Proclamation 3473—National Apprenticeship Month

Whereas, in this era of rapidly changing industrial techniques and new approaches to many aspects of our economic life, the development of this Nation's skilled craftsmen is of vital importance to the continued national security and economic growth of the United States; and

Whereas, as America moves deeper into the challenging era of the space age and the expanding economy that will accompany it, the need for broadening the versatility and increasing the competence of our skilled craftsmen will grow; and

Whereas the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training of the United States Department of Labor seeks to help achieve, through cooperative effort, a skilled work force adequate to the Nation's economic and security needs; and

Whereas the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training stimulates those responsible for training to provide equal opportunities for all qualified individuals to acquire skills without regard to race, creed, sex, age, or physical handicaps, thus increasing the lob opportunities, earning ability, and economic security of the individual worker; and

Whereas the Congress recognized the importance of apprenticeship training by enacting the National Apprenticeship Act, approved August 16, 1937 (50 Stat. 664); and

Whereas further development, expansion, and strengthening of apprenticeship training would benefit employees, employers, and the Nation:

Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of August, 1962, as National Apprenticeship Month.

I urge employers and union organizations which are not now training apprentices to take appropriate steps to assure the development of skilled workers in every local community; and I urge those which are now training apprentices to strengthen and expand their apprenticeship programs.

I also request the Department of Labor and other appropriate Federal agencies, and I invite State and local governments and organizations, to participate actively in the observance of National Apprenticeship Month.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this seventh day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-sixth.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

By the President:

GEORGE W. BALL,

Acting Secretary of State