[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Might I offer a
suggestion which should commend itself both to the advocates of the idea of a training college for domestic work, and to your other correspondents who contend that domestic service is best learnt in private houses ? This idea is that a diploma of proficiency in the domestic arts should be established, and thrown open equally to the college trained or the home trained candidate, and to women of all grades of education. One of the chief difficulties confronting the modern housekeeper is that high wages no longer carry any guarantee of efficiency. One may be—and often is—asked to pay more to a girl who is a very poor servant than to a thoroughly competent maid—and that solely on the ground that the former has " taken " the wages asked in some previous situation, possibly of a different kind from that now offered to her.
No experienced mistress grudges giving good wages for good service. She knows that to pay them is a financial economy, apart from the other advantages accruing. But to pay high wages, and suffer as a result discomfort, wasteful methods, and constant breakages among one's choicest possessions is discouraging—to put it mildly. A certificate showing that the applicant for employment had gained pioficiency in the work required would raise the status of the domestic servant, and would save her employer from throwing good money after bad. It would, moreover, remind the girls themselves of the fact—too often forgotten—that training, whether public or private, has a money value.
Such a diploma course should have two parts. The first should be compulsory on all candidates, and would comprise such practical knowledge of domestic work as is desirable in a " cook-general." There should follow, for all who like to take it, an " honours course " in more specialized directions, and with a choice of subjects. Finished parlour work, fancy and invalid cookery, account keeping, with catering and the drawing up of weekly budgets for food, perhaps laundry work, are the kind of subjects I have in mind. Training in nursery work is already provided by other means. The certificate g tined would show each candidate's range of study, and would attract women of superior education, as well as those from the National Schools. Examinations could well be held at local centres, such as technical schools, thus avoiding the cost of a new and expensive institution.-1 am, Sir, &c.,
HOUSEKEEPER.
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