Help wanted re dealing with work

welshbookworm

Many thanks, I have to work with her for 2 days this week on my own so will have plenty of time to try out the things in your post.

getmore4less

LittleVoice wrote: »

Do you check that she does understand? So, if you ask her to tidy rails to the shop's standard, do you then ask her what she is going to do and what the standard is that she has to work to? She needs to be able to explain what she is going to do, not just say the easy thing of "yes, I understand".

This is important,

I have done a lot of training, much with english as a second language

The stock response is "I understand" for everything, or repeating what you say which makes it look like they understand.

You have to get feed back and explanations in their own words that you understand
(lucky I was working with smart people and most of the problems were language related)

As has been said documentation of even the simple stuff is a way forward

Are all your common tasks documented with standard procedures?

welshbookworm

Unfortunately everything is done verbally but I might encourage her to help me with writing out 'Task Sheets' so we can give them out to future apprentices to explain what we do.
This hopefully will give me a better insight into her understanding. I have checked she can write in English and have spoken briefly to a teacher at her school who didn't flag up any problems that I needed to be aware of - though she did remember her.
Off to work now.
Many thanks for all the tips and advice, I will be using as many as I can.

Oldernotwiser

I don't think anybody's asked this yet but what age is she and when you say "apprentice", what do you actually mean?

smartpicture

Are you positive that the problem is that she can't do it, rather than she won't? You say that officially you are only an apprentice yourself, as is she, and she may object to being told what to do by someone she perceives as being on the same level as her. Rather than be openly defiant about it, she may just be being as awkward and difficult as possible to show you up, or show you that you can't tell her what to do. What happens when she is told to do something directly by a 'proper' manager?

welshbookworm

We're 'Apprentices' as in a Government scheme to help long term unemployed get a job.
She's 20 and I'm 50. I am considered 'senior' because of my age and length of service. It is also made clear that I am repeating what a senior manager has told me to say/do, not my own ideas (backed up with emails and notes)
She is the same with the full time managers. I had a discussion about her today with a manager and my line manager as I was worried about the effect of her on the other apprentices. They have the same problems as I do.
This month I have 4 full days to try and find out if her inabilities are can't do/ won't do or outside stress.
I know I could just right her off, but I want to do well and in work you have to deal with people who are non positive and get the best out of them.

PasturesNew

If instructions were verbal I'd probably forget half of them .... and stare out of the window, because I need to see a long way away or everything crowds in on me. Also, if I didn't know what the 'shop standard' was, or the instructions for that were given long ago verbally, I might have forgotten - and now am unable to do this simple task because I'd be stressing about getting it right, then in the end I'd just think "ferk it .... if they're not going to tell me what the standard is then what's the f'kin point", and at that stage I'd have asked several people/times what the standard was and wouldn't have had a clear, concise, consistent answer.

Written stuff's good.
Verbal stuff's not good.

Grandmasu

Hello, Just wanted to say how good it is that you are doing your best to help this person and not just writing her off as difficult. Ifind it sad that her mentor is not more involved to help her and those she is working with to work out whether it is "cant" or "wont" You are doing a wonderful job and if you take on some of the advice given on here may possibly succeed in wish to help her.

When your apprenticeship finishes if you are not offerd a job by your host company you should definitely get work somewhere where the skills that you are showing could be put to good use, maybe in training, certainly supervisory. I wish you luck for the future, I only wish I was in a position to offer you employment I would head hunt you. Unfortunately I am retired, have worked in retail and training and wish I could have met more people like you in mycareer.

michilin27

Hi Welshworm. Some excellent points on here. Have a look online for Vark learnning styles. Not everyone learns in the same manner, so its important to consider this when training someone. And can i echo the sentiments of Grandmasu. Its lovely to see someone A) wanted to helop someone, and not be afraid to ask for help themselves. You are a credit to your organisation. Well done.

Savvy_Sue

best of luck wbw, you sound as if you're doing a fantastic job! And you KNOW it is not just you!

What PN said is true, for her. Others don't respond so well to written instructions. It is working out what someone needs ...