Taking on an apprentice and should they go to college - Tile Advice

[jonnyc]

I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about my business now i am getting older what with knee and shoulder problems.
I actually need to grow my business to cover my wages overseeing more work and i am at a dilemma as to whether i should just take on more sub contractors or employ as I have always done till now.
I do very high end domestic work and there are not many tilers I can call on for this kind of work( mostly ex employees) and they are usually pretty busy.
on the other hand I have had a few young lads over the years and I have been put off taking a new young lad because of the aggro involved.
but vying one against the other, I have decided that it would be good to have new injection of young blood and hopefully that person would stay with me for a long time as have others that work for me now.
My question though is ,should I just train this new lad with my guys which i am more inclined to do or should i send him off to do whatever qualifications are on offer now whilst still working for me .
I am sure there will be things that we could learn from a young lad doing the latest courses but I cannot think of any to hand.
My right hand man is the only one of us who went to college to learn tiling at vauxhall school of building and i would question how much he was able to teach me after two years bock release and i had only streated to tile a year before him self taught.
Would anyone send a youngster to tiling college nowasdays?
I am not talking about short tiling courses.

 

[DHTiling]

I think he should do his full time apprenticeship .. and this involves one day a week at college .. he/she will thank you for it and then they will be qualified and be able to do CSCS work if required... and you get a grant as well

 

[Andy Tiler]

I've sent my lad through college johny,day release,Not learned much but,he's got his Nvq 2 and he's only 18
So he will learn with me on site, I only do domestic work also!

 

[jonnyc]

I've sent my lad through college johny,day release,Not learned much but,he's got his Nvq 2 and he's only 18
So he will learn with me on site, I only do domestic work also! 

Did you get any help from government. It is 25 years since I sent my now second in command to do Citb tiling course.
who do I get in touch with re new courses

 

[Andy Tiler]

Hi johny,Yes I got funding.. I think you just need to get in touch with your nearest college That does tiling and go from there?.

 

[Peter]

Not sure how it is in England but in NI, I think you get around £40 a week for employing an apprentice. The tech will usually give a similar amount to him. An apprentice won't learn anything in tech but worth doing the day a week to get the NVQ, and means they'll get a Red/blue CSR card without much fuss. Also a bit of a grounding if the trade ever tightens up.

In my experience if you treat an apprentice well, pay him fairly and give him a bit of responsibility as he improves then he will be happy to stay with you as long as he feels like a valued part of the team.

Ended up leaving who I served my time with after 3 years because he didn't want to pay me a junior tilers wage or give me any of the decent work, and ended up going to another squad of tilers who were happy to give me a fair wage for my age/experience and were happy to leave me in bathrooms etc rather than downstairs toilets and splashbacks that none of the other tilers wanted.

 

[jonnyc]

Peter.
my first employee started with me over 25 years ago and is still with me.
first and only job he has had.
my second 13 years and the same.
the worry is that you invest your time and expertise in someone and then they leave before you have got anything back.
The key is being a fair man I think and hopefully the respect is mutual.
i have had dozens of overseas workers all employed who have stayed for few months or 5 years and am proud that not one left me to work for someone else when in uk.
i spent 7 years traveling the world with no qualifications so did labouring all the time and by the time I came home I made a decision I would always be my own boss and treat people the way I wanted to be treated .
i truly believe that an employer must give as much as he can to get the true potential from an employee

 

[Time's Ran Out]

You can teach them more on the tools than any college can!
If they are still with you after 3months, have a good work ethic, then having done your research see if the apprenticeship route is the right path for both.

 

[kilty55]

i looked intot his jonny here in scotland ,i havent done it but it seems there is pretty good funding etc to help out with an apprentice available here