when we should be training our young lads to work the tools.
Leaving aside the rest, I agree fully.
Govt and Industry giants have ruined the trade.
I can't take a young lad on some sites (aged say 16,17 ) to try him out for a few weeks (sometimes a day is all you need) without a CSCS card. To get that, got to register,pay fee, do test. Just so we can have a look at him. Also if U18 need seperate risk assessment and method statment - and he will not be allowed to work machinery (mixer, whisk) .
So easy option - don't try him out, get someone else or do without.
And that could be a good bloke lost to the trade.
We used to take a lad on , pay him cash until we decided he was okay (as I say , a day or a fornight) then on the books. Three years he'd have skimmed , rendered, screeded etc.
I got my new CSCS card (as I had a dispute over my old City and Guilds , long story) last year. The 'assessor' never even saw me with a trowel in my hand. Yet another man with no card, doing it for 20 years can't get on site . Disgrace.