@ Tutturuu. Sorry to say I gave up calling the schools for prospective apprentices. The result on my behalf of spending half an hour on the phone to the head's of department, is a total no response. Are these jobs even being offered to the kids???????
Maybe each trade school should be forced to employ a placement officer, that way at least when employers/apprentices enquire there is no waste of time on either party.
If I was you i'd be looking at one of those FNQ placements......if they were available when I came through the trade system I would have happily taken one up.
@ Bug-a-lugs. I think until our education system returns to teaching core trades as a subject...i.e Woodworking, Metal craft, Auto and the like, we are not going to see much change in the number of applicants for apprenticeships. The way we were taught trades at school really was just basic hand tools, and some fun projects to go with the boring stuff. It was all taught by REAL tradesman with 20+ years minimum in their field. Without this sampling I probably would have wound up in an office cubicle.
That and the fact many of our teachers have never left school doesn't help. Not such a bad thing at primary level but at secondary level where you have teachers telling you what its like in the workforce, but have never truly been there is a total crock!
As for the old apprentice wages argument.............thats also a crock......more money than they would get at uni.
Cheers
Jas