Preparedness for when

grandma247

Well said Mrs LW I have long felt that concentrating on academics only was a mistake. I have also never forgotten a program I saw about engineering students. It was university vs apprenticeship. The ones who learned at university were not fully equipped to do the job and they left with debts.

The ones who learned the trade through an apprenticeship could take their skills anywhere and they were earning while learning so no debts.

Sometimes there is no substitute for doing the real thing.

My middle son was home ed and at 16 he got a job and worked for about 18 months till he had an accident that nearly cost him his sight. There was no safety equipment and it was never mentioned but misteriously appeared the day after the accident. We encouraged him to leave that job for his own safety.

He then chatted with Sil who was out of work and they decided to start a gardening business together. They got a number of really good jobs but because it was terrible weather for a couple of years they did not really make enough to keep two of them so Ds looked for another job.

After a tense few months he found one 50 miles away so moved into lodgings and has not looked back. He has done training in the job and when we have visited the people he works for are so full of praise for him because he just gets his head down and does the job. It was not a job we thought he would ever even think of doing but it goes to show that you never know until you try.

grandma247

Vjs mum I had a young friend who wanted to be a train driver and he moved to the big smoke to follow his dream. he spent a few years down there and now does the same job up here

There is so much snobbery about manual work but this country would come to a standstill if there were no train/bus drivers,cleaners, street cleaners, road menders, house builders shop workers etc.

mardatha

Agree totally. My husband and two sons are dyslexic as hell and it was always such a worry - getting jobs and going to interviews was always so fraught. The height of stupidity to me was one time my older son asked about being a butcher's apprentice and got told he needed O levels! I have loads of O levels but hated the idea of a stuffy snooty office and so I just took any job I could get that would pay bills, until I went to nursing in my early 30s. They don't equip young people at all for working life now and it's such a shame.

short_bird

http://www.jorvik-viking-festival.co.uk/2014/02/vikings-arrive-in-york-ahead-of-ragnarok-the-norse-apocalypse/

GreyQueen

I don't have a young person to guide (for which young persons as a group should thank their lucky stars) but if I did, I would encourage vocational skills.

I know chefs who are able to walk in and out of jobs at the snap of their fingers. They're not the Michelin-starred TV celebri-chefs either, but just regular guys and girls i nthe provinces. They have a marketable skill in high demand and are consistantly in work and are able to move, and often up their wages, whenever they feel the urge.

I know people working in secondary education and careers ed and they are often frustrated by the conservatism of many youngsters who are unwilling to think outside an incredibly narrow range of options. And I whole-heartedly agree with the expired model of hard study/uni/good job in one career for life being something which will see you all right.

I'm one of the million Brits who work in call centres. Call centres are pretty much an all-graduate environment (I have an arts degree myself). I like my job (mostly) but I work with some twenty-somethings who are being bled white by student loan repayments for education in careers which they will almost certainly never practise. That can be embittering and demotivating.

Yes, everything you experience grows you as a person, and is part of what you 'bring to the table' if you'll excuse the dreadful workplace jargon, but paying many thousands of pounds for an academic polish in a contracting jobs market isn't the best use of time or money.

Yet gas engineers, plumbers and carpenters and even odd-job-persons seem to have more work than they can handle. Go figure.

I'm at home on leave today waiting for a carpenter, hence manual trademen being much on my mind today. Took me the best part of two weeks to get this appointment, too.

Hobsons_Choice

My youngest son wasn't very academic, he had to work hard for every GCSE he got. His ambition was always (since the age of eight) to be a fireman or an airline pilot. Little boys eh?
He went in the RAF as a fireman.
He's now a Chief Inspector in the police.
Common sense and hard work have got him where he is, not university education.
And don't get me started on most of the nursing training being done in a classroom these days!

mardatha

Oh short_bird thanks for that! I love Vikings, wish we could go

moments_of_sanity

Re the job situation, my DH was made redundant by the NHS in 2011 and has struggled to find any jobs and I do mean any! He was a purchaser for the NHS and had worked there for over 10 years but hasn't been able to find any 'office' work at all.

He did a brief stint in a warehouse working nights but was only getting 2 nights a week meaning he was earning about £150, this was fine whilst I was employed full time but in September 2013 I was made redundant and am now on ESA. DH is currently working as a delivery driver for a well known internet selling site but is self employed (don't seem to be able to not be in this line of work) and last week worked 50+ hours for a pay of £260, tax and NI still have to come off this amount so he is earning well under the minimum wage but can't give the job up as there are no others available. He applies for approx 10/15 jobs a week and 95% of companies don't even bother letting people know they haven't got an interview! :eek:

Times are very tough out there and not sure how we are going to manage on his meager wages and my ESA as we also have 2 teenage DD's living here as well.

It is heartbreaking to see him work so hard for so little and take as many job rejections as he has to.....no experience, too much experience, candidates with skills more suited etc etc. and these are for jobs he could do.

Right, off to sit in my darkened corner and 'rock' backwards and forwards for a bit..........only kidding (for now!)

Butterfly_Brain

I am spitting feathers at this report

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/20/people-stripped-benefits-charged-decision

Can the Tories sink any lower?

Butterfly_Brain

Cheering at this one!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/benefits-uk-testing-firm-atos-3168142

But they will be replaced with another vile company to implement another disability denial factory on the say so of a discredited US company Unum, even the US won't take their carp