A short introdustion

[happyhippy68]

Hi to you all,

My name is Colin and I am a middle aged sparkie going down the grumpy old man route after looking at the state of our profession (Middle age is when a narrow waist and a broad mind always seem to exchange positions!!). I spent 8 years learning the job and the last 18 years taking on and training apprentices up to a good standard to be ready to work, now they all seem to come from the college with serious skills issues. Are any of the other senior sparks finding this? The lads are all keen to work, but they just have no practical skills!! I had a lad recently doing his NVQ 3 after completing his C&G 2330 parts 1,2 & 3 and he couldn't use a spring bender to put a couple of set bends in or lay out some 20mm plastic conduit for a new lighting system. I don't know about the rest of you but I don't really want to be teaching these guys stuff they should have learnt at college in the first or second year.

I am not having a go at the lads who are entering the trade but I am having a go at some of these so called training colleges

Rant over, its great to be here and looking around at some of the threads and comments I can see I will enjoy the discussions and banter on offer.:2guns:

 

[Spudnik]

Hi happyhippy68 and welcome to www.electriciansforums.net!

 

[alarm man]

the problem is they teach themselves,they go to college or do a quick course without every stepping foot on a site or even being employed in the industry.theres plenty of threads on this subject..proper apprenticeships are very very rare these days.

 

[telectrix]

yep, about as rare as a virgin sheep in yorkshire.

 

[oldtimer]

Welcome
There is lots of things one is the computer age and money for nothing mentality I am 53 ran about brought up on a council scheme ran about playing football in the dark in all weathers until shouted in for bed stayed on at school because I needed to have 4 Scottish O levels to get a trade my peer group got jobs in the local butchers or milk floats so served my time did 4 years then 2 improving to approved status went into alarms then BMS/HVAC controls building / facilities maintenance got fed up of shifts then chucked it to start a small electrical repair business plus got all the relivent 14th-17th qualifications ok what the big deal.

Well today we have the Google generation ie why bother to learn when some idiot online will do it for you plus we have guys wanting to be an electrician in 3 months but the problem is they cannot be arsed to do it this does not help when you have a youth who are totally and I mean totally phone zombies if anybody thinks I am a bit over the top switch your phone off for a day I dare you and even then you wont last 2 hours. Now I know there are some guys who are not like this but they are in a minority but what i do see is guys who are mature students ie 30-35 who have the same attitude I had at 16 and yes I know they are not taking on apprentices today but even then all I seem to hear from guys is they just cannot get out of their beds in the morning. So does that mean I think all is lost well no but what I have been saying on the this forum that individuals have to learn self discipline as this is the foundation to excelling in their job does that mean you live and breath electrical nope it means you can have a good life work balance.

I was asked to connect a cooker and the carpet layer was there with his apprentice he said we will be another 10 minutes as they were laying the flooring so they started to bring the fridge ,washing machine through and as they were sliding the WM in the apprentice phone went (a text) next minute he stopped and was totally engrossed in his phone no doubt his mate tweeting that he bought a coffee so i looked at the tradesman and he said I have shouted to him about this until I am blue in the face but does not care thats if he can get out of his bed that is

 

[baldelectrician]

I agree that there are less apprenticships, but it's not all doom and gloom

I suggested this on a TV show last year and the Scottish Government made providing an apprenticeship a condition of getting a Scottiah Government contract, now they are going further by making it a condition of ANY government money spend

All it takes is a bit of forward thinking, not lots of extra spending

 

[alarm man]

I agree that there are less apprenticships, but it's not all doom and gloom

I suggested this on a TV show last year and the Scottish Government made providing an apprenticeship a condition of getting a Scottiah Government contract, now they are going further by making it a condition of ANY government money spend

All it takes is a bit of forward thinking, not lots of extra spending

will be a good thing if it happens..time wil tell

 

[CRAGS]

hi and welcome

 

[MarkieSparkie]

Hi, welcome to forum.

 

[solarimg]

Welcome buddy

 

[Guest123]

Welcome along.:glasses2: