How a Ford-Run Vocational School Trained Generations of Skilled Workers

Ford has a long legacy of serving the essential economy – think industries such as construction, manufacturing, and service, among others – with our products and services, but the company also has a history of preparing workers for those career fields. Later this month, Ford CEO Jim Farley will gather a group of leaders from business, government, and civil society in Detroit for Ford Pro Accelerate at the newly restored Michigan Central Station, where the topics will include the growing workface gap that hinders many of our nation’s foundational industries. 

Legacy of learning 

Ford Motor Company’s lineage of preparing individuals for the workforce goes all the way back to founder Henry Ford, who left a long legacy of education initiatives. That includes teaching the English language and American customs to a surge of plant employees following the introduction of the $5 workday (The Ford English School) and other later ventures. But possibly the most well-known effort is the Henry Ford Trade School.  

Following his initial five-year effort to teach agriculture to at-risk boys through the Dearborn Valley Farm School, Henry switched gears in 1916. Enlisting one of Edsel Ford’s former teachers, the newly established school for disadvantaged teenage boys from the Detroit area, who ranged in age from 12 to 18, was located at the company’s Highland Park plant. Its curriculum required students to spend one-third of their time in the classroom learning academics and the other two-thirds in the shop. Tuition costs were based on financial need, and students were paid a stipend for living expenses. 

Enrollment quickly grew to 1,800, and a waitlist also swelled, reaching 15,000 by 1920. The demand was so great that prospective students would attempt to sneak into the school by crawling through the windows. The student body peaked at 2,900 in 1930 before declining during the Great Depression. In the school’s 36-year existence, though, 8,000 boys graduated from the program – including prominent Detroit civic and industrial leaders, as well as former Ford engineer Claude Harvard, who invented the piston pin counting machine that helped stabilize Ford’s famous V8 engine.

(While Henry Ford Trade School was not coed; Ford also established the Edison Institute Schools at Greenfield Village in the late 1920s.)

The mechanical curriculum at Henry Ford Trade School included woodworking, welding, electrical, engineering, and repair, while academics included English, math, and history, among other subjects. Some students chose to also attend night school concurrently to earn their high school diploma. With the resources of Ford Motor Company available for teaching industrial processes and its steady supply of work materials, the Henry Ford Trade School far exceeded available public vocational training options. That advantage grew as the school expanded to the B Building of the Rouge plant in 1930, adding a pattern and carpentry shop, plating department, and foundry, as well as a machine shop. Older and more experienced students were permitted to enter company departments to perform their shop work.  

Each student received a scholarship depending on their grades, which in 1928 ranged from $450 to $1,020 per year. The payments were funded in part through the average annual value of the material produced by students, which was roughly $1,000, part of which was also used to pay instructors. 

At age 18, boys entered senior courses, which included classes on advanced drawing and math. By 20, students were receiving regular employee’s wages and were often hired into the company when positions opened. Graduates of the school were so sought after that even if jobs at Ford were not available at the time, other companies were seeking Henry Ford Trade School alumni – even during the depths of the Depression. In addition to careers in the automotive industry, graduates also found jobs in the arts and design, medical fields, and dentistry.

In 1944, the school added a branch near Dearborn, Camp Legion, which offered industrial and agricultural training to World War II veterans with physical disabilities. Outside of the trade school, Ford also offered summer programs designed to help children in need learn how to grow and sell their own food.

School’s out 

Eventually, the public educational system collectively improved vocational training offerings to the point that the need for the Henry Ford Trade School declined. Due to this and other factors, the school was closed in 1952 and $1.25 million (the value of its liquidated assets) was left to the Dearborn Public School system for the expansion of its community college. Scholarships were also created for the children of Henry Ford Trade School alumni to attend the expanded Dearborn program, which is known today as Henry Ford College. 

While the Henry Ford Trade School closed more than 70 years ago, the impact of this visionary program on individuals and the economy cannot be forgotten. It also left a legacy of opportunity and innovation that highlights the company’s commitment to the community.

Love Ford history? Access http://fordarchivesonline.com with your CDSID to search your favorite topics. Or visit http://fordheritagevault.com, where no CDSID is needed, to browse and download product history.