Working on a top tier COMAH site we have an apprentice that we use to fetch & carry on work in zoned areas. It gets him used to the site controls and allows him time to get experience of the strict procedures.

Last Monday his supervisor needed some additional items of kit so he told him to use the phone located on the plant to phone through to the office. When he got to the phone he noticed it was the old circular dial mechanism, and no matter how hard he pressed prodded and pulled he could not fathom it out. He was quite embarrassed so told the supervisor it was broke. The Supervisor promptly sent him to use the other phone situated further down the road. This too was the old circular dial and no matter how much he put his finger in the dials he just could not get the hang of it. Worse still when he did manage to fathom out that you place your finger in the hole and press down he was exasperated when it sprung back into position.

By this time he had been gone twenty minutes and his supervisor gave him a rollicking. He then did what all good apprentices do, he blamed the supervisor for a lack of information instruction and training and then said that, in an emergency, this could prove disastrous.

He had never seen this type of phone in his life. It makes me feel old.

You couldn’t make it up.

Be nice to this lad Tony - with an answer like that, he is destined for great things!

I though youngsters did know it all, my 14 year old certainly think so.

Just about to send him for a long weight (wait).

Pete is seems to me that it is the supervision that need the extra controls as this is defo not the lad's fault.

Don't you just tap the top of the candlestick section a few times and ask the operator to put you through?

"his supervisor needed some additional items of kit so he told him to use the phone located on the plant to phone through to the office"

Why did he not just phone from the supervisors office?

What a rarity,

An apprenticeship that does what it is meant to:

Teaches a young person the job (there is no blame and the supervisor has learnt something)

Expand your apprenticeship scheme and Britain will be back in surplus!

He was given a rollicking for taking so long"

What would the response be if he came back every 5 mins saying "I don't know how to do this?" I wonder if he would be told "you should be able to work it out!" damned if he does damned if he don't!

Should've told him he didn't get enough air to sample and send him down to the local chemist to buy a tin of elbow grease - like my grandad did to me!!

My mother passed away earlier this year, and we were looking through the house when we came across an old phone. With my sister and myself were her two daughters, both in their early twenties.

One of my nieces knew exactly how it worked, because she is a fan of older bw films- the other laughed her socks of when we explained how it worked. She likes modern films based on those damn video games, and had never seen this type of phone.

I can understand where the young lad was coming from- not all people have seen that type of phone.

Andy 48 1/12

OMG really?! blaming the Supervior...what next a SSOW for how to tie up their shoelaces in case they have only ever used velcro straps!!!!

Im off to buy a Hammerfor!

I had a similar incident with old technology and a young person recently.

I was carrying out a H&S induction with a graduate we had taken on for a short internship. Part of the induction involves a short generic H&S video.

When I took the VHS cassette out of the case she thought it was some type of interactive controller to use during the video she was about to watch.

When I expalined no, it was the cassette that stored the video she was shocked, as she had never seen a VHS video before.

She is a 21 year old Chinese national. It turns out that the rate of technology catch up that China has gone through has resulted in them basically starting with DVD's and completly missing the various earlier technologies for playing back video.

And if it had been a touch screen unit with the ability to reach RSS feeds and twitter whilst utilising the wifi and 4G network it wouldn't have been the supervisors fault.

I think they do exist, actually. There is quite a big market in left handed stuff, but most of it has been marketed too late for me, a lefty who has learned to use right handed tools.

@max.

I read that article as referring only to the requirement for employers H&S systems etc to be formally "vetted", by an appointed agency, against a set of approved H&S standards. Sort of like the assessment programmes that appear in these forums. This had to be done, with standards achieved, before they were allowed to take youngsters on approved apprenticeships/work experience etc.

Sadly, in my opinion, over the years this became more and more like an H&S inspection and less and less like the joint review it was intended to be which is maybe why it is being axed.
The duty to provide and protect is with the employer and there is nothing in the changes that actually reduces those duties. It simply means that the youngsters and their parents/carers will have to rely solely upon the employer to know how to keep them safe; is that better or not? Depends on your take I guess.

p48

Methinks Farrell at #8 gave a good response which included the need for all involved to learn from each other. As for the circular dial type phones, they might even be worth replacing and selling for some money as young antiques or curiosity items.

There's money to be made from old gadgets: While off work today I saw a bit of BBC TV's "Bargain Hunt" programme at lunchtime which included an old small radio set with decorative bakelite casing being auctioned for about £30. The back of the casing was missing and revealed the large valves inside. In view of this plus the fact that the mains flex for the radio (known to older generations as a "wireless") looked very ancient and decrepit, there seemed to be common agreement that it was unsafe to try and use, so it was sold simply for its appearance and curiosity value.

As for tales about smart apprentices, I recall hearing one about an engineering works apprentice who was sent to the stores with a metal bucket to get some steam. When he returned with a shallow layer of water in the bucket he was asked why he hadn't brought any steam as instructed. He promptly replied that he was given plenty of steam but it had all condensed in the bucket as he walked back! I think I heard this tale during a show by comedian/folk singer Mike Harding at the Caird Hall in Dundee in the mid-1980s, and certainly remember leaving afterwards with cheeks aching from repeated bouts of laughter.