The Apprentice!

If you phone the office and get a new voice on the phone, please be nice, this will be Sam, our newest member. If you ever want to feel old, get an apprentice LOL! Things have really changed since we went to school, Sam is a school based apprentice, which means he still goes to school, but comes here one day a week and ends up with a Certificate. Not only do we have a teenage bloke in the office, speaking a different teenage language, Stephen now has a buddy speaking the tech lingo with him... The rest of us have no idea what they are talking about, but programming seems to get done LOL!

Obviously all of us here are are from much older generations, and to be honest with you, I often find it very difficult to understand teenagers (even though I have one), they seem to have totally different expectations then we had. For example, I don't know how often I have heard the term 'engaged', ie we need to 'engage' the kids and encourage them to come to school, listen in class, participate etc. I don't remember anyone ever trying to 'engage' us? Basically you did as you were told, turned up at school regardless, and god forbid you could not participate in a class, just because you were not interested? "Get over it, and Get on with it!" seemed to be the norm for us, and personally, I don't think it really hurt too many of us, and the fact that kids today don't seem to be aware of that concept really concerns me.

I often sit here & listen to the conversations with Sam & Stephen and giggle to myself when I hear Sam saying things like, "but this would look better"... It may take a while for the whole concept of 'The Client is always right', or 'Do what you are paid for' to sink in, though it is heartening to see that he does want to not only learn but also do 'quality' work. Gives you hope for the future doesn't it?

I always thought getting an Apprentice for IT would be just too hard, but it is not like the old days where you had to leave school, or even a decade or so ago when trying to get an apprentice was a nightmare with paperwork & the like, now they have people who come round and basically sort it all out for you. So if you were thinking you needed a bit of help, and wanted to share your knowledge, think about a school based apprentice, it only takes up 1 day a week of your time?

Cheers, Noely, Community Site Coordinator

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