Regulations governing a new vocational training program for Indians between 18 and 35 years of age and residing on reservations ware announced today by the Department of the Interior.
The new program is being initiated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs with an appropriation of $1.5 million, contained in the Department’s fiscal 1958 appropriations measure signed by the President on July 1. Authorization for the program was provided by the 84th Congress in Public Law 959.
The regulations cover three types of training--courses at vocational schools, apprenticeship training, and on-the-job training.
To be eligible for participation in the program, a vocational school must be accredited by a recognized national or regional agency or approved by an appropriate State agency and must be able to show "reasonable certainty" of employment for its graduates in their fields of training.
Apprenticeship training may be approved if (1) it is either supervised or recognized and approved by an appropriate State or national agency, (2) leads to an occupation requiring skills normally learned through apprenticeship, and (3) is expressly identified as apprenticeship training by the establishment offering it.
On-the-job training programs may be approved when the training is recognized by industry and labor as leading to skilled employment.
To be eligible, potential Indian trainees must be in need of vocational training in order to obtain satisfactory employment. Approved trainees will be provided with transportation to the place of training and subsistence during the course of training, which is limited to a maximum of 24 months.
Public Law 959 authorizes annual appropriations of $3,500,000 for Indian vocational training. The Department requested $2 million less than that to get the program under way in its initial year.
Further information about the projected program may be obtained from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington 25, D. C.
