New Ad campaign

[AdamW]

No, not a campaign for Ad(am)...

Has anyone else seen those new adverts on TV, the "do an apprenticeship and learn a trade" ones where they say "what do you see?" and show you a brick?

Now, how many posts have I seen on this board where people have said "Stooopid policy of 'everyone needs degrees'... they closed the trades college in my town and I can't find builders for manlove nor money". LOTS OF SUCH POSTS!

Finally it seems TWMBO (they who must be overpaid) have realised their mistake... either that or these ads are funded by the master builders' guild, who are worried that there are so few new builders being trained now.

 

[dingbat]

Thing is, Adam, it's all part of a greater malaise. Only a few years ago people would honour their committments to a company who had paid to train them from a dribbling ball of snot into a worthwhile tradesman by working for them for at least a few years after completion. But now kids are persuaded by many influences that instant fame/success/wealth is everyone's birthright. The idea of working hard for five years to get a qualification entitling them to more work is alien to them.

What's in it for the firms then? Employing people has become a harder and harder thing to do, legally and financially, so many smaller firms have chosen to avoid the snags, leaving training in the hands of ever more specialised, removed-from-the-real-world institutions. This leaves budding apprentices with the prospect of college for a couple of years, but no practical experience, no job to go to and no work colleagues to instil any work ethic in them.

So, of course, as fewer and fewer people leave school expecting to have to pay their own way and make some hard choices in life (such as leaving home, fer chrissakes!) fewer and fewer people are left to do the work. On the one hand it should be good for the tradesmen still left in the game, but as prices rise due to demand, other enterprising nations which have yet to develop an aversion to honest work will see the opportunity and we'll lose yet another form of employment because we couldn't be bothered.

The sooner people start to remember that life's hard, then you die, the better. (Blimey, I feel better after that little rant!)