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Potential loss of life chance?

(6 Posts)
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Aveline Fri 20-May-22 10:06:41

This is really just for discussion. Recently I've been to two businesses that are owned and run by sole practitioners. I'd remarked on where the other staff members were and was told on both occasions that they'd not bothered to employ anyone else as 'young people today don't know how to work!'. I was a bit appalled to hear such frank old fashioned language but they told me (independently) that it just wasn't worth the bother of employing youngsters as they refused to do some of the junior jobs as they had their 'rights' and it wasn't what they were training for. Also mental health conditions were raised as reasons why they couldn't work on Monday mornings. I was very surprised that in two places at opposite ends of town the same thing was being said.
I asked DH about it and he told me that although he and his business partner could do with a trainee or maybe even an apprentice but just found doing the paperwork and trying to meet the college's terms and conditions for their students was just too time consuming as they had to get on with the work to keep the business going. A loss for both sides. They could do with a likely lad and could provide good training and passing on specific skills to such a person. It could have been a good job.
What are people's thoughts? I'm sure lots of youngsters are wholeheartedly throwing themselves into work and doing whatever it takes to get the job done just as we all did. Or has the experience of Covid isolation plus an internet induced increasing sense of entitlement hobbled some youngsters and robbed them of good life chances.
I don't know. I've just been thinking about it after quite suddenly coming face to face with the dilemma

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Galaxy Fri 20-May-22 10:09:45

I work in a profession which is predominately staffed by young people, they work very hard. Anecdote doesnt really show anything.

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Aveline Fri 20-May-22 10:11:01

I'm well aware what I was saying was anecdotal but that's three youngsters losing out. I wonder how many more are affected.

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tanith Fri 20-May-22 10:15:09

I know someone who wants to employ an apprentice to train up so far he’s tried 2, the first seriously lacking in common sense and couldn’t follow simple instructions. The the other one just couldn’t turn up on time over a months trial both were surprised when told the reasons they weren’t suitable. As a small 3 man company everyone has to be reliable and work together. Someone would have good and well paid training if only they took a career seriously.

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Sago Fri 20-May-22 10:15:33

Schools are barely able to discipline children or impose sanctions.
Unless a child has a loving supportive home with boundaries then the child goes into adulthood with a sense of entitlement.
As for anxiety…it’s endemic.

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Wheniwasyourage Fri 20-May-22 10:16:58

I know that some tradesmen here have given up having apprentices over the past decades. The apprentices have to go to college some of the time, fair enough, and they need a lot of training on the job, where they are slower (of course) than a time-served tradesman, fair enough. The trouble is that as soon as they had served their time they would go offshore where the money is better, and so we are still short of tradesmen and the current ones are not getting any younger.

We need a way of ensuring that if young people are trained they should have to work for at least some time in the area where they had their training. It isn't just trades that are affected. The same is true of nurses and doctors who are trained in the NHS and then go off abroad without working for the NHS. A balance between the provision and paying for training and the freedom of the individual needs a bit of attention IMO.

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