Apprenticeship? What a joke!

Could be one of the A4E tricks.

Another one here:

And the article makes it sound like the local councillors paid him out of their own pockets. Excuse me whilst I vomit.

Well said.

Except that actually we have corrupted the language, so that now some relatively basic training *is* called an "apprenticeship".

There was a very similar example on "Undercover boss" the other day, where the boss was disturbed to find the salesman in a Hyundai agency hadn't had any basic sales training.

What *I* found more disturbing was that her job title was "Senior Sales Executive".

This was a girl of about 22 who had been in the job for seven months.

On that basis I suppose I should be called an Intergalactic Energy Consultant; or at very least an Interplanetary one.

My arse.

sub-minimum

Apprentice rate for the first year 16-18 is £2.65/hour. After the first year they have to be paid the minimum wage for their age, for a

What we don't know is are these lads out on the street unsupervised or is there a mentor with them? And they are doing more than just litter picking, like graffiti removal. Takes more than a quick blast with pressure washer to remove car enamel spray paint... People are under estimating the job, it might not be a "traditional" apprenticeship but times and jobs change.

It is a Modern Apprenticeship, introduced in the 1990s to replace the Youth Training Scheme. Any resemblance to apprenticeships as established by the 1563 Statute of Artificers is entirely coincidental.

Colin Bignell

True, it's a somewhat ancient definition but you get the idea ! ;-)

Apprenticeship implies learnig a trade & perhaps progressing to somethoing better. Going to night school or day release. Technical college (Do any remain?) Sounds like these poor buggers are in a dead end job. Essential yes but this is not a job you want to be doing for the rest of your life.

I can see why the OP is pissed off.

Exactly so. They deserve better than this.

Another big con is these NVQs. An NVQ trained "electrician" came to wire my PVpanels. I ended up going on the roof myself to wiret hem up.

I don't blame the poor bugger but I blame the system whereby there seems tobe virtually no apprenticeships available.

The old Electricity Boards trained thousands. All the training schools disappeared when they were privatised.

That is truly appalling.

Mostly in house and on the job under a mentor but these days there is normally an element of formal training at college as well. Also for todays official recognition that the placement is an apprenticeship there will be involvement from an external body to verify that the relevant training/skills have been gained by the apprentice.

Which means their friends earning large saleries to do little for anyone else in the long term.

These days, some FE colleges do a good job with apprentices.

SWMBO is in charge of engineering at a local college, and she is looking to get more employeres involved in 'proper' apprenticeships.

"Not Very Qualified".

Northern Powergrid still have training schools.

I thought this sort of job was now done unpaid by offenders on community service schemes, or graduates on Jobseeker New Deal.

Owain

Seems that they were doing the council workers out of a job. I do see their point.