Apprenticeship gone wrong!

[Digger]

So, my step son gave up a well paid job he'd had for 5 years at our local Stihl dealers, enrolled at college after finding a placement advertised and moved to the other end of the country. Good on him. He's been wanting to get into tree work for some time but because of the policy where I work I could'nt take him on. Anyhow, after a month or so of working on his employers mates scrap cars and only 2 or 3 days in the woods it turns out he hasnt got the work for him. Needless to say he's gutted. So im wondering if anyone wants to take on an apprentice. I think the course is quite flexible as to wether it sways towards forestry or surgery as is he. He's willing to relocate again. He doesnt want to give this up. Any ideas?

[Pommie]

ring capel manor college

[normandylumberjack]

Call the college, the training agency and find out if there are any placements with an employer where he is at the moment.

 

My apprenticeship was a farce for the first 2 years, working on an estate and signed up on a course not really relavent to my needs. I manned up and demanded my training be taken seriously and didn't get the answers i wanted.

My training credits were all but used up, and in the end I had to pay from my own money to train in forestry proper.

 

 

make a noise early on, and insist that the college act. I spent a couple of years running a photographic shop durring an injury recovery period, and had an apprentice, a nice lad, but he was signed up with a training company that was only worried about bums on seats. I had to fight to get his trainig to be taken seriously, we moved him onto another training company and things improved.

 

Fight for your right to proper training, no one will do it for you, sadly.

[Kev Stephenson]

where is he now based?

[Digger]

Thanks for all the good advice. You lot are a helpful bunch on here. At the moment he's living back with us in Oxfordshire but were not sure how that will pan out as he's also got a touring caravan he bought to live in which is at his placement in Cornwall. So he can move anywhere as long as he can find somewhere to park up until he gets a flat or a pemanant park up.

[normandylumberjack]

Cornwall. thats where im from, and served my apprenticeship. the training agencies down ther are p poor, and the colleges not geared properly towards forestry. I did a dip. at Duchy college in forestry, and was amazed when i saw a prospectus for colleges like newton rigg, where they had decent training facilities, rather than agricultural training, adapted for trees.

Get out of Cornwall, its the least wooded county in the uk, and look for a decent college with proper arb/forestry facilities. Cornwall is for surfers and retiered people, thats why i left.

[ahallam]

Currently a student in forestry and woodland management up at newton rigg and i have to say its p poor organisation though the university of cumbria however Askham Byran college have just bought the campus and seem to be investing some serious money into in my opinion i would look towards them or someone like barony college in scotland

ahallam

[normandylumberjack]

Sorry to hear that ahallam, I have heard fantastic things about Barony too.

[ahallam]

i am just working harder to make sure i make the most of it and get the most out of it i suppose that is all you can do

ahallam

[normandylumberjack]

Have you spoken to your student services dept. or your tutor? Remember its your training credits and you dont get them back. I had this argument with duchy college in Cornwall, as i was promised a lot more than i got.

I was amazed that other colleges put their students through Chainsaw tickets, climbing, spraying and proper machinery use. We had about 3 hours basic chainsaw use, agri tractors to drive around a field for an hour a week, no climbing, but we spent weeks cutting grass on campus, and felling with hand tools and scrub bashing with a billhook. Dont settel for a crap education!