It’s no suprise. Especially when you see adverts for “apprentice customer service advisor” or “apprentice administrator”. Jobs that you could learn within a couple of weeks shouldn’t be allowed to take advantage of the cheap labour the way they do.
Apprenticeships can be a very good pathway into skilled work for young people, especially young people from disadvantaged backgrounds as you get paid. I did one that was a full 52 weeks off site where I just trained, got qualifications and learned the skills necessary. I then moved into my company’s site and did a further year of 4 days work, 1 day college to get a higher level qualification. I also had the option after that to continue right up to a masters if I wanted, though I was done with education by that point. I have mates in different companies, though similar sector, who have also had success with apprenticeships though their paths were slightly different.
That being said, I know some places use apprenticeships as simply a tool for cheap labour. The apprentice will be working a none skilled position and likely be let go once the apprenticeship has expired.
We need to protect apprenticeships and promote them for companies who make them work, for companies that abuse them there needs to be harsh penalties.
So many apprenticeships these days shouldn’t even be apprenticeships, the fact that companies can get away with paying someone £9k a year to work full-time in retail/hospitality roles is criminal. An “apprentice” bar manager shouldn’t be a thing, neither should an “apprentice” customer service assistant.
The ones that are for suitable roles/careers, most have people with degrees applying & interviewing for them which tells you how useful certain degrees are.
This is nothing new. I started my career as an “admin apprentice” and it was just a way of them getting a receptionist on the cheap with little useful training.
The only plus side was it got me office work experience which made it easy to get a full role and I never even completed the apprenticeship (mostly because they would just let apprentices go so they could hire someone else for cheaper)
Thats not to say that some arnt good but alot are just ways for companies to avoid paying minimum wage
I was an apprentice electrician. I lasted a year and a bit. I had a house and a family to look after so money was tight for the first year. Even though my boss *could* have paid me more and he was certainly able to he chose to keep me on £3.30 an hour (at the time this was going rate for first year apprentices) knowing how tricky things were. I was constantly treated like crap by the majority of people I worked with for being the apprentice. I was a lot older than other people there too IE they were 16/17 just out of school and I was 25 so it felt a bit degrading having to sit in a classroom listening to a teacher tell people off to being too noisy but overall apprentices bare so much grunt work. Plus there are so many jobs that you can literally learn everything in a couple of weeks, hell you can even become more qualified by watching youtube videos than taking an apprenticeship these days. I find there are only a few industries where apprenticeships are actually beneficial and not a pisstake.
They can be really rubbish. I did one at work under the apprenticeship levy – I’m in my 30s. The “training provider” just relied on the employer to provide the “training” and they always said they needed me to do my regular job instead, so I learnt nothing in those 18 months and failed the apprenticehip.
My stepson did an apprenticeship a few years back for car mechanics. A few days at college a week the rest in a job. He was paid a pittance by the employer, because they could pay him an apprentice wage. He worked a shitload of hours to make money so he could support his family.
It was a 2 year old. 18 months in, the company running it went bankrupt and the college refused to let them finish the course. He had to restart from the beginning with another provider for 2 more years on a, basically fuck all, wage.
They need to fix this aspect of apprenticeships. Stop letting third party private companies run the courses and get them government run and supported properly by colleges and institutions and sort out the ridiculous hourly rate they’re allowed to skank apprentices with. £4.81 is ridiculous.
Can make triple the pay at Amazon on nights… why anyone would do one is beyond me
I’m on an apprenticeship, I don’t have a problem with my salary but the amount of written work is what’s causing me to consider quitting. I’m working full time, and sometimes rota to 48 hours a week, and I have 47 “worksheets” to complete. I’ve just finished a worksheet that was 7.5k words. We’re supposed to have 20% time off from work to complete work too according to the awarding body, but we don’t get that.
Is it a surprise people are quitting when things like [Apprentice Cook](https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeship/1000098866) are being offered by KFC? Lets be honest there are a lot of apprenticeships arejust a way to dodge paying minimum wage – these are the ones that people are quitting.
12 years of Tory rule has all but destroyed the warning industry.
I’ve attempted 2 apprenticeships in landscaping/construction. Both employers fucked me around with money and taught me fuck all.
1st company there was 2 gangs, 1 was in love with the drink so used to finish early just to get some cans
The other was an old boy and a lad that been there for 4 years on same wage as me yet he was laying slabs (Indian sand stone & porcelain) . The old boy was a right mardy fucker never happy barely spoke to anyone in a calm manner.
2nd company was just 1 bloke. He used to bring his son on jobs who was 11/12 and had special needs. He was same size as me, autistic and used to swear, kick off infront of the sutomers. A place with expensive and dangerous equipment is not for someone like that.
I left and ended up taking him to court over unpaid wages .
It’s not surprising as you see pisstakes like, Apprentice Sandwhich artist, Apprentice manager, Apprentice sales assistant etc… Jobs that take, at most, a few weeks of training or learning on the job are turned into lowest paid jobs via apprenticeships. Proper apprenticeships tend to set people up or rather, give them a solid foundation. Mine didn’t because the council i worked for was badly organised and i’ve not even been able to pursue a career in that field.
​
Apprentice waiters should never be a thing as it takes very little training to do my job(a zero hour contract waiter).
Maybe you shouldn’t be paying them £4 an hour then?
They’re often doing the exact same work as a regular employee for under half the pay, it’s daylight robbery
Some apprenticeships are worth their weight in gold, others are an absolute scam to pay the worker less. Plus the gov website for finding apprenticeships is full of the latter – it takes a bit of digging and you have to go to company sites directly to find the worthwhile ones
I did 2 years of apprenticeships and I’ve managed 2 apprentices and worked with many more. One of my job roles was working for an apprenticeship provider.
I have yet to hear of one positive experience from any program. The curriculum is nowhere near flexible enough for the different kinds of job roles out there and the training is laughable. My provider went into administration during my second year because they faked Ofstead examinations.
Such a shame considering how great apprenticeships were for previous generations.
Having been on some if these schemes and working with a company who had them it really doesn’t surprise me. I might be a bit bias but most if them seem like a way for various companies to either get young start for less than minimum wage or get a nice hefty check from the government.
I did an apprenticeship where I was just working while writing assignments on the side. There was practically no training other than me doing free courses online. I was literally writing assignments my employer was supposed to write from their POV for them. My assessor told me I could do this.
There was a review of the apprenticeship with the assessor at the end which I got upset at. I felt I had to lie and say it was fine, but I ended up saying I had a bad experience and hated it.
Throw in the govt skills stuff too, lots of dodgy courses on there and it’s obvious to why. The companies just want money!
Surprised you can do an apprenticeship in warning, tbh. Do you just walk around shouting “awooga, awooga”, and “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, mate” for a bit?
Apprenticeships are a scam.
I was on one for 6 months and then bullshitted my way into a proper job, where I actually started learning how to do stuff (I work in IT).
Part of the problem is that minimum wage is now so high that its uneconomical for most businesses to hire trainees. Someone who has to be trained up from scratch won’t be worth £9.50 an hour so they slap a scheme on it and they can get away with paying a third of that.
The irony of this is that the government is paying apprenticeship providers about 14k a year – almost enough to cover minimum wage! And in return for their money the government gets nothing. “Training providers” do not provide training (neither do employers, being an apprentice is a black hole in terms of learning and development).
I did an apprenticeship. I’m 24 and only seeing the financial pay-off.
I’m stuck in the construction industry, and kids that haven’t done a days work will leave uni and become my supervisor soon.
Go to uni kids, fuck apprenticeships. With knowledge know I realise its just a gov’t scheme to child labour. Its bullocks.
There are actually apprentice schemes in subway! I kid you not…
23 comments
It’s no suprise. Especially when you see adverts for “apprentice customer service advisor” or “apprentice administrator”. Jobs that you could learn within a couple of weeks shouldn’t be allowed to take advantage of the cheap labour the way they do.
Apprenticeships can be a very good pathway into skilled work for young people, especially young people from disadvantaged backgrounds as you get paid. I did one that was a full 52 weeks off site where I just trained, got qualifications and learned the skills necessary. I then moved into my company’s site and did a further year of 4 days work, 1 day college to get a higher level qualification. I also had the option after that to continue right up to a masters if I wanted, though I was done with education by that point. I have mates in different companies, though similar sector, who have also had success with apprenticeships though their paths were slightly different.
That being said, I know some places use apprenticeships as simply a tool for cheap labour. The apprentice will be working a none skilled position and likely be let go once the apprenticeship has expired.
We need to protect apprenticeships and promote them for companies who make them work, for companies that abuse them there needs to be harsh penalties.
So many apprenticeships these days shouldn’t even be apprenticeships, the fact that companies can get away with paying someone £9k a year to work full-time in retail/hospitality roles is criminal. An “apprentice” bar manager shouldn’t be a thing, neither should an “apprentice” customer service assistant.
The ones that are for suitable roles/careers, most have people with degrees applying & interviewing for them which tells you how useful certain degrees are.
This is nothing new. I started my career as an “admin apprentice” and it was just a way of them getting a receptionist on the cheap with little useful training.
The only plus side was it got me office work experience which made it easy to get a full role and I never even completed the apprenticeship (mostly because they would just let apprentices go so they could hire someone else for cheaper)
Thats not to say that some arnt good but alot are just ways for companies to avoid paying minimum wage
I was an apprentice electrician. I lasted a year and a bit. I had a house and a family to look after so money was tight for the first year. Even though my boss *could* have paid me more and he was certainly able to he chose to keep me on £3.30 an hour (at the time this was going rate for first year apprentices) knowing how tricky things were. I was constantly treated like crap by the majority of people I worked with for being the apprentice. I was a lot older than other people there too IE they were 16/17 just out of school and I was 25 so it felt a bit degrading having to sit in a classroom listening to a teacher tell people off to being too noisy but overall apprentices bare so much grunt work. Plus there are so many jobs that you can literally learn everything in a couple of weeks, hell you can even become more qualified by watching youtube videos than taking an apprenticeship these days. I find there are only a few industries where apprenticeships are actually beneficial and not a pisstake.
They can be really rubbish. I did one at work under the apprenticeship levy – I’m in my 30s. The “training provider” just relied on the employer to provide the “training” and they always said they needed me to do my regular job instead, so I learnt nothing in those 18 months and failed the apprenticehip.
My stepson did an apprenticeship a few years back for car mechanics. A few days at college a week the rest in a job. He was paid a pittance by the employer, because they could pay him an apprentice wage. He worked a shitload of hours to make money so he could support his family.
It was a 2 year old. 18 months in, the company running it went bankrupt and the college refused to let them finish the course. He had to restart from the beginning with another provider for 2 more years on a, basically fuck all, wage.
They need to fix this aspect of apprenticeships. Stop letting third party private companies run the courses and get them government run and supported properly by colleges and institutions and sort out the ridiculous hourly rate they’re allowed to skank apprentices with. £4.81 is ridiculous.
Can make triple the pay at Amazon on nights… why anyone would do one is beyond me
I’m on an apprenticeship, I don’t have a problem with my salary but the amount of written work is what’s causing me to consider quitting. I’m working full time, and sometimes rota to 48 hours a week, and I have 47 “worksheets” to complete. I’ve just finished a worksheet that was 7.5k words. We’re supposed to have 20% time off from work to complete work too according to the awarding body, but we don’t get that.
Is it a surprise people are quitting when things like [Apprentice Cook](https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeship/1000098866) are being offered by KFC? Lets be honest there are a lot of apprenticeships arejust a way to dodge paying minimum wage – these are the ones that people are quitting.
12 years of Tory rule has all but destroyed the warning industry.
I’ve attempted 2 apprenticeships in landscaping/construction. Both employers fucked me around with money and taught me fuck all.
1st company there was 2 gangs, 1 was in love with the drink so used to finish early just to get some cans
The other was an old boy and a lad that been there for 4 years on same wage as me yet he was laying slabs (Indian sand stone & porcelain) . The old boy was a right mardy fucker never happy barely spoke to anyone in a calm manner.
2nd company was just 1 bloke. He used to bring his son on jobs who was 11/12 and had special needs. He was same size as me, autistic and used to swear, kick off infront of the sutomers. A place with expensive and dangerous equipment is not for someone like that.
I left and ended up taking him to court over unpaid wages .
It’s not surprising as you see pisstakes like, Apprentice Sandwhich artist, Apprentice manager, Apprentice sales assistant etc… Jobs that take, at most, a few weeks of training or learning on the job are turned into lowest paid jobs via apprenticeships. Proper apprenticeships tend to set people up or rather, give them a solid foundation. Mine didn’t because the council i worked for was badly organised and i’ve not even been able to pursue a career in that field.
​
Apprentice waiters should never be a thing as it takes very little training to do my job(a zero hour contract waiter).
Maybe you shouldn’t be paying them £4 an hour then?
They’re often doing the exact same work as a regular employee for under half the pay, it’s daylight robbery
Some apprenticeships are worth their weight in gold, others are an absolute scam to pay the worker less. Plus the gov website for finding apprenticeships is full of the latter – it takes a bit of digging and you have to go to company sites directly to find the worthwhile ones
I did 2 years of apprenticeships and I’ve managed 2 apprentices and worked with many more. One of my job roles was working for an apprenticeship provider.
I have yet to hear of one positive experience from any program. The curriculum is nowhere near flexible enough for the different kinds of job roles out there and the training is laughable. My provider went into administration during my second year because they faked Ofstead examinations.
Such a shame considering how great apprenticeships were for previous generations.
Having been on some if these schemes and working with a company who had them it really doesn’t surprise me. I might be a bit bias but most if them seem like a way for various companies to either get young start for less than minimum wage or get a nice hefty check from the government.
I did an apprenticeship where I was just working while writing assignments on the side. There was practically no training other than me doing free courses online. I was literally writing assignments my employer was supposed to write from their POV for them. My assessor told me I could do this.
There was a review of the apprenticeship with the assessor at the end which I got upset at. I felt I had to lie and say it was fine, but I ended up saying I had a bad experience and hated it.
Throw in the govt skills stuff too, lots of dodgy courses on there and it’s obvious to why. The companies just want money!
Surprised you can do an apprenticeship in warning, tbh. Do you just walk around shouting “awooga, awooga”, and “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, mate” for a bit?
Apprenticeships are a scam.
I was on one for 6 months and then bullshitted my way into a proper job, where I actually started learning how to do stuff (I work in IT).
Part of the problem is that minimum wage is now so high that its uneconomical for most businesses to hire trainees. Someone who has to be trained up from scratch won’t be worth £9.50 an hour so they slap a scheme on it and they can get away with paying a third of that.
The irony of this is that the government is paying apprenticeship providers about 14k a year – almost enough to cover minimum wage! And in return for their money the government gets nothing. “Training providers” do not provide training (neither do employers, being an apprentice is a black hole in terms of learning and development).
I did an apprenticeship. I’m 24 and only seeing the financial pay-off.
I’m stuck in the construction industry, and kids that haven’t done a days work will leave uni and become my supervisor soon.
Go to uni kids, fuck apprenticeships. With knowledge know I realise its just a gov’t scheme to child labour. Its bullocks.
There are actually apprentice schemes in subway! I kid you not…