Fraternity-Testvériség, 1962 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1962-12-01 / 12. szám
8 FRATERNITY SEARCH FOR YOUNG WOMEN The big search is on — for 800 young women. That’s the number of future stewardesses United Air Lines will have to add to its roster in 1963 to keep its “skygirl” complement at a steady 2,200. The search is one of the most ambitious in the company’s history. United must train on the average of 800 girls annually to offset a loss of almost 40 per cent each year by marriage. Special teams of employment representatives will visit cities throughout this country, as well as Canada. To obtain their quota over 30,000 aspirants will be given interviews and aptitude tests. Once accepted, the young women are given four and one-half weeks of intensive training. Training is conducted at the airline’s new $2 million Education Center, on a 55-acre campus-like tract near Chicago’s busy O’Hare International Airport. At the height of the training period, trainees arrive at the school on the average of 35 to 40 per week to begin the 4%-week training course that will put them into the air on spacious DC-8, Boeing 720 and Caravelle jet aircraft, along with other Mainliners operating over United’s 18,000-mile system. As many as 173 future “skygirls” are enrolled at the airline’s Jet Age “schoolhouse” at one time and graduation exercises are held each week as new groups arrive and trained stewardesses win their wings. The school is a modern two-story structure of gleaming white concrete, set off by expansive “walls” of tinted glass and a large interior landscaped court to augment a feeling of spaciousness and openness provided by the unusual construction. Candidates for stewardess training must be 20 but not yet 27 years of age and usually have had some college training. Height and weight restrictions are five-feet-two-inches to five-feet-eight-inches and not exceeding 138 pounds in proportion to heights. Appearance is important, but stewardesses are not expected to be beauty queens. Most important is that they like to meet people, and have a warm and pleasing disposition, since they help to form one of the most important impressions of the airline held by the traveling public. Upon arrival at the school stewardess trainees are assigned roommates with whom they will share a modern apartment suite while attending classes. Subjects will include a history of United, the routes that the stewardesses will be flying and the types of aircraft in service with the airline. In-flight duties are taught with the aid of a life-size model of a modern jetliner — complete with seats and cabin equipment — where the “skygirls” learn in-flight procedures using class mates as model passengers. Instruction is given on the operation of the buffets that keep the meals piping hot until they are served. They become familiar
