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1 hour ago, RogerH said:

...

I hope he has an apprentice training up.

 

Roger

I hope so too Roger. There should be a law compelling it. I worked in an Aerospace machine shop, mixed CNC and manual. The accumulated years of skill and experience under the one roof was almost immeasurable. Many were old school and "time-served", having apprenticed at Rolls Royce or Royal Ordnance. Some of the "manual" operators regarded themselves as superior beings, often resulting in a certain "nose in the air" attitude towards we CNC "button-pushers". Different skill sets, that's all. Over the years many were reaching retirement and eventually walked out of the door taking a lifetimes worth of knowledge with them. I suspect, like me, that you would have each one allocated with an apprentice, glued to his leg for his last few years and incentivise him to be a good teacher. Sadly this didn't happen where I worked. 

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10 minutes ago, spyder dryver said:

I hope so too Roger. There should be a law compelling it. I worked in an Aerospace machine shop, mixed CNC and manual. The accumulated years of skill and experience under the one roof was almost immeasurable. Many were old school and "time-served", having apprenticed at Rolls Royce or Royal Ordnance. Some of the "manual" operators regarded themselves as superior beings, often resulting in a certain "nose in the air" attitude towards we CNC "button-pushers". Different skill sets, that's all. Over the years many were reaching retirement and eventually walked out of the door taking a lifetimes worth of knowledge with them. I suspect, like me, that you would have each one allocated with an apprentice, glued to his leg for his last few years and incentivise him to be a good teacher. Sadly this didn't happen where I worked. 

It is so sad.  At British Airways, so as to save money, they encouraged local Colleges (Pseudo Uni's) to take on the training.

The apprenticeship was reduced to three years and in part of the second and third year they were allowed near an aircraft. 

Eventually BA would then (maybe) employ a few that rose to the top.

When I joined BEA in '66 every young lad was so proud as there was a 100:1 ratio to get a placement.

 

Roger

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3 hours ago, RogerH said:

When I joined BEA in '66 every young lad was so proud as there was a 100:1 ratio to get a placement.

 

Roger

Unfortunately this approach can get abused.  When I started working in Devonport Dockyard (belatedly after 20 years in the construction industry) they had the same guaranteed job policy but the apprentices would take the proverbial knowing they were going to get a job at the end of their apprenticeship.  After a couple of years (partly as a result of a need to downsize) we moved to a selective approach based upon things like attendance record and I well remember having to tell one apprentice that he wouldn't be employed at the end of his 'Time' because he had such an appalling attendance record on Mondays. It was amazing how much that improved the apprentice attendance record in subsequent years.

Rgds Ian

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On 12/24/2020 at 11:51 AM, RogerH said:

It is so sad.  At British Airways, so as to save money, they encouraged local Colleges (Pseudo Uni's) to take on the training.

The apprenticeship was reduced to three years and in part of the second and third year they were allowed near an aircraft. 

Eventually BA would then (maybe) employ a few that rose to the top.

When I joined BEA in '66 every young lad was so proud as there was a 100:1 ratio to get a placement.

 

Roger

Agreed Roger! There were four colleges involved and we could tell the difference in the standards as soon as they came onto the fleets! Fortunately the engineering director saw this and by and large kicked it into touch. They now get put into Kemble where they have to stay to learn basic hand skills and they have to study and finish with all their modules complete for B licence.

Having said that now we are out of Europe we will go back to a proper licensing system with penalty marking on the multi choice, written exam questions and the ‘crunch’. The oral examination in front of a CAA surveyor.

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5 hours ago, DaveN said:

Agreed Roger! There were four colleges involved and we could tell the difference in the standards as soon as they came onto the fleets! Fortunately the engineering director saw this and by and large kicked it into touch. They now get put into Kemble where they have to stay to learn basic hand skills and they have to study and finish with all their modules complete for B licence.

Having said that now we are out of Europe we will go back to a proper licensing system with penalty marking on the multi choice, written exam questions and the ‘crunch’. The oral examination in front of a CAA surveyor.

Wow

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