Filmed at Roots Hall

[rigsby]

No it isn't. I was a British Rail apprentice back in the early 90s and I left with good qualifications. Me, and many of my mates who did the same still work in the railway industry some 25 years later. If you enter a apprenticeship then it should be law that the employer is forced to complete their training (unless of course they've done something seriously wrong). To me, a practice like this comes from the same place as putting the young on disgusting zero hour contracts.

With unlimited cheap labor from Eastern Europe the future is more zero hours. But of course that's for the EU thread.

 

[Cockle43]

No. Some companies use apprentices as cheap labour and kick them out at the end before taking a new one on.

Green Wizard is right in that was the old way in the 70's, and yes, the rewards, which I'm still reaping, came later so personally I have little problem with that concept and there is no real problem if you are allowed to finish and it becomes a case of speculate to accumulate.
Where the Modern Apprenticeships fall down is exactly as OBL describes.
My son is currently doing an apprenticeship in a good trade, electrician, with a well respected and established firm and there is little doubt that as long as he does what is required academically and conduct wise he will serve his time and gain a qualification in a good stable trade. On the other hand my niece, who lives in the North East and is the same age, is currently on her FOURTH different apprenticeship. The current one is with HM Government so hopefully they will be honourable but in the other three she has conveniently been made 'redundant' just after getting through her first year and her wages increasing from the first year rate. Each of those companies then re-advertised for 'apprentices' within a month or two of her redundancy and even though she applied for her old job back she was unsuccessful and people with no experience were employed as new apprentices on first year money.... One of her 'apprenticeships' was as an 'apprentice receptionist'; not wishing to disparage receptionists but does being a receptionist really require an apprenticeship? I think some of the Modern Apprenticeships are little more than an excuse for some to pay under, even the reduced, living wage for the age group by hiding behind the apprenticeship mantle. Amongst the young this type of behaviour by some unscrupulous companies could end up tarnishing the apprenticeship just as the YTS became synonymous with low worth training on sub-standard wages and therefore a waste of time.