Apprenticeships and Work experience

After returning late tonight after updating my advanced Boiler training at Baxi Boilers, I have decided to share some thoughts myself and 40+ experienced engineers had on modern training methods including Apprenticeships. 

Most Gas engineers had a very negative experience of Apprentices so I would like to pass some of the comments on to improve prospective apprentices in securing placements;

1) The biggest complaint mentioned today was parents contacting companies on their child's behalf, this shows a lack of passion and commitment from the applicant ( I have been guilty of this myself with my son)

2) Applicants wanting to be Plumbers/Gas Engineers because they believe you can earn huge amounts of money. The profession can pay very well but as with all professions and trades, pay is dependant on skills and most importantly experience. If your looking to earn big money quickly then Plumbing/Gas isn't the job for your

3)Applicants making demands before they even get considered, i.e., Applicant i recently experienced called me and asked for some work experience, he then told me he was only available 3 days a week and on those days only available between 9am-4pm, his reason was he had football training and went out with his friends on a Friday! This didn't give me the impression he was keen to learn a trade.

So what do Applicants need to do? It's easy to criticise but nearly all are young and have little life experience,below is a few suggestions;

1) Send an email or text , nearly all engineers will reply and even in off peak times we can be busy and its slightly frustrating to stop work to answer a call that could be an emergency only to find its someone looking for a placement

2) Be flexible , if an engineer only has a couple of days a week to accommodate you then grab the chance

3) Go to plumbers merchants, ask if they know engineers willing to take on an apprentice, go to merchants early and meet engineers, introduce yourself in person

4)Try to gain some experience at the earliest opportunity, if its an industry you are interested in then try to do school work experience or school holiday job before you think about an apprenticeship.

5) Be prepared for hard physical work in often challenging conditions 

6) Offer to work for free to gain experience, often engineers will see this as a sign of enthusiasm , more often than not engineers will ignore this and pay a token amount or buy tools in exchange for work


To summarise we work in a very difficult trade to work in that demands both a huge level of commitment and training. If you would like to know more then follow our blogs or ask our team your questions at; info@stourvalleyplumbing.co.uk