For a start,
I personally hate the term "Sparky", it suggests that we are a trade full of wire- pulling people that dropped out of High School and might know how to change a fuse, if we are lucky.
I prefer the term "Electrician", which is what anyone that has served an apprenticeship in the Electrical trade should be called.
There are a LOT of skills that the modern electrician has to have and that scope is ever-widening.
Having trained a few Electrical Apprentices myself, I would say that the most important skill an apprentice can have is being able to listen to what they are being told and to follow instructions to the letter.
Sure, I have to agree that you can't have a person come into a trade like ours and hope to pick it up automatically.
I had a girl that came from a design school and after that didn't work out, she tried Electrical Fitting, but at the end of the day, she told me she had been taking things to bits since she was 5, that was enough for me.
She finished her time as an Electrical Fitter 9 months ago.
Us electrical types must have been pretty destructive as kids.
I grew up in a mechanical engineering background and I had all the tools and thing to really reek havoc on my fathers workshop.
But, you don't learn, IMO if you've never had your hands on the tools.
Good Electricians are born, not made.
