2 Days With An Appretice

[M107]

OMFG  :red card

So the theory was getting an apprentice in would help speed up the heavy workload (managers you gotta love em). The lad that has been shoved at me is 19 & only worked part time in bars/pubs, so HR thought he was spot on for a sparks mate :C

Day 1:  

was eager enough but just didn't have the "think for myself & whats next on the list" attitude.

Asked him to put up a short length (3ft) of 50x50 trunk while I was in the next room running some FP, 5 mins pass & I've not heard the drill so go & look....................

There he is drill in hand with 6mm masonry in the chuck just kneeling & offering the drill up then doing nothing

you ok with that?

"Errrm yeh"

Sure no questions or traumas?

"well im not sure ive got the right size drill bit, if i use this one the screws will just fall out."

:| you drill the hole then put a plug in the hole then put the screw in the plug?

"Oh sorry I've never used the rawlplugs before"  headbang

Day 2:

• A re-teach of how to drill a hole & use rawlplugs.
• The next task he had was to drill a small hole through some 25mm ply, pull in & terminate BT cable........................I go next door & so starts a thunderous racket, I shout Eff & Jeff at him................he was trying to drill a 16mm hole using an SDS masonry  bit  (why 16mm I dont know the cable was only 4 pair)
•  Push that cable through the hole you drill in the wall..................only took him to 3 goes at getting it through the hole he drill 5 mins earlier, first 2 holes were nowhere near the hole he'd drilled 
• Getting anything from the van, well lets just say it would have been quicker to place an order with SF & had it delivered.
• The 30+ FP wrap clips I had him fit had to be taken off & re-done..............******* beyond me how you can get them the wrong way round, as in the back of the clip is facing out!............that was after I did the first 5 to show him how they are done.

How the **** do you guy's put up with them? I told the boss I'd have worked a lot faster & got more done on my own!

 

[ProDave]

That is why a proper apprentice starts in a training school.

But then just to get the apprenticeship I had, I had to first pass the aptitude test.  your guy would not have got that far and would not have started where I did.

 

[steptoe]

its a difficult one tbh,

i have a couple of good labourers I use when on bigger/awkward jobs,

one knows jack about what I do, but is good, amiable, and has enough sense that he just cleans up behind me as I go if theres nothing for him to specifically do,

the other is a good grafter, has got a good grasp of domestic wiring and knows why I do things the way I do, cable size etc, doesnt know the regs, but that in general cable sizes in domestic are what they are, [ I ask for socket cable/light cable, mm sizes not there just yet,,,,,,]

apprentices's's's's's's's',,,,,,,,,,,,?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?   :shakehead

Im not sure on that these days,

a few years back a firm I worked for took 3 on,

the one lad that started on fire suddenly quit after about 14months and is now in a dead end job,

the one we thought would simply be a good go getter actually turned into the best one after about 8months and is still at it and doing more and more exams to try work up, the guy is running jobs and stuff, fairly biggish commercial stuff. [seems he just lacked a lot of confidence]

the 3rd useless lazy one, well, I think he is now a general labourer.

 

[Sidewinder]

Same here PD, we all had interviews and aptitude tests and if you did not pass both, you did not get in.

Also, we spent at least a year in "apprentice school" now that could have been in house or in college depending on your trade & your employers facilities.

We had our own in house training school, so it was one day & one evening a week @ college and the rest at the training school..

 

[Jono Pashley]

Well...least none of the good ol' favorite for workshy apprentices.....playing on their phone...

 

[binky]

those that can't grasp what they have just been shown are no use to man nor beast.

 

[Sharpend]

We'll I think that should be posted to all colleges as a how not to be an apprentice!!

Although cried with laughter!!!!!

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

Ahh, i had forgot about the aptitude tests. The hour test looking at a book of pictures of cogs and levers and having to work out which way the last item would move when the first item is pressed/turned.

 

[binky]

we struggled for over a year with one lad, keen as mustard. but could only retain information for about 2 weeks before you had to teach him again. If you asked him to do 3 things, he would do 2 then forget the third - he had to go!!

 

[Evans Electric]

I do sympathise  .but we do tend to forget that a lot of  people have no practical knowledge whatsoever and the simplest thing seems so difficult for them . 

I had the Brickie's labourer feeding cables into conduit as I drew in the fish tape ......total nightmare !!!    Just guide them in I'm shouting !!   Seemed to be hanging on to them  .............next thing he'd pulled miles of cable off the drums & tangled them up .........I thought  don't get him at the pulling end  'cos he'll be wrenching them through like a tug o war .

A chippie took over , hearing all the commotion and all went sweetly .

 

[OnOff]

Up a 3-part ladder............look down and the youngster supposed to be footing the ladder is nowhere to be seen...............I can though hear a girl in the throes of passion and going for it quite loudly.  I climb down and he's watching porn on a portable DVD player. "WTF?" from me is greeted by "Ere, come and look at this!". No comprehension whatsoever that he's doing wrong. Told him to put it away.....he opens his bag and he's also got a PSP in there! He went.

Another young one turned up unexpected where 4 of us were working. No need for him but the office had sent him to give him something to do and probably to get rid. We all had our jobs, job was going swimmingly and to stop and decide what he could do would have slowed us down. Gave him a tenner and said to get the teas in & get himself a bacon roll etc as we'd eaten. Thought I was doing him a favour. He then hung around watching for the rest of the day. Next day he turns up, again not required! Another tenner and sent him to the cafe again! I had as part of the job to take off a rather dirty motor and gearbox so asked him to help me, I got................."I don't do grease I'm an electrician!". He went................not before accusing me of being RACIST!

We had a YTS on a roof edge years back. He accidentally knocked off a stack of bolts that had been left on the parapet. I swore at him more as a reaction than anything. All indignant he said "I only did THIS!" and swept another load of bolts off with his hand!

:lol:

 

[Evans Electric]

Up a 3-part ladder............look down and the youngster supposed to be footing the ladder is nowhere to be seen...............I can though hear a girl in the throes of passion and going for it quite loudly.  I climb down and he's watching porn on a portable DVD player. "WTF?" from me is greeted by "Ere, come and look at this!". No comprehension whatsoever that he's doing wrong. Told him to put it away.....he opens his bag and he's also got a PSP in there! He went.

Another young one turned up unexpected where 4 of us were working. No need for him but the office had sent him to give him something to do and probably to get rid. We all had our jobs, job was going swimmingly and to stop and decide what he could do would have slowed us down. Gave him a tenner and said to get the teas in & get himself a bacon roll etc as we'd eaten. Thought I was doing him a favour. He then hung around watching for the rest of the day. Next day he turns up, again not required! Another tenner and sent him to the cafe again! I had as part of the job to take off a rather dirty motor and gearbox so asked him to help me, I got................."I don't do grease I'm an electrician!". He went................not before accusing me of being RACIST!

We had a YTS on a roof edge years back. He accidentally knocked off a stack of bolts that had been left on the parapet. I swore at him more as a reaction than anything. All indignant he said "I only did THIS!" and swept another load of bolts off with his hand!

:lol:

Whats a PSP  OnOff ?

 

[Blue Duck]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/W7zuQrJEkHY?feature=oembed

 

[OnOff]

Whats a PSP  OnOff ?

Playstation Portable..............the one before the Vita..............

 

[kerching]

Duckys youtube clip priceles

I know what is wrong with me now, i have googled it

I have

Anatidaephobia........something that Blue Duck should never get

 

[Blue Duck]

Not sure how to take that :|

 

[Andy™]

makes my happy i work on my own...

 

[sprocketflup]

and me :innocent

 

[revjames]

The company I work for recruit apprentices after they have completed a first year at college (at their own expense) The boss hand picks the ones that have the most promise. To be honest the apprentices I have seen so far seem pretty good.

 

[binky]

I like 2nd year apprentii, by then someone has generally shown them how to hold a drill and not stab themselves with a stanley knife - saves a lot of grief!!