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I remember back when I was 17 in 2004, I applied for an apprenticeship to work at Jaguar-Land Rover as an Electrical Engineering Technician. I turned up to the

I remember back when I was 17 in 2004, I applied for an apprenticeship to work at Jaguar-Land Rover as an Electrical Engineering Technician. I turned up to the interview to be told that there were 2 welding apprenticeships left and those would be filled from the 150+ candidates that turned up. Without an apprenticeship you couldn't study a trade at college. You couldn't get an apprenticeship unless you knew someone that worked at the company or were highly qualified; enough to get into university. That's what I ended up doing. Studying CS. Even if you were lucky enough to get one, they could legally pay you far less than the National Min Wage which wasn't enough to live for most people and is still the case today [0]. [0] - https://www.acas.org.uk/national-minimum-wage-entitlement https://www.acas.org.uk/national-minimum-wage-entitlement

selfmodruntime 4y ago
The latter is the exact problem in Germany as well. You work full time in your apprenticeship, sometimes earning less than 700€ a month.
MisterBastahrd 4y ago
The process operator positions at the local refineries back home are all filled through nepotism. You either had to know someone or your father had to be an operator in order to even get an interview: hundreds of people would show up for the exam and the ones who actually got positions were not the brightest people showing up. They just happened to have dads and uncles who worked there. The fun thing is that my dad got the job at the plant he worked for because of my grandfather and older brother. During a tech downturn, I applied for a few of these jobs. My dad refused to vouch for me, claiming that he didn't want to continue the cycle of nepotism. Sure didn't hate to earn huge bonuses from that cycle, though.