Are we killing the apprenticeship route into the industry?

[guitargraham]

Hi Boatnik1

if a 47 year old comes along with qualifications and no fear of spiders and mice and happy with hard craft would you give them a chance??????????????

Graham

 

[boatnik1]

Hi Boatnik1

if a 47 year old comes along with qualifications and no fear of spiders and mice and happy with hard craft would you give them a chance??????????????

Graham

There was a time but now two years retired and glad to be away from all the grief of more paperwork than real work. Now I just play around at it as a hobby. I don't do paper.
Only enquiry I have at the moment is an outfit looking for a pat tester on a weekly basis.
The moneys rubbish so I'm not interested in it. Not worth the grief.

 

[Mac]

The only people that are killing the industry are the people who won't employ apprentices,regardless of age.
A rocky start for apprentices | Features | Construction News

 

[silva.foxx]

I had the misfortune to take on three over the years and not one of them lasted the first year, also two Uni. Graduates who were the worst specimens ever put on the planet. One of them lasted two months and the other left after three weeks.

Wouldn't the ideal be to pluck a guy or guys out of college who were there of their own doing?
You know, someone who really wanted to be doing electrics.

My best mate went into college purely to do OND/HND electrical engineering. Whilst there he was approached by a local manufacturing company, Sharp Electronics, who transferred him onto a Modern Apprenticeship and continued him through the four years. He is still with that company after 15 years. What an investment! A loyal servant indeed.

As for me... I was bumming around in an FE college wasting my days away with A-level geography, maths and computing. My ole'man, a machine engineer of over 35 years invited me into work with him for an apprenticeship at the factory he is still at. What a priviledge that was and am really grateful for the opportunity. I am now at a prestigious blue-chip company fiddling with machine brains and arteries! Just like an electrical surgeon and it's fantastic.

This company now takes on apprentice every two years, previously two every four years.

 

[boatnik1]

Wouldn't the ideal be to pluck a guy or guys out of college who were there of their own doing?
You know, someone who really wanted to be doing electrics.

I'm glad I don't have to even think about it any more. Towards the end of my years I started working for a steel company ASW HQ. S.Wales and stayed with them 18 years, till they went bust, and took my pension with them. Had to start all over again until the Big C retired me. A lot of young'uns are either happy to believe the hype and stay in Uni or wherever and reckon on an admin type job at £50k where work is not a part of it, or the others who find it difficult to add, subtract or measure anything without their calculators or laser measure and who cannot take instruction when they bother to turn up at all. Were I to do it again I would certainly be looking for an older person with work experience (at anything) and the relevant certs, to work for a decent wage for a period where I could happily declare him/her time served.

 

[Mac]

Good on yer mate.Totally agree with that.My dad was born in Belfast.Kids today rely too much on technology.They can't think for themselves(computers,mobiles and things along them lines).I know it's progress,but when you ask them to work something out in their head,they don't have a clue

 

[boatnik1]

Mac. Have to admit that when I served my time, calculators hadn't been invented and I worked out PFs on Motors etc on a slide-rule, ya don't see many of those about these days. I wouldn't have a clue how to start useing one of those again after all these years. That was in '61.
Given some of the spelling we see on these forums (and I know mine is a long way from perfect) I shudder to think what some of the job certs and forms look like. Maybe it's just as well that tick-boxes are the thing these days

 

[saveloy]

I've given youngsters a start a couple of times and what I've noticed is they have a complete inability to think for themselves. I wouldn't expect anyone (with no experience)to pile straight in and know what to do, but I've found that unless you are telling them what to at all times they just stop and wait to be told.
It becomes very hard work thinking for them as well. I'm not talking about mentally demanding work either just general labouring. They just seem to lack motivation. All you want is someone to say whats next or to look round and tidy up or just show a general interest.

I don't think for a minute that every single youngster is like that, but I do think they are mollycoddled a lot more in school and this shows up in the working world. I really fear for the construction industry in the coming years.

 

[boatnik1]

I've given youngsters a start a couple of times and what I've noticed is they have a complete inability to think for themselves. I wouldn't expect anyone (with no experience)to pile straight in and know what to do, but I've found that unless you are telling them what to at all times they just stop and wait to be told.
It becomes very hard work thinking for them as well. I'm not talking about mentally demanding work either just general labouring. They just seem to lack motivation. All you want is someone to say whats next or to look round and tidy up or just show a general interest.

I don't think for a minute that every single youngster is like that, but I do think they are mollycoddled a lot more in school and this shows up in the working world. I really fear for the construction industry in the coming years.

Don't worry about it. When the upturn comes there will be thousands of brand new workers in all the trades fresh from Uni or training centers all ready to take up their new jobs wearing their designer gear and with their brand new screwdriver sets and plier sets from Poundworld. Gawd help us.

 

[Mac]

Mac. Have to admit that when I served my time, calculators hadn't been invented and I worked out PFs on Motors etc on a slide-rule, ya don't see many of those about these days. I wouldn't have a clue how to start useing one of those again after all these years. That was in '61.
Given some of the spelling we see on these forums (and I know mine is a long way from perfect) I shudder to think what some of the job certs and forms look like. Maybe it's just as well that tick-boxes are the thing these days

Know what you mean mate.I used to take my dads slide rule to school,back in the early 80s.No computers to work things out.All pencil and paper and having to work things out in your head.

 

[electricAl]

Don't worry about it. When the upturn comes there will be thousands of brand new workers in all the trades fresh from Uni or training centers all ready to take up their new jobs wearing their designer gear and with their brand new screwdriver sets and plier sets from Poundworld. Gawd help us.

Spoken tongue-in-cheek, i know, but your prediction is uncomfortably close to the truth i fear...

 

[Mac]

Don't worry about it. When the upturn comes there will be thousands of brand new workers in all the trades fresh from Uni or training centers all ready to take up their new jobs wearing their designer gear and with their brand new screwdriver sets and plier sets from Poundworld. Gawd help us.

That was spot on,and you hit the nail right on the head.

 

[boatnik1]

And when they see that they might have to get their hands dirty they'll quickly move sideways into the drug trade or somesuch to get the money to set up their own sparking business and employ all us old codgers who can do the work while they drive around their old Uni mates to have business lunches and work out how they can fleece the public/their workers and suppliers before going bankrupt with a suitable nestegg in the Bahamas. (As if they would)

 

[Doomed]

I do feel somewhat sorry for the present generation of Uni students. It is no longer a prestigious thing to do, something only achievable by people with brains, instead of the 1 in 50 people going to Uni it is now 1 in 3.

The government has devalued the degree system and yet still let students believe it is the path to wealth and fortune it used to be.

I have to deal with alot of students doing part time work while they are at Uni, and in the last 20 years the standard has seriously declined.

But this is an issue for another thread, probably another forum infact

There are just too many people living on this island of ours now.

 

[gazc]

The way this game is going there wont be any apprenticeships its becoming like the university system where you have to pay for your own training the trouble is training out of books dosn`t prepare you for what its really like. working with your hands cant be learnt out of books.
Iv been a electrician for 20 years now and i cant believe the standard of some of the new guys coming into the game in the old days you worked as an apprentice and a spark checked your work. give these guys a set of drawings and take a look at the bafflement in their faces. I feel sorry for them spending all that money trying to better themselves and having to work for nothing and i mean nothing just to try and get some experience there must be some really disillusioned fast track sparks out there at the min god knows i becoming really disillussioned with the whole game as well