apprenticeship opportunities are to be open to state hospital employees in 12 different trades, the training period to run from three to five years, depending on the trade selected. At the end of the training period, the successful apprentices will be qualified as journeymen in their respective trades and will be appointed to civil service jobs as openings arise. The trades which are covered by the program are cook, bookbinder, bricklayer-mason, painter and decorator, stationary engineer, cabinetmaker, linoleum, resilient tile and carpenter layer, plumber and steamfitter, carpenter, electrician (maintenance) tile, meat cutter and baker.

The program for the Utica hospital has the support of organized labor groups in the area.