Originally Posted by
Geriaviator
Yes Nutty, low pay is the problem and it all dates back to Tony Blair and his loony craze for universities. Our world-renowned Belfast Technical College (think of the skills which built the Titanic and other great liners and skilled craftsmen for Shorts) became a Polytechnic and then the New University of Ulster. Granted we have very successful IT graduates and research companies, but all too few apprentices in what used to be called the Trades. Nobody wants to be a grease-monkey or common LAE as I used to be.and now the country is paying the price.
We had to replace our gas boiler just before Christmas and we found a young chap who loved his job as plumber and then gas engineer. He said all his friends had gone to Uni for the gap year and the parties as he described it. One has a well-paid career ahead in IT, another is employed on video game design, the others are bicycle couriers or in MacJobs. On some gas installations he needs plastering, joinery or bricklaying work but has difficulty finding tradesmen to do it. Of the experienced tradesmen his firm used to engage, nine out of ten are due to retire in the next two years.
Aerospace manufacturing jobs are rightly valued, but where are the maintenance craftsmen to look after the products in service? I retired over 20 years ago and was still asked to return part-time for such tasks as duplicate inspections. These days I couldn't wriggle down a fuselage even if I hadn't lapsed my licences.
Because companies never paid the market rate to get people in for 20 years before Covid. They also didn't invest in targeted apprenticeships to get the cream to be LAEs as quickly as possible. BA trying that now. The whole system of licencing has changed as well. You can say that about the MROs in NWI and EXE. Connie pay at the latter is still pre pandemic rate. I am on 30K more than that now! You may not have noticed that kids do put effort into GCSEs and A levels to get to uni. And if you are like my two daughters that got medical degrees. They were not partying every night. Far from it. Only people that party every night at Uni are the rich.