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Aspiring to become an electrician. How many young people do?

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Do all young people just want to become footballers, musicians, film stars or celebrities?


What about the "hands on" construction  trades or engineering? 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-51192450


Z.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Not sure why anyone is surprised by this.


    Given that the UK generally despises anyone working with their hands, coupled with completely unrealistic "careers" promoted on social media, is it any wonder why our craft and artisan jobs are predominantly performed by foreign nationals to a large extent. I was on a site recently (large multi storey building near London) and there were fire evacuation notices in more languages than I could recognise, let alone read. 


    I appreciate things might have changed a bit, but I recall my careers master (who was an English Lit. academic) being horrified at the thought of me leaving school at 16 to get an apprenticeship - it wasn't what his pupils did, that was something for the thick kids from the local comprehensive school. And to some extent, that's still true as the more likely apprenticeship candidates are now very effectively marshalled, sorted and pushed into university  - leaving the thick kids to do the manual jobs. Different reasons, same outcome to some extent.


    Then we have the phenomena of "Being Rueben" which perhaps in part goes some way to understanding the mind set of the yuf of today (or the mind set of the parents of the yuf of today)


    Regards


    OMS


  • 0
    Then we have the phenomena of "Being Rueben"

    Is this new ? - did not Billy Elliot inspire  a generation of miner's kids to learn ballet and move to London,  or is that perhaps another urban myth ?


    The other side to this is the UK absence of technocratic management and top floor roles for technical people- the director of innovation in a German Firma ist likely to be addressed as Herr Doktor Inginier or something similarly academic.

    In the UK the similar role is quite likely to be occupied by the  second cousin of Sir Burton Tufton, a solid chap from the right school, maybe the horse guards and a jolly good egg for sure, but not especially technical, more of a genetic descendant of Bertie Wooster.

    Engineering of all forms needs to be seen to lead to the top, only then folk will be happy to get on half way up.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    mapj1:
    Then we have the phenomena of "Being Rueben"

    Is this new ? - did not Billy Elliot inspire  a generation of miner's kids to learn ballet and move to London,  or is that perhaps another urban myth ?

    I'm not sure how many ballet dancers it inspired, but it certainly brought about a realization that just because the old man dug up stuff, the sons didn't need to do the same - but that also took some people at least out of the craft and artisan pathways as for sure it did encourage a lot of talent into university. It's become a bit of a cliché now, and something picked up on by the left leaning desperate to show just how working class they are, but a lot of us of the "Billy Elliot" generation really were the first person in the family to go to university (see my comment about Battersea Power Station). It was a constant source of amazement to me to see and hear guys proclaiming that "no son of mine was going down any bloody pit" - and the same guys proclaiming during the rifts of the miners strike, that they were fighting for a future and "no b****** Tory was going to stop their sons going down a mine" - parental and peer influence is a powerful thing on an impressionable mind.


    The other side to this is the UK absence of technocratic management and top floor roles for technical people- the director of innovation in a German Firma ist likely to be addressed as Herr Doktor Inginier or something similarly academic.

    In the UK the similar role is quite likely to be occupied by the  second cousin of Sir Burton Tufton, a solid chap from the right school, maybe the horse guards and a jolly good egg for sure, but not especially technical, more of a genetic descendant of Bertie Wooster.

    Engineering of all forms needs to be seen to lead to the top, only then folk will be happy to get on half way up.

    Exactly - take a look through the Mittelstadt - plenty of companies there where the senior management started out in the same company literally on the shop floor - and bloody proud of it.


     




     

    Regards


    OMS
  • 0
    Academics are often accused of being no good with their hands. Can't put up a shelf or change a flat tyre for example. Perhaps they are even clumsy. During a recent visit to the U.E.A. library in Norwich I needed a drink of water. There were two water fountains but no cups. I asked a student where the cups were, she seemed shocked and gave a look as though I might try to ravish her at any minute, despite there being about 60 other students there at the time. (thoughts of the Ted Baker incidents came to mind). I then asked a member of the library staff and was told that open containers were not allowed in the library, only bottles with screw caps. What, are the adult academics accident prone? 


    Z.
  • 0
    That is not as silly as you think - if a library has some priceless manuscript that has been around for 1000 years , then at some point in the next 1000 years a flask of coffee or even a tea stained thumb print  could be  the end of it.

    It is far easier to ban all liquids, including bottles of ink, water milk etc. than to have some odd mix and match rules -it's not that hard to go outside for a drink. I suspect your local county library is the same.

    In Oxford the Bodlean also bans candles matches and flints, but I presume that date back to the same time as the rules, still current as far as I know, about not wearing your sword withing the buildings that border the the quadrangle or your spurs to dinner in hall. (That was Christ Church but I imagine other colleges and other aged establishments are similar.)


    Some academics may not be safe to be let out unaccompanied, and probably could never hold down a job at the post office, but speaking from personal experience, the same is true at many commercial R and D places too. In many ways this is no sillier than not expecting the cleaner to be able to solve differential equations, they may or may not be able to, but it is not a requirement for that role, but I'd like at least one person in the board room to be able to, as I'd expect a  director of facilities to know what a circuit breaker is, and what the sewerage arrangements are.

  • 0

    I appreciate things might have changed a bit, but I recall my careers master (who was an English Lit. academic) being horrified at the thought of me leaving school at 16 to get an apprenticeship - it wasn't what his pupils did, that was something for the thick kids from the local comprehensive school. And to some extent, that's still true as the more likely apprenticeship candidates are now very effectively marshalled, sorted and pushed into university  - leaving the thick kids to do the manual jobs. Different reasons, same outcome to some extent.



    Lol ... Although I went to an 'approved' schooI I was turfed out of Friday afternoon games and told I had 3 months to prepare for an Art exam. The 'thick kids' were depatched before they had time for their b*****s to drop.

    You were only allowed to go on to study for any exams if the school authority at the time considered you to be a non accademic-risk. The idea of becoming an apprentice was looked on as a rather inferior occupational life choice. So I spent the last 40 years of my life attempting to correct that attitude or provide some equilibrium.

    There is always the other side though.

    I'm reminded of a saying.....

    "There is somebody at the door ma'am."

    "Is he a Gentleman?"

    "No, he's a Sargent!"


    Legh
  • 0

    mapj1:

    That is not as silly as you think - if a library has some priceless manuscript that has been around for 1000 years , then at some point in the next 1000 years a flask of coffee or even a tea stained thumb print  could be  the end of it.

    It is far easier to ban all liquids, including bottles of ink, water milk etc. than to have some odd mix and match rules -it's not that hard to go outside for a drink. I suspect your local county library is the same.

    In Oxford the Bodlean also bans candles matches and flints, but I presume that date back to the same time as the rules, still current as far as I know, about not wearing your sword withing the buildings that border the the quadrangle or your spurs to dinner in hall. (That was Christ Church but I imagine other colleges and other aged establishments are similar.)


    Some academics may not be safe to be let out unaccompanied, and probably could never hold down a job at the post office, but speaking from personal experience, the same is true at many commercial R and D places too. In many ways this is no sillier than not expecting the cleaner to be able to solve differential equations, they may or may not be able to, but it is not a requirement for that role, but I'd like at least one person in the board room to be able to, as I'd expect a  director of facilities to know what a circuit breaker is, and what the sewerage arrangements are.

     




    I can see the logic of not allowing potentially harmful items in a library with rare items that could be damaged, but the U.E.A. library is mainly occupied by students studying for their degrees in engineering, medicine or chemistry or perhaps nursing etc.


    Our local library has tea and coffee making facilities, but there again it mainly has shelves full of romantic novels, other fiction  and children's books, nothing of much value. The local council is desperate to keep it open so is very accommodating.


    Z.

  • 0
    I think its very unlikely that you would be allowed to take unlidded liquids, or in fact any liquids at all into any of the reference libraries. I don't remember being able to take drinks into my local reference library.


    Legh
  • 0
    To the best of my knowledge, UEA doesn't have a "reference library". It may or may not have a copy of BS 7671, but you will find one in Cambridge, Oxford, Dublin, and at the British library; and if you have the appropriate privileges, you will be able to borrow it.


    Should you happen to be in Cambridge and feel esurient, you may of course visit the Tea Room; but quite rightly, anything which may damage the books, some of which are exceedingly rare, is banned from the library itself.


    I never could understand the modern urge to sup all day from plastic bottles as if one were not yet weaned. ?


    ETA: I see that Wales and Scotland now have similar libraries known as "legal deposit". Should have got m' facts right the first time.
  • 0




    I never could understand the modern urge to sup all day from plastic bottles as if one were not yet weaned. ?


     




    It's coz the air con in these modern libraries dries the air and makes the throat dry. Also as the air con system efficiently circulates the germs around for everybody to catch, a well lubricated throat is a health benefit. Some students study for hours, and to have a drink handy means that they don't have to leave their study position. When it is exam time some students study all night in preparation for the worrying event, when the cafes are closed, so a handy drink is appreciated. The U.E.A's library does have water stations, but just not with a metal cup on a short chain, or water fountains. (Whatever happened to water drinking fountains?).


    Z.


     

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