A nation of unskilled workers

[cwhaley]

I was a product of Tony Blair's school leavers, who were encouraged to go to university. There is nothing wrong with it and I'm proud that I have recognition of academic ability in an 'intellectual' subject. However -- it didn't get me a job, and I wish I was pushed into a trade instead. My dad and his brother worked in furniture and upholstery and were keen for me not to end up in a factory like they were, but they are skilled men and I feel I should have carried on that skill.

I'm currently well over ten years into a career in office jobs, and I've just decided to try applying for a course in welding. I don't know if it will lead to a career change, but I'm very open to options. The main inspiration for the course was my classic car.

We just need to encourage jobs in industry and realise that an economy cannot be so dependent on what the financial markets are doing.

 

[conny]

This country started going downhill we we gave up our manufacturing skills to buy cheaply from Asia and the far east.

We were innovators and top of the class when it came to new inventions/ideas. Sadly, people couldn't get the backing/investment they needed so they were forced abroad to make their mark. Foreign investors were willing to take risks, and most of the time, it paid off so they gained the profits and we lot the skills.

 

[ellal]

I can’t see skills training saddling someone with a lifetime of debt as people on those types of courses usually go on to a job in that field. A worthless university degree that is never used after spending 6 years avoiding the real world of work however….

So who does the training?

They have to be educated to a certain level...

You yourself have claimed that you cost too much...

And that you get paid for work that you wouldn't be doing anyway!

So who is it that is 'avoiding the real world of work'?

 

[ellal]

We just need to encouraged jobs in industry and realise that an economy cannot be so dependent on what the financial markets are doing.

Tell that to UK politicians...

You won't get very far though!

They're all *ankers in one way or another

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The government thinks chucking numbers at a problem will cure the problem.

We are a nation of unskilled workers.

The slippery slop began years ago, with quick courses to become qualified. The long, proper apprenticeships produced properly skilled, but less than valued employees.

 

[Mottie]

So who does the training?

They have to be educated to a certain level...

You yourself have claimed that you cost too much...

And that you get paid for work that you wouldn't be doing anyway!

So who is it that is 'avoiding the real world of work'?

Most skills training and assessment takes place on the job with some day/block release.
I'm not training kids for work. I’m training kids in the way of work as well as a useful, practical skill as a carrot to get them to attend the PRU because they have been chucked out of mainstream education. My work is real. Your work is……well, a mystery. Are you too embarrassed to admit what you actually do for a living? Of course you are. Don't be. Bums are always going to be needing a wipe and those bedpans won’t empty themselves.

 

[Odds]

This country started going downhill we we gave up our manufacturing skills to buy cheaply from Asia and the far east.

We were innovators and top of the class when it came to new inventions/ideas. Sadly, people couldn't get the backing/investment they needed so they were forced abroad to make their mark. Foreign investors were willing to take risks, and most of the time, it paid off so they gained the profits and we lot the skills.

I agree with the sentiments of that post but a good deal of high-end engineering goes on still in the UK. I think more F1 teams are based here than anywhere else in the world and our aircraft and ship design is still respected worldwide.
It's not so much mass-production than bespoke.

 

[Mottie]

Trouble with all this higher education malarkey is that all we are ending up with is a highly qualified but inexperienced and unemployable group of life-long students. EU freedom of movement is what has ****ed up the skilled trades training industry in this country. It was cheaper in the short term to get a Pole or a Lithuanian to do the job than it is to train little Johnny Smith.

 

[cwhaley]

Trouble with all this higher education malarkey is that all we are ending up with is a highly qualified but inexperienced and unemployable group of life-long students. EU freedom of movement is what has ****ed up the skilled trades training industry in this country. It’s cheaper in the short term to get a Pole or a Lithuanian to do the job than it is to train little Johnny Smith.

That's what I referred to earlier. As somebody who went through the public education system 95-08, the drive was to get to uni regardless. I remember the career chat I had at the end of seniors with my form teach and it was wholly based around university.

Growing up in the industrial Midlands, there were plenty of lads I went to school with who really just wanted to get into work, but who ended up doing courses they didn't really want to do. Such a waste of resource. Some of them went off into the furniture/upholstery business which is big around here, plus Royce's at Derby, some went off to be brick layers and sparkies too but the talent pool was nowhere near fully harvested due to this obsession with university.

 

[wobs]

I can’t see skills training saddling someone with a lifetime of debt as people on those types of courses usually go on to a job in that field. A worthless university degree that is never used after spending 6 years avoiding the real world of work however….

You mean like a classics degree?

 

[Brigadier]

You mean like a classics degree?

 

[Fred Blogs]

Don't get me started on 'new build' houses. Thrown up, snagging lists a mile long, garages that are no use for the average modern car, rooms that are too small for much of the furniture on sale, postage stamp gardens. Welcome to modern living in 21st century Britain.

Whilst I agree with the fact that new build houses are abysmaly built and that garages and rooms are way too small, especially garages. I live in a house that was built in 1972. It has huge rooms and a hallway that is very nearly as big as a room but I cannot get my car in the garage and easily get out of it. But it is all brick and breeze block rather than wooden frame and paper walls and it does have a fantastic view.

 

[gas112]

Dunno but there appears to be a lack of construction companies taking on apprentices ??

British Gas used to take on a fair few back in the day

Than it got privatised ??

Bg still took on apprentices for at least 20 years after being privatised and still do only thing was level of training dropped down in quality and length of apprenticeships around early 2000's

 

[gas112]

30 years ago my mate asked for the wood in his new build to be left bare and not painted as he was going to stain it .
Put the price up by 500 quid as they said they would have to pay to get a proper chippy in to do the mitres etc

 

[fillyboy]

30 years ago my mate asked for the wood in his new build to be left bare and not painted as he was going to stain it .
Put the price up by 500 quid as they said they would have to pay to get a proper chippy in to do the mitres etc

LOL, amazing what a tube of caulk will do.