It is yes, but not for someone new to trade. The people that finish earlier are normaly people who have been in the trade for 20 years or so. Just for reference, we have more people on teh apprenticeship between the age of 30-60 and have been installing for many years than young apprentices. We have a amazing number of farther and son on courses where the son has gone away and shown his dad a trick or two and then the dad has joined the apprenticeship !
A question Matt Do you get complete beginners on the course? Expecting that after, say 18months.. That they will go s/e and walk into a job/site etc??
Everyone has to be already employed. If they dont have a employer they dont get on the course. Simply because they will not be able to walk out in the real world and fit floors without real world experience. So that being said most have already been in trade around 1 year minimum. We get teh odd one that is fresh and to be fair, these are normally the ones that are easier to train. Basically they dont have bad habbits and with in a matter of weeks they are normally producing much higher quality work than some people that have been doing it 20 years! Dont forget we also go on site with these apprentices and monitor how they are getting on in the real world. If they are behind or simply not producing the quality needed they get refered back to the training center for more help. They have to be able to pass the standards at the end of the day to pass in 18 months time. Just so we are not biased, we are not allowed to assess anyone we trained for a NVQ, they have to be assessed by a independent assessor.
