I'd thought I'd do this little write up and post a real honest review of a couple of lads I've gave trials to lately.
I'm a small company, I'm on the tools and do all the paperwork, job viewing etc.
We are domestic only.
I have another time served spread and a lad who has been with me a year. He started off as a labourer and is now a good skimmer moving onto to being taught the more advanced stuff like rendering etc. Both are subbies but with me everyday of the week.
I've been looking lately for another labourer/learner so we would be 2 gangs of 2.
I'm very fussy with who works with us, I'll get through as many as I need to till I find the right one but always want to give someone a chance as I know how hard it was to get my foot in the door.
I'm a firm believer in that the hard work you put in to start with will repay you with the benefits in the long run.
So I've got 2 lads I'm using at the minute and both have emailed me saying they are level 2 qualified NVQ in plastering and would like to progress with a career. Both had there courses funded by the government.
I thought this would help me as it may mean I wouldn't need to show them the basics and would just help them get better at there finishing.
So trial No.1 (been with me 4 months 1-3 days a week)
He's 40, wanted a career change from car sales as it was stressful and not doing him any good.
He's in the middle of a 2 day a week 9 month course.
Now the bloke is sound, very easy to get on with and good with customers as expected being a salesman.
Now he is also a hard worker when he chooses but boy is he difficult!
He has no previous trade experience so not sure If im being harsh but he just has no common sense! He does the opposite to what I tell him and when I give him a list of what to do in a order he does it in the way he wants! If I give him one job that will take him all day he's fine, if I give him 5 small jobs to do in a order I can guarantee he will do them back to front or start in the middle!
Now as for his skimming, I've only let him loose on the trowel once and to be fair he was ok. As expected. He tells me what he's learning at college and I just feel it's a complete waste of time.
He's being made to lay screeds up a wall left to set for a day and then rendering to the screeds. There seems to be no real world situations! I need to get him on the trowel more but when he can't even do the basics like follow a list or clean up properly I think what the hell will his finish be like!
He seems keen, so keen he's bought a van for 4.5k and about 1k on tools [emoji16].
He's also taking a week of next week to skim a friends house with another one of the coursers!!!! [emoji16] I said to him that's not good as his friend will not have a clue and he needs to gain experience with some one with experience! He said he needs to start somewhere!
To me that's just bad though, you'll pick up bad habits and won't know what to do properly.
There's also the £££ talk being thrown around the college which I think sends them with the fairies!
I don't know whether to stick with him and see if he improves or just stick with a young one and give my time to them.
Trial no 2.
20 year old lad has done his course and got his level 2.
Emailed me saying he wants a career in plastering and trying to find someone to give him a chance.
I thought this might be good, will know how to lay on etc save me some time on training.
Christ was I wrong!
So gave him his first day and gave him a wall to do over old plasterboard, only about 8m2 same time as my set so I knew I could keep up with it incase it went wrong!
So one wall with door way and architrave still on.
He starts laying on above the door and it's just big enough to fit the trowel upright. He whacks it on and get more on the frame and himself than on the wall! I thought give him 5 mins, see the rest,
Honestly I've never seen such a bad lay on in my life! It was everywhere, all different thickness over the other wall on the floor.
I had to speedskim it to flatten out, his second coat was just as bad. Thick as hell then nothing.
He was going right to left, left to right, middle to bottom, bottom to top.
No purpose what so ever.
I said to him mate slow the f**k down and concentrate, don't be quick be good!
I ended up doing that wall as well as my set and got him to just labour.
I told him he hadn't a clue and that I would have to teach him from scratch!
He seemed a little fazed but I said it's not your fault that's how you were taught.
He seems like a nice kid and I will give him a chance.
Again seemed to have no common sense.
Started off pushing the roller up the wall and not rolling it [emoji16][emoji33][emoji23].
Little things like this kill me! I swear I was never that bad!
He was keen though and kept asking if I needed anything.
What I found out though from these to is what bugs the s**t out me the most!
Both of them have said that there tutors can't afford not to fail people.
In other words they get a bonus for passing someone.
This is what is messing our trade up.
These people are being fed bullshit and given false hope by colleges that get paid to pass them!
They can technically go on site and call them selves plasterers!! Yet they couldn't probably couldn't scrim and bead up properly let alone skim a room to a decent standard!
It's also these people that become our competition, doesn't matter if there are 100 times worse than us, if they are pricing any job in the area they are competing!
I done a job for a lady today, she's had another 'plasterer' do her living room she spent 2 days filling and sanding to get it to a good standard for painting! [emoji33][emoji36][emoji36][emoji31]
Now she only used me after I got recommended to her and thought that prepping walls after plastering had been done was normal!
A lot the public know no different! They don't know an bad from an average and an average from a good job!
You can't always blame the client as they genuinely don't know the difference until they see it.
Sometimes it's not about the price like we think, they just don't know.
These colleges and courses are slowly killing our trade and making it out to be a easy job for any idiot!
If you've got this far thanks for reading! [emoji33][emoji33]
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