I sympathise total DSD...one of the problems, especially with the pumbing situation was the media attention it got a few years back about plumbers all being on somewhere in the region of 70-100k a year...we all know that total *******s (except softus who probably on twice that!
)..
It caused a massive upserge in misguided people applying for places..some made it..most didnt after they realsied you need to be pretty smart to do the job.
Private companies also jumped on the bandwagon claiming that once you had your NVQ which was possible in a matter of months (more *******s) then you were on the way to £10000000000000000000000's of pounds.
The one that did make it found that they were out there self employed and hardly any work coming in...no one bother bothered to tell them about the other stuff like ACOPS, ACS and CORGI they would have to sepnd a fortune on too...
This has still produce a glut of plumbers..all working along and finding the competition hard
aNOTHER PROBLEM...WHEN A TRAINEE STARTS WITH A PLUMBER THERE IS VERY LITTLE FOR THEM TO DO EXCEPT FOR PASSING A SPANNER etc (sorry caps) ...so not cost effective for a plumber to take them on
One lastly...some may find this offensive..I apologise..but out of all the trades I used to approach with a view of taking a trainee, the one that would come out with the ''why should I train someone up who will end up competing with me in the future' excuse was plumbers..
Selfish yes...narrow minded maybe, short sighted possible...trying to protect what they had...definate.
I used to remind them that it was a good job the bloke who trained them didnt have that attitude..
Rightly or wrongly this seemed to be the biggest problem placing trainees.