Survey: 6 in 10 firms say they face skills shortage

[Dan]

Small electrical contractors say skills gap to continue for foreseeable future

Read the full news article

 

[Farmelectrics]

this think its a plan to down skill are trade have more labourers doing electrical work

 

[Spoon]

The problem is that no one wants to pay for skilled workers. They just want to pay as little as possible. We have just had a contract where the installation people couldn't read schematics properly, install glands properly and no good ad soldering connectors..... but they are "a third the prices" of skilled people. Yes they are, but then you have to send in skilled people to sort out the work of incompetent people.. What is the world coming to.

 

[Farmelectrics]

its wrong im involved in maintenece and the service engineer role at the moment ive never in my life seen so many bluff merchants and bull ****ters ha ha it makes me look good though

 

[Welchyboy1]

In the end its all the better for the bloke who really knows what hes doing

 

[Dcf]

There has never been a shortage of sparks in this country
pairs of hands in a van are ten a penny.
guys who actually know what they are talking about and have a bit pride in their work are a rarity these days tbh.
i spoke to a painter today who reckoned that an apprentice had to make his firm money from the outset.
so the menial bits o painter work get tasked to the apprentice all day long
the trickier bits get left to the old hands.
the result is when the young man gets time served he doesn't have the skills /confidence to do the trickier bits
meaning he will take any old crap money just to keep working and driving down rates in general across the board.
vicious circle really.

When I was a young learner you got tasked with anything from fixing an old Hoover jr to heavy industrial work and everything in between.
to this day if it's got a bit of wire on it I'll tackle it
sadly the skillset seems to end at t&e (minus the clips) these days.

auld men like me can see it coming a mile off that the default setting will be "sparky lite" in the not too distant future .
limited ability=limited wages unfortunately.

the academics involved in the training game have to keep the 60k+car+benefits jobs now eh?

 

[bluestar]

I wonder if there is a shortage of workers or a shortage of decent pay rates, down here rates for subbies are anything from
£14 to £17 ph most jobs are social housing, rates always seem to be rising then stop
agencies paying the same rates from Scotland to Southampton fork lift drivers on site and 360 drivers earning as much as skilled tradesman mates rates £12.50 an hour that's the trouble why bother to do 4 years college to become skilled only to find on site your the lowest and aways the last to finish why the diy`ers are finished and gone by 3.30 grrrrrr
rant over