New Jobs for Coventry

[Lex]

A bit of good news for Cov!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-20960145

[cathidaw]

I should imagine those jobs will soon be filled with people who were made redundant over the past couple of years. I hope so.
I feela bit despondent about young people though. Some are being led on a wild goose chase. A young man of my acquaintance , a few weeks ago started training- apprenticed-for a job- a new career.
Now they are laying some of them off-after their few weeks of.training.
This is the 3rd instance I've heard of during the past two months.

[Lex]

A constant problem that seems to always be rearing its head (including in the article above), is the lack of skills and major deficiency in basic skills such as reading and writing. I was lucky in that I've got parents who encouraged my literacy & numeracy skills, mostly because the education system didn't seem too bothered about the 2 Rs at the time (and now people who weren't taught these skills are now teachers themselves); and matters aren't helped through apprenticeships being difficult to create and expensive to run.

[cathidaw]

This young man has a good education and is very presentable, which is how he got the job. I hope this is not another scam

[rebbonk]

Apprentices always used to be protected in the event of lay-offs as they were the future, not to mention a good way of off-setting tax liabilities.

These days the government seems to pay employers to run apprentice schemes; I wonder if it's a case of "take the money and run"?

[cathidaw]

I believe it is so. 8 days into the job and he and the other 4 have been laid off.
Fortunately he thinks he has ,the chance of another,but all the parents have got together to see whatthe heck is going on.

[rebbonk]

I was an apprentice and the training was second to none. But unfortunately, in many cases, apprentices seem to have been used as cheap labour.

Recently I have been involved in "modern" apprenticeships and NVQs: frankly, I don't think they compare to what I did all those years ago.

[Shizara]

At age 15 I was, shall we say, encouraged, to leave school with no formal qualifications whatsoever and earn a living. The thinking - be it right or wrong - was that my parents had worked in factories and if it was good enough for them it was good enough for me. It carried the extra bit of pressure, the reminder that as a girl, there was no point in furthering my education, it would cost a lot of money and then it would all be wasted as I would get married and have a family.

I left school at the end of my second year of High School, went on a week holiday with a friend and her parents. When I returned my father had made a list of factory jobs for me to apply for and was firm about the fact that I was not going to sit around and make no contribution. I looked at the list and when he wasn't looking, binned it and made my own short list of Office Junior jobs that were available. This is rather like an apprenticeship to office procedures. I could type, I could spell, had lessons in Commercial Practice within the school curriculum and I was willing to learn. My father tackled me and asked what I had done about the list he had given me. I looked him square in the eye and said "Nothing. I have made my own list of Office Junior jobs." He wasn't amused and along came a lecture of not having the brains for it etc... I took no note of that and went to the first interview. I got the job, it paid 10 shillings a week more than most jobs of the same title and so began my apprenticeship so to speak. In the first 6 months along with typing, filing, mailing and assisting the other office staff I made tea, kept the staff kitchen clean and tidy and did the dusting / vacuum cleaning in the office. After 6 months I knew the job inside out and went to the boss because I was bored. Did they show me the door? No, I was promoted to Intermediate and because I had managed to streamline the work I did had time to spare and was able to work my way around the office and learn the duties of the Receptionist, the typist and the office clerk who also did receipting and banking. I was then able to relieve those positions when they were away sick or on annual leave. It also gave me a solid foundation on which to build my working future.

The point in all of the foregoing is that not all youngsters are in a position - for whatever reason - to further their education, however, in today's world, partly because of the pay rate, apprentice type positions are not popular and many are not keen on performing jobs within that position that may seem demeaning eg tea making. I would view it more as character building. When you go for another position it is important that you have a track record for being able to get to work on time and indeed actually come to work. It is important that you are willing to learn other skills and it is here you can get some good, old fashioned experience. Equally, when applying for positions it is important to turn up on time, prepared, appropriately attired and actually interested.

I noted rebbonk's comments:


I was an apprentice and the training was second to none. But unfortunately, in many cases, apprentices seem to have been used as cheap labour.

Recently I have been involved in "modern" apprenticeships and NVQs: frankly, I don't think they compare to what I did all those years ago.

I agree with all of those points, apprentices were generally low paid and whilst I don't entirely agree with that, they received excellent training, had the benefit of the knowledge and skills of others and yes, the odd prank was played on them. I worked in the world of cars for a while and 2 pranks that would appear would be:

1. Go to the panel beater's workshop for a long wait.: The apprentice would turn up and ask for what he thought to be a long weight. The panel beater who was privvy to this would send him to stand for a period of time in an area in the workshop. After about 5 minutes or so the apprentice would be told they could go. The apprentice would look confused but the panel beater would explain the exercise to him. - This was never part of the official apprenticeships, it was something that used to happen.

2. Go down to <Company Name> spare parts department and buy a radiator hose for a Volkswagon: To cut a long story short, the apprentice would quickly learn that they didn't have a radiator, that they were, in fact, air cooled.

In today's world I dare say there would be questions asked about such behaviour.

[rebbonk]

Left handed screwdriver?

Glass hammer?

Sparks for the grinder?

Tartan paint?

I'm sure you know plenty more :)

I was lucky, I picked a very good employer who understood the value of training. So much so, we weren't even allowed the half day for sports that other apprentices had.

[Lex]

Apparently Jaguar Landrover are taking an extra 800 people on at their Solihull plant. Although not Warwickshire, it'll definitely help the area's economy. :)

[cathidaw]

I was one of the first batch of nursing cadets-guinea pigs.I was 15, and was paid 14shillings and 8 pence and the hours were long and I loved it. We did all the menial jobs and running about but being told we were part of a hospital team we were proud however junior we were.
Also they 'topped up'my education for three years by sending us to Coventry Tech.every day for half the day.But we had to make up hospital time afterwards. So I sometimes came home at about 10pm.
My dad wanted me to work in an office for more money but mum talked him round.
Nowadays it's university educated people they want, but never will they learn real nursing as we did.
Every year the 2 matrons from both hospitals in cOVENTRY would go off to Ireland to recruit girls from convents, mostly innocent young girls who hadn't a clue where they were they arrived heretraight off the boat and train to coventry, scared to death having been brought up with tales of decadent England.
Sometimes they would come home with us cadets and marvelled how brave we all were -out on the buses -on our own.They had a good life though here , the hospital was a world of it's own and off duty they were catered for socially within it..
They were scared but worked hard- they had to and became in time some of the very best nurses I ever met.,