Apprenticeshipsxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Pete999]

As the title suggests, what constitutes an Electrical Apprenticeship in this modern world we live in today?
There have been a few threads lately "Ive done this course or that course, how do I get an Apprenticeship?"
Well to be honest with you I would like to know, not because I want one at 71 and fter more years than I want to remember after completing mine, I would like to know, to be able to offer some advice to the Lads and Lasses who are aspiring to become Electricians, not Domestic Installers, but real Electricians, I would like to help people, but when you are faced with people in their 20s 30s asking about Apprenticeships, it seems alien to to me, maybe I should give up, cus it's baffeling how to answer.

 

[Pete999]

when i started apprenticeship in 1966 was on £6/5/0 a week.

Finished mine in 62,can't recall my pay groats went out about that time.

 

[Deleted member 104825]

Oh the golden days of apprenticeship (NOT).
I was a toolroom machinist (yes a tool) and in 1977 I got £17.06 a week - the apprentices from Vauxhall/Cadbury/Moons got about £27...
As an aside:-
When I first got it I could pay Mum 25% and pay for fish/chips for lunch, bus fares etc AND get hammered 4 nights a week (Th/F/Sa/Su) with my mate Spud, just before the annual rise I could only get hammered 2 nights (but Spud was then at Uni luckily or it'd be just Thursday :-( and it wasn't as if chips or bus fares had gone up much, I was just a bit of a p!sshead!!

 

[Pete999]

When I wer a Lad the bloke I was working would give me a shilling 5 p send me to the shop get some donuts and a daily sketch, aye up times were hard

 

[gazdkw82]

Iv just started an apprenticeship but it’s abit of an odd one.

I’m 34 so classed as a mature apprentice. Iv also completed C&G level 2 (as had 4 others) and so we have been placed with the 2nd year apprentices.

The new apprenticeship is called 5357 technical standard and follows the same path as before to be classed as qualified

C&G level 3 tech
The nvq (work portfolio)
Am2

The college don’t seem to have full knowledge of the new course guidelines and structure, or so it seems that way.

 

[Squid]

Same as, but was on 62p an hour.circa 1979.

Mine was in 1980 must have been the London Weighting that bumped it up lol

 

[Squid]

1979, I was just back from a years solitary confinement up some poxy mountain in Cyprus, and don't say a year in the Sun, it bloody snowed for 5 months, snow you have never seen snow like it.

I was in Poland years ago in winter and at night it got to -28 and during the day -15 but the funny thing is the Poles complain how cold it is in the UK as it damp cold lol

 

[Sam662]

Just started an apprenticeship at 25, level 3 electrotechnical qualification installation/maintenance 5357-03, wish I'd have done one when I was in my teens but C'est la vie.

I'm on £221 a week which is amazing for these young apprentice but a bit on the lean side considering I'm living away from my parents so that 211 has to cover everything.

Got to agree with gazdkw82 in regards to the college seemingly not having a full grasp on the new structure of the qualification, which is more than a little frustrating. Thankfully the company I'm with has put me with an electrician who has taken a genuine interest in teaching me and not just making me his glorified tool carry.

 

[Sam662]

 

[Phil Thompson]

When I did mine starting 1996, it was 6 weeks in college and 6 weeks on placement.
I did jobskills as was 18, so got the dole £37.80 iirc plus a tenner and travel.
I had a firm that was close (7-8min walk) so never claimed travel.
Did all written exams and AM1 then

Then second year was 1 day of 12hrs and third year was 3hrs one evening a week.
The final half year was all work and then did AM2.

I passed first go as did the other lad my stage.

But only a handful of the following years apprentices passed first go if they even got the chance to do it.
After 1st year all apprentices got JIB rate. Irregardless of the employer being a JIB firm, so the wages were good. Very good for the time in fact. Jumping on average £60-70 a year. Then on qualifying they only jumped up about £25 to £234 in your hand in 2000, as you no longer got the JIB rates.

I’ve taken on a lad and he is doing level 2 for 2 years then level 3 for 2 years.

First 2 years the college pay him £40 a week plus travel.
But they must attend 2 days a week for those 2 years, and at moment they’re doing an extra day for an employability Unit.

It appears in NI at least that the JiB rate for apprentices is no longer enforced, this seems to be due to employers not taking on any apprentices. JIB rate for a 1st year is £4.83 an hour. That’s some money to find every week for a lad that can only gopher and watch for the first lot of months. Especially if working to a 1 man band.

But as said above they don’t learn much Electrical in the 2 days as it’s mostly H&S based, the 1st year level 3 kids, whilst getting a day less in college must learn literally no practical in college if they have to do all that H&S stuff in 1 day.

 

[Marti]

How many electricians can we safely say who have families to feed, rent & bills to be paid who can honestly say they they'd take on someone & train them up while most probably earning a lot less due to watching over them, I doubt you'd get many rushing to the front of the queue signing up.

That's hitting the 2.5 cable clip squarely on the head and a number of the comments in this thread have spoken the truth about the world of employment training as it is today; not as it was even ten years ago.

Second and third career paths are the norm to any fifty-something and that's not due to poor choices when young. It's often due to a changing market and technology as well as longer working life. That means more mature students with responsibilities. Also, employers have changed, and very few of the changes are to the positive. More on that anon.

Matures can't / won't spend a year chopping boxes and carrying tools for £7 an hour; especially when they will be coughing up £6,000 in college fees because employers aren't going to pay those either.

The mature who is working as an improver and completing a C&G at college IS doing the equivalent of a modern apprenticeship in difficult circumstances, and those changed employers I mentioned above. Take on a group of young apprentices, pay them poorly for as along as they can then dismiss them on totally fictitious grounds, RETAINING ALL TRAINING RECORDS AS COMPANY DOCUMENTATION! The youngsters are now all resitting the C&G at their own expense and and would not touch a "real" apprenticeship. I agree that something needs to be done about the "qualified in five weeks" offerings. They are nothing short of criminal but as long as the standard advice is "a proper five year apprenticeship", those giving the advice need to bear some of the responsibility as their recruiting sergeants.

No offence intended to anyone here. just trying to add to a much needed debate.

 

[Toneyz]

I would like to know from anyone that has gone on one of this so-called Electrical Trainee what this course teaches ?.

 

[Pete999]

I would like to know from anyone that has gone on one of this so-called Electrical Trainee what this course teaches ?.

How to be an Electrician in 5 weeks just kidding Ant not a lot I should imagine Mate

 

[Toneyz]

How to be an Electrician in 5 weeks just kidding Ant not a lot I should imagine Mate

Well everyone keeps banging on about them and never met anyone who has been on one, good to hear from the horse's mouth as to speak

 

[Marti]

Not my experience; been told:
A few domestic circuits on a bit of plywood board. Some SWA. Wire a dead CCU and play with an MFT on a no-fault circuit. Ohm's Law, Three phase. The On-site Guide. GN3. Threw in a few handtools "for when they start work" and a lot of rubbish about earning potential to keep 'em paying for more. It's criminal from any perspective. Day one of my C&G L2 & L3 we signed to say we understood this does not a sparky make. Name one other field where you openly sell something not fit for purpose and not answer for it? Oh yea, heroin.