A predominately outside and varied work life. How has yours been?

[Baldbloke]

As has been mentioned it’s interesting to see we were mostly disinterested students ( except the Doctor) who either left or were chucked out of school by 16.

Another strikingly apparent point is that many, like myself,have had a very varied life mainly spent outdoors(with the exception of Vesp- who appears to have spent some inside).[emoji3]

Another point is that there was little advice available for early school leavers 40 years ago, and many nearing retirement age are still unsure of what they finally want to do for when they grow up[emoji3]

 

 

[maria warwick]

1 hour ago, Baldbloke said:

, and many nearing retirement age are still unsure of what they finally want to do for when they grow up

 

 

When I grow up I want to be an astronaut ! ?

[aspenarb]

1 hour ago, Baldbloke said:

As has been mentioned it’s interesting to see we were mostly disinterested students ( except the Doctor) who either left or were chucked out of school by 16.

Another strikingly apparent point is that many, like myself,have had a very varied life mainly spent outdoors(with the exception of Vesp- who appears to have spent some inside).

Another point is that there was little advice available for early school leavers 40 years ago, and many nearing retirement age are still unsure of what they finally want to do for when they grow up

 

 

1

 

Its a failing of the education system as far as I am concerned, schooling is so tick box and  league table orientated these days that gcse`s etc are worthless,  employers are now only looking for A level students which normally means staying on for another couple of years. For those not interested in a career requiring all this crap early release should be an option. Intelligence, common sense and business acumen are either in someone or not, it's certainly not something you can learn from a bunch of lefty school teachers. Many a school drop out has done well for themselves, the likes of Richard Branson and most of the multi-millionaire property developers are school dropouts.

28 minutes ago, maria warwick said:

When I grow up I want to be an astronautess ! ?

Fixed that for you Mario

 

Bob

[Vespasian]

 

2 hours ago, aspenarb said:

 

Its a failing of the education system as far as I am concerned, schooling is so tick box and  league table orientated these days that gcse`s etc are worthless,  employers are now only looking for A level students which normally means staying on for another couple of years. For those not interested in a career requiring all this crap early release should be an option. Intelligence, common sense and business acumen are either in someone or not, it's certainly not something you can learn from a bunch of lefty school teachers. Many a school drop out has done well for themselves, the likes of Richard Branson and most of the multi-millionaire property developers are school dropouts.

 

 

Bob

 

I wouldn't recommend promoting the idea of being a school drop out as a path to success..  

 

The hidden narrative in Bransons case is he probably has a high IQ.   he'd have that if stayed on in further education or he got booted from school... 

 

which is to say if you ain't as bright as Branson, you better get busy passing exams as people like Branson have an head start on you in life.  Thats the conundrum isn't it.. 

 

These left leaning teachers thinking everyone aught have a fair crack of the whip. only the reality is we're all unequally born..  

 

 

 

 

Edited December 9, 2018 by Vespasian

[maybelateron]

14 hours ago, Big J said:

Aye, but does he have his EFAW + forestry? If not, he's not coming on my sites! ?

It can only be a matter of time until I'm submitting RAMS for a commercial job and I get told that I need EFAW certificate.

Just as well the lad who works for me and my two main subbies have it!

[Big J]

1 minute ago, maybelateron said:

It can only be a matter of time until I'm submitting RAMS for a commercial job and I get told that I need EFAW certificate.

Just as well the lad who works for me and my two main subbies have it!

It's daft isn't it? Box ticking taken to the extreme. Not conforming with the industry standard despite being massively overqualified in that area is something some organisations will struggle to reconcile!

[gdh]

Pretty boring and I'm 'only' 26 but I grew up on the family beef and sheep farm, got good grades in school (although could have tried harder) but just wanted to farm so left at 16 and started work at home while doing a few certificates and a livestock course. 

 

We've tried a lot of ideas over the years on the farm; going big into contract baling (still do some), growing wheat, barley, lupins and looking into daffodils as a cure for altzheimers and planting willow although neither of those panned out. Unfortunately the central farming business wasn't making enough to live off.

 

We tried a pheasant shoot for a few years which I enjoyed but a combination of high costs and poaching meant we couldn't continue. More recently we host a few endurocross races, more as a hobby than a business, I only ride quads myself but they're good fun.

 

Throughout all that we've sold firewood, my dad did a few odd loads from 96 onwards but it wasn't until we formed a separate partnership from the farm to get a loan that we started to quickly grow. In the past 8 years we've gone from 100 tons a year to 1800 to the point where we now kiln dry and cut nearly every day in the winter with a couple of extra staff at peak times. 

 

I'm quite business minded so hopefully despite some challenges coming up we can keep the firewood at the same level despite all the paperwork but I'm hoping to do more livestock work and maybe have a day off...

 

 

[daveindales]

13 hours ago, openspaceman said:

 I started with them them but 11 years earlier.

 

The company was formed by an accountant, Rankin IIRC, who saw a loophole between  schedule B and D forestry land.

They were a pretty large outfit when I worked for them.  I could be wrong, but around 900 employees seems to be stuck somewhere in my head. 

[Toad]

6 hours ago, Baldbloke said:

 

Another point is that there was little advice available for early school leavers 40 years ago, and many nearing retirement age are still unsure of what they finally want to do for when they grow up

 

 

I think it's something that is perhaps even more of a problem now, nobody explains to youngsters and not so youngsters that there are loads of opportunities and different ways to get into more suitable careers. I try to reinforce to people that everything you do for work and at school gives you transferable skills that you can use elsewhere.

 

I have been really lucky getting into jobs because of things I picked up during my education, hobbies, outside interests and by life growing up on the farm.

 

We really should be reinforcing that the fact you can write an essay means you could write a report about trees, or write letters. If you're good at understanding how a chainsaw works it might lead to some sort of job in mechanical or agricultural engineering, the fact that you've organised your workload and the workload of your colleagues for the last year puts you on a really good standing for working as a supervisor within a larger company or running your own company, there are so many skills people don't realise they have or that they could use elsewhere.

[Mark Bolam]

I enjoyed school and did well, leaving with 9 O Levels and 4 A Levels.

Did a gap yar to save a bit of cash before going to Uni (I drank it all).

Bar work, labouring on building sites, cleaning out shitters and washing pots for the army at Otterburn camp.

All good experience.

Got an Honours degree in Civil and Structural Engineering from the University of Sheffield, but couldn’t get a job easily (1993).

Mate from Uni asked if I fancied working on a road job for Alfred McAlpine in Kent.

Chucked my stuff in an Adidas bag and got on the train to go and live on site in a caravan.

Did a year for Macs then a chance meeting in a pub got me in to doing line-of-sight surveys for the then unheard of mobile phone networks.

10 years odd of big money and flash cars, working all over the country climbing towers, rooftop surveys and loads of MEWP work.

That work dried up and I was helping a mate with his gardening round when we did a couple of trees with ladders and my full body tower climbing harness (idiot gyppo style). Enjoyed that so started looking into it properly.

Back to college for 30,31,38 and 39.

Met a bloke on my 39 who I ended up working for for 4 years before setting up on my own.

A knee op put me on crutches for a couple of months so I started working for my wife’s landscape recruitment business.

She won’t let me leave, so I now split between that and tree work six days a week.

 

I still don’t know what I’m going to do when I grow up.