The trade needs more apprentices

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plasteringbooks

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[h=1]There has been a decline in the number of young apprentices coming into the plastering trade over the last few years, unfortunately this decline is continuing, and I cannot see any major improvements.Why is the trade lacking when other construction trades don't seem to be suffering the same,I put this down to the fact that plastering is not being taught at school level, the schools seem to focus on the other construction trades, such as Brickwork, Joinery, and Painting, so when the pupil leave school these are the trades that they choose.A few years ago we taught a group of ten school pupil, and we had them fixing plasterboard's, running panel mould, and casting ceiling roses, this gave the pupils an insight into the plastering trade and four joined our plastering course.What do you think?:RpS_unsure:[/h]
 
No Need to become an apprentice. Just do a short course and use the car you already have simples.
 
totally agree education give you knowledge , knowledge give you confidence, confidence makes you competent, competance helps you progress in your life, and you are never to old to gain qualifications
 
totally agree education give you knowledge , knowledge give you confidence, confidence makes you competent, competance helps you progress in your life, and you are never to old to gain qualifications
Also the ability to make a living ,the knowledge that you will make enough to,buy and run a van, the knowledge that you can pay your way and still live a life, the knowledge that you can raise and feed and educate your family, people need to feel that all this is possible, take away that and you rot them from the inside.
 
i have recently started a block paving course only basic nights so i can get the mrs of me back and do ours ! i got talking to the instructor and he says the same they are making two of them redundant the end of the year as nobody is signing up to learn construction trades ,20 turned up 1st night 3rd week 4 of us just shows dont it ,also ive not seen a plasterer with a apprentice for years either everyone i know works alone now or with another qualified spread
 
Good Answer, sorry I am in teacher mode :RpS_laugh: I like what you are saying so true , never mind a short course and a car :RpS_laugh:
 
the sad thing is most employers take the p*ss out of their apprentices anyway so they feck off from the trade in the end most kids dont want to be dirty in a job i mean how can you use face book when you i phones covered in render and you have sand in your crack cause of how low your trousers are:RpS_laugh:
 
I feel a book about apprentices coming on?.:RpS_sneaky::RpS_sneaky::RpS_sneaky::RpS_sneaky::rolleyes)
 
The stuff being taught to them in colleges is woeful. I've tried a few from colleges and after doing level 1 for a year they are clueless. In one lads college they were not allowed to mix for health and safety reasons apparently. Ridiculous
 
The stuff being taught to them in colleges is woeful. I've tried a few from colleges and after doing level 1 for a year they are clueless. In one lads college they were not allowed to mix for health and safety reasons apparently. Ridiculous

haha yeah had us mixing concrete with lime instead of cement , i asked about cement they replied we cant use cement we have to re-use the stuff i was laughing when we had to dig up what we put down and put it in a pile to dry out for the next poor sods to chip away what they could to re-use it!construction in college = easy job for someone to get off tools + bullsh*te to fill in the forms that are required to pass student numbers i want that job!!
 
it s because the kid s have the knowledge that the dont want hard work and thats what plastering boils down to at the end of the day qualified or not i am plastering 25 year now and was never asked for papers the know by tea time if u can do it or not i went the do a job for a builder the other day he says i want this done that done i said i will do a wall for u and see if ur happy first he says when i seen u get out off the van i knew straight away u could do it and i think it s just that simple u know straight away when u see some one if the can or cant
 
I would like to take an apprentice on now, but don't think I could work another wage into the prices and don't have the continuity of work for 2.
 
it s because the kid s have the knowledge that the dont want hard work and thats what plastering boils down to at the end of the day qualified or not i am plastering 25 year now and was never asked for papers the know by tea time if u can do it or not i went the do a job for a builder the other day he says i want this done that done i said i will do a wall for u and see if ur happy first he says when i seen u get out off the van i knew straight away u could do it and i think it s just that simple u know straight away when u see some one if the can or cant
Mostly true but I have been wrong a few times, wondering how do,I get rid of this lad, men my age group and clueless , trowels bigger than the room,I,have had to,get rid of at least six over the years, went to my pals job and watched the customer praise him as the cream of the cream, nearly died he is as rough and does not give a toss but is always busy.
 
i have a mate whos like that rough as a bears arse but always busy , he did a rendering job on a garage i had to put it right guess what the mix he used was?
 
Ive had two local kids ring me today one ive used a few times who is keen i would send him to college tomorrow if they were completely funded for the 3 years, what you get of CITB is nowhere near enough. im training my competition so if it fully funded then thats the only way things will improve.
 
I sent our labourer to do his apprenticeship after having worked with me for two years and being pretty handy on the trowel. 2 weeks with me then 2 weeks at college. I phoned him when he was at college one day asking where he had put something in the van and asked him what he was doing. His reply, Reading a book at the back of the class as the teacher is showing everyone to put plaster on a wall which he could do already so was told to amuse himself while he taught everyone else. He said the other kids where hopeless and the teacher was struggling to show them the basics. This went on for 9 months and i ended up taking him out as it was a complete waste of time. He is still with me now 7 years down the line and is better on the trowel than a lot of the time served guys we have out.
 
totally agree education give you knowledge , knowledge give you confidence, confidence makes you competent, competance helps you progress in your life, and you are never to old to gain qualifications

What a load of bowlocks, I've meet plenty of carrots with oudles of confidence and not an ounce of competence.
 
jon crisp/smart?? loads of confidence....................................that is all
 
i do not think that there is a need for more apprentices. they are being led astray by people pretending there is a place for them in the workforce. the country is awash with foreign labour and 7 day corsers on site work. and site workers are trying to move into the domestic market.
the money went out of building years ago, i know i have seen the best years when every firm ,no matter how big, the pay clerk came on site every thursday to pay everyone out in cash with no stoppages.
my own grandson has been to college for 3 years, against my wishes, to learn bricklaying, he is now 22years old and has never laid a brick in employment .
 
I sent our labourer to do his apprenticeship after having worked with me for two years and being pretty handy on the trowel. 2 weeks with me then 2 weeks at college. I phoned him when he was at college one day asking where he had put something in the van and asked him what he was doing. His reply, Reading a book at the back of the class as the teacher is showing everyone to put plaster on a wall which he could do already so was told to amuse himself while he taught everyone else. He said the other kids where hopeless and the teacher was struggling to show them the basics. This went on for 9 months and i ended up taking him out as it was a complete waste of time. He is still with me now 7 years down the line and is better on the trowel than a lot of the time served guys we have out.

when the boy wonder was at college a few year back. they didnt have any plaster for 3 months..............:rolleyes). they were moving tables and chairs around then knocking off at 10.30 FFS.................he was shown how to D&D once, got his tick in the box and that was that

its a shite state of affairs tommy and all the fresh air in the world isnt gonna make a blind bit of difference
 
I looked far and wide for an apprenticeship and couldn't find a thing. Thats left me working in KFC full time over summer, carrying on my level 3 plastering next year and doing another level 3 course just to fill the time. Eastern Europeans are cheaper than apprentices :)
 
when the boy wonder was at college a few year back. they didnt have any plaster for 3 months..............:rolleyes). they were moving tables and chairs around then knocking off at 10.30 FFS.................he was shown how to D&D once, got his tick in the box and that was that

its a shite state of affairs tommy and all the fresh air in the world isnt gonna make a blind bit of difference

that paving course im doing the whackers been broke for a fortnight the cement mixer dont work the hand tools are made out of paper mache and the instructor fecks about most the time i only wnat to know depths n stuff to get my own done but the other three that are left with me have never touched a trowel or mixer, the whole college scenes a farce well the construction bit is no wonder kids who do turn up the first few weeks think feck this im goin to fix xboxs for a living
 
There has been a lot of negativity towards the colleges tonight, well I cannot comment on what other college do,but at Burnley we run a very good programme , all out teachers have a level 3 in plastering , and then undertaken a two year university certificate in education.We receive sponsorship from major companies, so there is never any shortage of materials, and we have won nine national plastering awards in nine years, so the moral of this story is if you want good teaching from experienced qualified teachers come to Burnley.
 
qualified means nothing experience is everything and i think thats the problem with colleges the tutors dont have the knowledge a lot of the time
 
i served a five year signed apprenticeship in 1963. when i went to work in the netherlands, they told me that they do not recognize a british apprenticeship . an apprenticeship must be recognized in europe if not it is again a total waste of time.
 
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tutors dont have any experience?, well between me and my colleagues we have over 100 years of work experience , and we can teach any part of the trade for cutting a plaster board to making a fluted column, can you?
 
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