Apprenticeships of Old vs. The New

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 As an engineering apprentice during the 1970’s, I look back with fondness at the way we were taught and also the bullying which pushed my character to breaking point. But that is expected in all walks of life to some extent, but it made me stand on my own two feet and realise if I could stand that; I could stand up to anything and do any task from getting up to my neck in grease to spending days at a time chipping slag off profiled components.Would an apprentice do that these days? I ask myself with some doubt of whether they would be expected to do such things. One is because many of the youth today go to University for the degrees in engineering.

They are given the real academic training and learn the sciences as well as some practices in the trade as do teachers, nurses and other trades and professions. Another comes down to attitude and acceptance on behalf of the apprentices themselves and of course the Health and Safety might come into it somewhere.We now have a strategic tendency these days on behalf of management to protect the modern day apprentice or post graduate from starting from the bottom, thus giving them the attitude of I am qualified and don’t need to do that job. Maybe some places aren’t like this but a good percentage are, I know I’ve done it seen it and have been cut down to size at a few places. Because there is always the person you can never beat; their names are Mr or Mrs Experience.They have been on the shop floor or ward and had every bit of filth thrown at them, yet with the dedication of their jobs they have coped, when they could have thrown in the towel.It is all of taking the rough with the smooth which saw them including myself through. I am not saying that today’s new apprentices won’t do dirty jobs, it is the Managements, administrators or other governing powers; who sometimes make the mistake of saying that they are too good to do a dirty job.

They are doing more harm to the trainee, apprentice or other by denying them experience of doing all task. There is not always a labourer around to do the dirty job so they might have to do it themselves at some time.I feel it is important for an apprentice to get the experience first, then go to college or they will have a shock when they start real work; not from the management but from jealous so-called work-mates who may not have had the opportunity during their time.It is not the lad or Lasses fault they have reached a good academic standard and used the machines that the college provides, I say “Well done and good luck to them.” They will come onto the shop floor and for a start discover the machine is different from the one they were using. Yes there maybe the bright spark who can do it all, but at the end of the day we are all humans.