have any of you actually taken the time to give your own skills and experience to someone entering the trade?
I've been a journeyman for 28 years and I often work with an apprentice. Lots of them are now journeymen and lots have left the trade.
When I went to school, an instructor explained that they quit teaching trouble-shooting, because some people can do it and some can't. I've learned that's true in other areas. Some people can't carry a stick of 4 inch rigid. Some can't bend conduit. Some can't wire a three-way switch. Some are afraid of heights. Some people can't get to work in time to get in the truck, some can't get to work some days, and some take drugs at work. I had one apprentice refuse to wear safety glasses. Not everyone is going to be an electrician.
For an apprentice's first month on the job, I lose time. I can do the job faster, alone. I expect to carry the apprentice for another 5 months - it would be cheaper to pay me to do the work than to have the apprentice do it at less than half speed. I spend the time and the customer pays for it.
Here's a real-life example. An apprentice with a pre-employment course: He worked with other journeymen in our shop. After 6 months, they wrote him off, and I took him for another 8 months. They all explained three way switching to him, as did I - four or five times. We ran EMT, ENT, PVC, NMD, BX, Teck and ACWU. We mounted boxes and pulled wire. After more than a year in the trade, he taught me something - EMT will fit in a BX connector. He left the trade on his own, but I really did try.
Trumpy, if you haven't had an apprentice with limitations, you are either very lucky, or someone else is looking after that part of your job. Have you ever sent someone home for refusing to wear safety glasses? For fighting? For drugs? How about an apprentice with a learning disability? Do your apprentices miss work because they're in jail?
It's hard to balance an apprentices need for training with a customer's need to get the equipment running. How can I teach someone about a VFD if the only time I see one it's broken? My journeyman's licence didn't come with an instruction manual. In fact, when I went to school, motor speed control was DC or wound rotor.
It's enough to get attitude from an apprentice, but from you, too, Trumpy? By the way, what's this "night-school" stuff?
