School Leavers vs 2nd year apprentices

John Barsby · May 10, 2013

Hi, Im looking at setting on an apprentice but not sure which to go for...

Do I go for the school leaver who we can teach from scratch or the 2nd year apprentice that will be useful
right out of the box ?

somersetsparks · May 10, 2013

John Barsby said:
Hi, Im looking at setting on an apprentice but not sure which to go for...

Do I go for the school leaver who we can teach from scratch or the 2nd year apprentice that will be useful
right out of the box ?

In honesty depends on the lad in question and what you think of him, however from personal experience as a school leaver apprentice, I can say that at 16 I didn't take work that seriously and wanted just to get through the day doing as little as possible (a continuation of school essentially) and I was gobby as ****. Probably wasn't till I was 18 that I bucked my ideas up a bit

pennywise · May 10, 2013

I'd try and find a university leaver, that's disalutioned and realises there are more oppertunities having a trade. All the ones I've had working for me have been, punctual, keen and picked things up very quickly. They also normally have their own means of transport, so no early starts having to pick up a school leaver, also they have probably already gone through the whole discovering "Girls" and drinking thing so you won't have the problem of no shows etc

Hants-Spark · May 10, 2013

Same as above really, very few know what they really want to do when they leave school other than doss for as much time as possible. At least with a 2nd year apprentice you hope they have taken in some of the previous year and enjoyed it, thus actually wanting to be an electrician.

Brightspark2 · May 10, 2013

Im looking for a second year apprentice at the moment. Had the same dilemma as you but at this moment in time need someone who has some idea already and can just drop into it.

They can just be hard to come by...

shanky887614 · May 10, 2013

Brightspark2 said:
Im looking for a second year apprentice at the moment. Had the same dilemma as you but at this moment in time need someone who has some idea already and can just drop into it.

They can just be hard to come by...

why not give jtl a call, they always have a list of people they are trying to get an aprentaship for.

if the first doesnt work there are plenty more

edit:

half asleep so correcting myself

Brightspark2 · May 10, 2013

shanky887614 said:
why not give jtl a call, they always have a list of people they are trying to get an aprentaship for.

if the first doesnt work there are plenty more

edit:

half asleep so correcting myself

Yes did look at JTL but nearest collage they listed was a bit too far away.

Spoke to local collage, might still try JTL though see what they can offer...

Knobhead · May 11, 2013

So a 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] year apprentice, who you will have to get all the bad habits out of or a newcomer you can mould?
If you can go for the newbie, but be prepared for the distress and heartache it will bring. He/She will become you’re child, like it or not. The 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] year will arrive with baggage, attitude and bad habits.

Rule 1 / no mobile phone calls other than break time. I didn’t even like that because it was time we could talk through the job or course work. I did snap with one, I threw his phone in a ladle of molten iron!

When all is said and done, I applaud you for taking on an apprentice. It’s the way to learn a trade.

irn-brue · May 11, 2013

take on a first year so you can train him properly they will become like your child lol i rember being lucky enough to get an apprenticeship with a decent tradesman and he was quite hard on me and i used to think he was a d88k cause would make me re-do things i thought were fine even if it took ages he was quite old school but this was good i was scared off him and if i tried to be smart arse would punish me for it and would have to do all rubbish jobs and dare not complain i realise now all the things he was doing were making me better spark now that im qualified and know what its like to have first year. ive got an apprentice now and since i am quite young find it hard to have authority over him and says he claustrophic so cant go under floors. told him to f**ing do what i tell him and he went to boss and boss said apprentice commplained about way i treated him but i was fair and only got angry when did something dangerous or said that will do.take on older if you can although some older apprentices can be know it all esp uni levers.