Apprenticeships

[NotAllThere]

Watching this: https://www.itv.com/news/2021-07-21/...e-cost-tonight

Featured a 24 year old plumber. She started at 18 on an apprenticeship. Now she takes home over £100K a year. Her friends who went to university, have debt, and they're earning less.

In Switzerland, apprenticeships are embedded in the education system. My daughter (also 24) did one as a phama technician (sort of chemical engineering - she can't cook. Anything less than 15000 litres doesn't register) and is now studying to take a degree as a pharmaceutical engineer. But. She already has the appenticeship qualification. She could be working in that capacity.

It would be good if the UK could get apprenticeships going, instead of this push for unemployed graduates.

[Fraidycat]

The guy who did my bathroom was about 40 years old.

He was a plumber, tiler, carpenter, plasterer, electrician, painter and decorator all rolled into one. And i reckon he had other trade skills i didn't know about.

Based on what he charged me for labour, I reckon he only makes £45K a year tops.

He was the equivalent of a low paid IT permie who doesn't want to be a higher paid contractor.

He said he didn't want to do lots of higher paying odd plumbing jobs. Instead he liked to work on relatively bigger projects where he got to be more creative.

[ladymuck]

It's a shame as apprenticeships used to be quite well respected.

[northernladuk]

That's a rather extreme example. I'm sure you can find someone who left school with crap GCSE's and is earning that. Does that mean we don't go to further education?

I think you are being a tad unfair on apprenticeships. My lad is on a civil engineering degree apprenticeship and there were quite a few on offer when he was a looking. His mates who didn't want to got to uni are on them as well so no one that wanted one didn't get one that I am aware of.

Problem is what apprenticeships are about. A handfull of degree ones, plenty of two year less skilled ones and then a derth of hairdressing, nail tech, nanny type ones. There is also the BTEC vocational training options but I don't know much about them. The DfE spend millions pushing apprecticeships and have the portal to find them all etc.

Not sure why you think UK hasn't got apprenticeships going? Maybe it isn't to the standard of the swiss ones or are different to the other countries but they are there. Hey, it's far from perfect but they are hardly bad.

[GigiBronz]

I think people still struggle to understand how society works today. Not what they say to you upfront but what happens in the background.
slightly naive I would say for a community that prides themselves as antrepreneurs.

[AtW]

It's a shame as apprenticeships used to be quite well respected.

Yeah, but Star Wars kind of killed them off

[d000hg]

The guy who did my bathroom was about 40 years old.

He was a plumber, tiler, carpenter, plasterer, electrician, painter and decorator all rolled into one. And i reckon he had other trade skills i didn't know about.

Based on what he charged me for labour, I reckon he only makes £45K a year tops.

He was the equivalent of a low paid IT permie who doesn't want to be a higher paid contractor.

He said he didn't want to do lots of higher paying odd plumbing jobs. Instead he liked to work on relatively bigger projects where he got to be more creative.

Sounds like someone who is fairly happy doing something they enjoy and makes a decent wage from it. Good for him.

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There are certainly rumblings about a shake-up to the apprenticeships system. Mrs d has been reading up on it (as an employer) and it looks like it will be quite attractive to incentivise businesses.. Certainly the Kickstart has worked well for us - we've taken on 2 unemployed people and plan to FTE one of them.

[jamesbrown]

Agree, technical education is way better in many other countries, like NL and CH and DE. We have far too many dead-end degree courses at dead-end universities that cost the students and, ultimately, the tax payer far too much.

[AtW]

Agree, technical education is way better in many other countries, like NL and CH and DE. We have far too many dead-end degree courses at dead-end universities that cost the students and, ultimately, the tax payer far too much.

Well if you kill manufacturing in favour of bankers in the City and large service industry (hospitality) for mass jobs, then what do you expect will happen?

[Scorp1]

The guy who did my bathroom was about 40 years old.

He was a plumber, tiler, carpenter, plasterer, electrician, painter and decorator all rolled into one. And i reckon he had other trade skills i didn't know about.

Based on what he charged me for labour, I reckon he only makes £45K a year tops.

He was the equivalent of a low paid IT permie who doesn't want to be a higher paid contractor.

He said he didn't want to do lots of higher paying odd plumbing jobs. Instead he liked to work on relatively bigger projects where he got to be more creative.

Jack of all trades master of none. There is no way he is a specialist is either if those you mentioned! I don't buy that.

I did a 5 year apprenticeship as an electrician and never looked back. JIB registered, not one of these 10 week crash courses you find in the back of a builders magazine