Has anyone got an apprentice

[oscar21]

If not, would you take one one?
for the second time and against my better wishes we have got one but my business partner always seems to have a family member that "wants to become an electrician". The first one was just hopeless and a wannabee gangster, only lasted a few months. This one started quite promising and has actually done a course at the local college although I'm not quite sure what his qualifications are but my god, his attention span is woeful and always on his phone every chance he gets away with. That woman from C4 summed it up perfectly when she said young people have the attention span of a tiktok video.

Personally I couldn't care less whether the younger generation learn anything or not, I don't see myself as some kind of Yoda who has to pass his knowledge on to future generations, its solely down to them if they want to learn anything or not so why do they have such an awful attitude to work, take today for eg, nearly an hour to 2nd fix a single twin socket (obviously been on his phone most of the time). We pay him £60 a day and to me its just money down the drain, in the time it takes to explain something to him I could have done it myself.

 

[ninemaverickbars]

Whilst I'm a DIYer when it comes to electrical, I own a company in the construction industry. I can tell you that you are not alone when it comes to demotivated apprentices. Whilst we're not builders outside of DIY, we do routinely supervise developments and over the last few years, we have repeatedly heard complaints from trades relating to labourers and apprentices and also the difficulty of hiring anyone for the long term.

I don't believe young people are inherently lazy. What I do believe, is that they are so well connected via social media, that the terrible wages in the UK come as a shock because they are able to continually compare UK wages to foreign countries and also, their career choice to that of "influencers" who seem to make a lot of money for nothing. If, as an apprentice, you're aware of an average sort of person who makes 5x what you do for prancing about in front of a camera, thats going to be slightly demotivating.

A very good builder, who we've worked with on smaller projects for decades, recently told me that his company will retire with him, simply because he cannot find anyone competent to take over. His son isn't interested and none of the lads he's set on are anywhere near the caliber of person he wanted to continue the firm that carries his name. We will feel the loss of this company ourselves and it's another nail in the coffin of our local trades, which are becoming like hens teeth.

I myself had an emergency with a CU a year or so ago, which presented as very serious, but turned out not to be. Young lad we found via work contacts came out within an hour. 10pm at night. He was brilliant, just brilliant. Maybe 23, he had charm, logic, knowledge and dilligence. He asked for £100 for 2 hours. I could see the uncertainty in his face when we asked what we owed. We gave him £125 and still felt we'd almost robbed him given the urgent nature of the job. Told him about my line of work and that I'd be in touch, which seemed well received. Texted him with details of an easy but bigger job (mid 4 figures) a couple of weeks later. He never replied, even after a follow up. Unbeknownst to him, he's missed out on enough work since then that he could easily have started his own firm from the proceeds and then some. I just can't understand it. Maybe I'm just terrible to work for?

 

[oscar21]

Its the serious lack of attention span that our apprentice has got that baffles me, let alone being a phone addict. I was talking to him about my extension and he asked what rooms it would have, so I said one extra bedroom, one new bathroom and turn the existing bathroom into an en-suite. He said cool how many bedrooms will it be when finished, then said so how many bathrooms will it be, then said will any of them be en-suite.

 

[westward10]

Its the serious lack of attention span that our apprentice has got that baffles me, let alone being a phone addict. I was talking to him about my extension and he asked what rooms it would have, so I said one extra bedroom, one new bathroom and turn the existing bathroom into an en-suite. He said cool how many bedrooms will it be when finished, then said so how many bathrooms will it be, then said will any of them be en-suite.

Sounds par for the course.

 

[westward10]

Few years back doing a lighting upgrade in some offices lad said what's happening I said, go up to the first and get all the fittings from the boxes and start flexing them up all the gear is up there I'll be with you in a bit. Twenty minutes later I go up no sign of him, I eventually find him up on the second floor looking for the gear, the best part he had to walk past all the gear on the first floor. He turned out okay.

 

[oscar21]

The other thing thats annoying is, one he just takes your tools without telling you or asking you, so you spend 10 minutes looking high and low for your hammer that you know you just put down near you, and when he is finished with a certain tool he just leaves it on the ground where he was working, obviously expecting mummy to tidy up after him. Crazy.

We are told we need to treat kids like adults to get respect but from where I'm looking it seems we have to treat adults (which is what they are) like kids if we want them to do anything.

 

[littlespark]

This is what gets me;

You get a 17/18 y.o school leaver. They get a job, they’re expected to get up in the morning, work an 8 hour shift, get paid at the end of the week and be sober for 100% of the time….

The other ones… the so called intellectuals that have gone to uni are half cut most of the time… get up at 11 most days and have a Wednesday off….

Talk about lazy.




Tongue in cheek guys…. I’ve done both… my kids are going through it now.

 

[7029 dave]

Not all kids are lazy. I can only go on my own personal experience, was 15 when started out on my journey to become an electrician. It was 44 years ago so yes times have changed no bloody mobile phones thank god.
If you want to learn and are enthusiastic and enjoy the work you do, it will show in your work ethic, performance etc.
The majority of kids dont want to get their hands dirty these days. Mr Blair did not encourage trade skills just all go to university lol.
Now we have lack of skilled tradesman in this country.

 

[nicebutdim]

Not all kids are lazy. I can only go on my own personal experience, was 15 when started out on my journey to become an electrician. It was 44 years ago so yes times have changed no bloody mobile phones thank god.
If you want to learn and are enthusiastic and enjoy the work you do, it will show in your work ethic, performance etc.
The majority of kids dont want to get their hands dirty these days. Mr Blair did not encourage trade skills just all go to university lol.
Now we have lack of skilled tradesman in this country.

I sit in a class of kids and there's real pride in the work turned out by most as well as a surprising keenness about theory and mathematics. The real enthusiasm is about earning more money, which is always a good motivator.

 

[freddo]

The other thing thats annoying is, one he just takes your tools without telling you or asking you, so you spend 10 minutes looking high and low for your hammer that you know you just put down near you, and when he is finished with a certain tool he just leaves it on the ground where he was working, obviously expecting mummy to tidy up after him. Crazy.

I hate that, so much. The rule was always you can borrow a tool but next time you buy your own. borrowing the same tool over and over is not on. No where in my contract does it say I have to provide tools for other employees.

 

[littlespark]

I heard a story this morning in the wholesalers that reminded me of this thread, so I thought I’d share.


Basically, one man band like me had taken on an apprentice… great worker, not a phone addict, and was in their second year.
The lad came in one day and asked for a pay rise- out of the blue.
Was told he was getting £3 more an hour than jib rates for his level… and still training.

That turned the lad from a conscientious worker to someone that didn’t give a flying you-know-what.
Turned up late, didn’t turn up at all, just being a bit of a pain.

A matter of days later he had jumped ship and moved to a bigger company that had offered another £2 an hour on top.

The guy is obviously annoyed as he’s taken the initial risk of getting an apprentice… teaching them the basics of both the trade and being in a job in the first place… along with having to reorganise jobs that he expected having two workers on instead of just one.

 

[7029 dave]

I heard a story this morning in the wholesalers that reminded me of this thread, so I thought I’d share.


Basically, one man band like me had taken on an apprentice… great worker, not a phone addict, and was in their second year.
The lad came in one day and asked for a pay rise- out of the blue.
Was told he was getting £3 more an hour than jib rates for his level… and still training.

That turned the lad from a conscientious worker to someone that didn’t give a flying you-know-what.
Turned up late, didn’t turn up at all, just being a bit of a pain.

A matter of days later he had jumped ship and moved to a bigger company that had offered another £2 an hour on top.

The guy is obviously annoyed as he’s taken the initial risk of getting an apprentice… teaching them the basics of both the trade and being in a job in the first place… along with having to reorganise jobs that he expected having two workers on instead of just one.

That's the risk the guy took, if he was that good and valuable to him he should of payed him. No good crying about it.

 

[DPG]

That's the risk the guy took, if he was that good and valuable to him he should of payed him. No good crying about it.

To be fair we don't know what he was paying him!

Perhaps we should 'of'

 

[littlespark]

As I said in the OP, the lad was already getting more than what the JIB says he should get.
Just some other company offered him more.

I know there’s no real reason for him to be loyal to the guy that gave him a job in the first place… but it has left him hesitant of taking on anyone else.

 

[7029 dave]

JIB rates have always been shocking, the whole pay scale across all grades.

 

[oscar21]

I cant seem to make any headway with ours, its not that he is lazy or has attitude in any way, its just that he hasn't got a practical bone in his body, he would be much better suited to sitting in an office all day, probably on a bean bag moderating twitter posts or something like that.

Take the other day, I got him to measure a couple of downlights out as per the plan I'd drawn. The light was 800mm from the wall, all nice and simple, except it was in a loft conversion so the ceiling was sloping before it went horizontal. Imagine a vertical wall, then a 45 deg sloping ceiling then the flat ceiling.

So the way he measured it was held the tape measure in the corner, followed the slope and then across the ceiling, all in one go so the tape measure was bent to the shape of the ceiling. Obviously the light ended up too close to the wall and the wires weren't anywhere to be seen. Now I know I didn't show him specifically how to measure it out but I just find it so perplexing that young people, not just him but all of them have absolutely zero experience in anything even slightly hands on. all the experienced people I work with were all on building sites up scaffolding from about 12 years old with their dads, or other friends all had mopeds or crossers in bits when they were kids, they built go carts and tree houses, today's youngsters can't even boil and egg. They really aren't suited to manual labour at all. The way I see it is they all need to make sure they get mega well paid jobs to afford the few tradesmen left that they will inevitably need in the future.