A major cause of unemployment in the UK

[Barry]

If you want a builder, plumber or electrician to fix a known problem, they're invariably booked up for weeks ahead. Yet there's no shortage of doorstep callers offering to pave your drive or fix your "dangerous" roof!

Pikeys. 

[Streetwalker]

If you want a builder, plumber or electrician to fix a known problem, they're invariably booked up for weeks ahead. Yet there's no shortage of doorstep callers offering to pave your drive or fix your "dangerous" roof!

There is no connection between qualified tradesmen and travellers ,(Im being polite )

[Borchester]

I suspect that scenario is decades ago. Even when I came back to the UK, we were encouraged to think about uni and further education (Sis went for law, I toyed with medicine, but went for PP and modern H).

Few pupils were encouraged to consider skills training.

Years ago a financial worker made headlines by jacking in his City job and taking up plumbing. Can't find the story, but I'm sure the Mail will have covered it...

I think that was the plumber who charged a client telephone numbers. Upon seeing the bill and seeing the plumber's hourly rate the client exclaimed, " But I am in the money markets and even I don't earn that much an hour!"

And the plumber replied,"And nor did I when I was in the money markets."

[HDQQ]

If you want a builder, plumber or electrician to fix a known problem, they're invariably booked up for weeks ahead. Yet there's no shortage of doorstep callers offering to pave your drive or fix your "dangerous" roof! 

[patman post]

True. Time was when the newspapers were full of ads for smart young people willing to learn the trade. Or you would turn up on site, told to mix the sand and cement and if you did a good job the ganger would teach you how to lay a few bricks. But Tony Blair's mantra was education, education, education so now no one is allowed a so much as a sight of the Purchase Ledger without a degree in advanced filing.

This obsession with paper qualifications doesn't do much harm and it soaks up a lot of youth unemployment, but it is not much use when all you want is someone to lay a few tiles or plaster the ceiling



It used to be

I suspect that scenario is decades ago. Even when I came back to the UK, we were encouraged to think about uni and further education (Sis went for law, I toyed with medicine, but went for PP and modern H).

Few pupils were encouraged to consider skills training.

Years ago a financial worker made headlines by jacking in his City job and taking up plumbing. Can't find the story, but I'm sure the Mail will have covered it...

[Nick]

In so far as the unions understood much of sod all, they wanted a return to the old craft unions, which meant more paper qualifications for subies. Instead they got a lot filing clerks with degrees in Advanced Grievances.


Anyway, sod the lot of them. I will make a weak slurry and paint the plaster onto the ceiling.

And the grandson has had a whale of a time at Freshers Week, so is available to do a bit of gardening work for ready cash

I know of numerous OEM's providing apprenticeships, the problem is youngsters see uni as an easy option. My Son has just gone back to Uni, he does about 6 hours a week. 

[Borchester]

Well yes that as well . Blair basically took anyone under 18 out of the jobs market and gave those jobs to economic migrants from Eastern Europe.  Even the Saturday jobs that gave kids in their last year at school some work experience were taken by 25 year old Bulgarians
Roll forward a couple of years and companies were left with an inexperienced native workforce or experienced Eastern Europeans leading to such comments as the migrants were better workers .

Well yes of course they were and who's fault was that? 

What I never understood was how the trade unions allowed Labour to get away with it .It was obviously an anti UK worker policy .

In so far as the unions understood much of sod all, they wanted a return to the old craft unions, which meant more paper qualifications for subies. Instead they got a lot filing clerks with degrees in Advanced Grievances.


Anyway, sod the lot of them. I will make a weak slurry and paint the plaster onto the ceiling.

And the grandson has had a whale of a time at Freshers Week, so is available to do a bit of gardening work for ready cash

[Streetwalker]

My view is that it's more to do with encouraging too many of the country's youth to go to uni to study for useless degrees, instead of going for higher level skill apprenticeships in all trades.

Support available to companies and individuals for accredited skills training is a fraction of the actual costs. Even though adults are also eligible for grants, they're not well publicised.

Skills' shortages could be eased if greater government promotion and support was given to apprenticeships and training...

Well yes that as well . Blair basically took anyone under 18 out of the jobs market and gave those jobs to economic migrants from Eastern Europe.  Even the Saturday jobs that gave kids in their last year at school some work experience were taken by 25 year old Bulgarians 
Roll forward a couple of years and companies were left with an inexperienced native workforce or experienced Eastern Europeans leading to such comments as the migrants were better workers .

Well yes of course they were and who's fault was that?  

What I never understood was how the trade unions allowed Labour to get away with it .It was obviously an anti UK worker policy . 

[Borchester]

My view is that it's more to do with encouraging too many of the country's youth to go to uni to study for useless degrees, instead of going for higher level skill apprenticeships in all trades.

Support available to companies and individuals for accredited skills training is a fraction of the actual costs. Even though adults are also eligible for grants, they're not well publicised.

Skills' shortages could be eased if greater government promotion and support was given to apprenticeships and training...

True. Time was when the newspapers were full of ads for smart young people willing to learn the trade. Or you would turn up on site, told to mix the sand and cement and if you did a good job the ganger would teach you how to lay a few bricks. But Tony Blair's mantra was education, education, education so now no one is allowed a so much as a sight of the Purchase Ledger without a degree in advanced filing.

This obsession with paper qualifications doesn't do much harm and it soaks up a lot of youth unemployment, but it is not much use when all you want is someone to lay a few tiles or plaster the ceiling



It used to be

My view is that it's more to do with encouraging too many of the country's youth to go to uni to study for useless degrees, instead of going for higher level skill apprenticeships in all trades.

Support available to companies and individuals for accredited skills training is a fraction of the actual costs. Even though adults are also eligible for grants, they're not well publicised.

Skills' shortages could be eased if greater government promotion and support was given to apprenticeships and training...

[patman post]

Well you can employ whoever you like but the reason you can't get a local builder is because companies stopped training anyone when Blair opened the door to cheap foreign labour which also led to those already in the game to look elsewhere for a better income

Thats now come home to roost with your only option being a 65 year old Bricklayer or one that cant speak English
OK some of them do , probably better than most northerners but you get my drift

My view is that it's more to do with encouraging too many of the country's youth to go to uni to study for useless degrees, instead of going for higher level skill apprenticeships in all trades.

Support available to companies and individuals for accredited skills training is a fraction of the actual costs. Even though adults are also eligible for grants, they're not well publicised.

Skills' shortages could be eased if greater government promotion and support was given to apprenticeships and training...

[papasmurf]

Well you can employ whoever you like but the reason you can't get a local builder

The reason I can't get anyone local is they have either gone bust, retired or died. (All the trade training locally "died" back in the 1980's.)

[Streetwalker]

Well you can employ whoever you like but the reason you can't get a local builder is because companies stopped training anyone when Blair opened the door to cheap foreign labour which also led to those already in the game to look elsewhere for a better income 

Thats now come home to roost with your only option being a 65 year old Bricklayer or one that cant speak English 
OK some of them do , probably better than most northerners but you get my drift 

[papasmurf]

Ah, well that sounds like one of my relatives and requires special treatment. You should first approach such people with the greeting, "F@@@ off you Pikie bastards," and then set the dogs on them. Then, after checking to see that they haven't eaten the dogs, call the police who will have enough on them to chase them into the next parish.

The last time a Roma turned up on my doorstep I said,sod off mush, I have nothing to steal, whereupon he cried, but we are family !

Yes, I said. And I don't like those bastards overmuch either.

He actually lives in the village, he has now changed his advertisement.

[Borchester]

That didn't work for me recently, the only thing missing was a piebald horse attached to a cart when he rocked up from Romania. (He had zero knowledge of the work I needed doing.)

Ah, well that sounds like one of my relatives and requires special treatment. You should first approach such people with the greeting, "F@@@ off you Pikie bastards," and then set the dogs on them. Then, after checking to see that they haven't eaten the dogs, call the police who will have enough on them to chase them into the next parish.

The last time a Roma turned up on my doorstep I said,sod off mush, I have nothing to steal, whereupon he cried, but we are family !

Yes, I said. And I don't like those bastards overmuch either.

[papasmurf]

True enough, which is why if you want anything done, your first choice should be Johnny Foreigner. He is a long way from home and wants to build a reputation, so tends to do the best work at a decent price. Similarly, should you ever end up in a puddle of your own vomit with a stilson wrench in your pocket, the locals will immediately assume that you are English and ask if you want to renovate their bathrooms.

That didn't work for me recently, the only thing missing was a piebald horse attached to a cart when he rocked up from Romania. (He had zero knowledge of the work I needed doing.)