Until the trade picks up and wages catch and the daft workloads expected for 20 year ago money the less trained the better. Only a Labour shortage can get this trade out of the dark ages.
speak for yourself never earnt so much since joining the firm i work for now, plenty of shortage of good fitters most we have on a trial day to get in dont get taken on as not up to scratch. personally dont have an apprentice as i work a two fitter team but would be dreading taking on some of the kids out there today mostly no work ethic
Unfortunately with apprentices you have to grin and bare the 2-3 years of them learning the basic of the trade. In my opinion there isn’t enough hands on skills/trades shown in school. I know I left school with no idea how to use any tool or how any thing is constructed. The apprentice I have now really had no idea and I’ve often wondered what the fuck am I doing but 1 year on and there are a few signs that it may pay off one day. Even if he’s not the best fitter he’s learning the right way and should be a asset in this trade for us. Subbies are high maintenance, good ones are hard to find and more often than not are a let down. One thing I can say is since I’ve taken on my apprentice it’s helped us grow our business but yes there are some bad days that go with it. Good luck Daz, you could find the future fitter of the year mate...plus you’ll have even less to carry Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We need apprentices and when you get one that;s enthusiastic, willing to learn & put in the graft it is doubly rewarding. Both trainer & trainee are gaining from the process. As for wanting a skills shortage to push up prices I think it's a flawed argument, you just end up with untrained people filling the void and undercutting the remaining skilled guys still in the trade. People drive prices down and working for sod all is stupid. I would rather work less often for a sensible rate than be a busy fool. Most people will pay the price for a skilled man/team if they care about quality of the product they want to receive and that can only be delivered by trained people. Some years ago an older guy on a builders merchant trade counter told me a story about a customer that came in every day for materials who moaned every day that he was too busy. The guy on the trade counter told him to put his prices up, but he refused saying he couldn't do that. The guy on the trade counter concluded that the the moaner was too scared to make a money and was happy being a busy fool. With people like this around it will not matter if there is a shortage of skilled people because they will always drive prices down. It will as always come down to a question of quality v's price and I personally believe that you get what you pay for and I want well trained skilled guys who have been through an apprenticeship. You don;'t have to win every job that you quote for, just the ones you can make a good living out of. There will always be a busy fool around let's just hope it isn't a well trained skilled one!!
Ive had loads over the years, and only one, didn't go on to make a good floorlayer. He was lazy, and I could tell from day one, he would not make it. At moment I have my three sons with me at 21,18 and 17, and I just took another lad on who is 16. They all work really hard and all have the makings of excellent floorlayers. Were normally out the door at 5 in the morning, and often away from home for a couple of weeks at a time. They just get on with it ! I agree with Merit, some people (me included), are not cut out for school, and at 14 should be given an option to train in a trade rather than full time education. We turned away a lot of work this year, as were too busy to take it on, so no shortage of work for us. Maybe brexit will change that, but looking good for next year too.
The guys who are supplying materials and fitting are earning the money, but if your one of the subbie just doing labour only your being made to work harder for Poor money. what I'm see now is a lot of the work is coming from new house builds so certain company's are controlling all the work, which they then subbie out and pay poor per m2, if the work was given out to smaller firms or the house buyer given the opportunity to find there own flooring contractor the Welth gets spread around and more people earn a good living. there's a few company's around me that are growing rapidly but they subbie out the fitting and pay poor but they control the majority of the work that's around at the minute and come new year no work for no one, but they are the ones who are laughing they don't have to pay any wages out because everyone is self employed getting paid a poor wage. hard work form subbies grow there business on the
I've been a little busy.. I've also put my prices up, but still find that it don't change the work load....
When our own work slows down, we drop back on to new build. I've found that some of there prices are low, but have always negotiated decent rates out of them. If there busy, they need decent floorlayers, to complete a decent job. You need them, but don't forget they need you too !