Has anyone got an apprentice

[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.