Canal apprentices 'build the future' and preserve the past

[Ray T]

CRT PRESS RELEASE

 

11th February 2022

 

CANAL APPRENTICES ‘BUILD THE FUTURE’ AND PRESERVE THE PAST

 

Canal & River Trust apprentices in the Midlands carrying out environment enhancements on the Staffordshire & Worcester Canal showed off their work to chief executive Richard Parry as part of National Apprenticeship Week 2022.

 

With a theme of ‘Build the Future’, this year’s National Apprenticeship Week is closely aligned with the Trust’s duties of caring for the historic waterways for future generations. The waterways and wellbeing charity, which protects and preserves 2,000 miles of canals and rivers across England and Wales, is committed to apprenticeship schemes and currently has 35 apprentices on board. In addition to environment works, the apprentices are learning the craft of repairing lock gates, carpentry, construction, engineering and team leading skills. A small number are office based, working towards becoming cyber security technicians and producing content.

 

The canal network has also benefited from the government-funded Kickstart scheme, a programme for young people aged 16-24 who are claiming Universal Credit and are at risk of long-term unemployment. 22 of the charity’s apprentices came from the first wave of kickstarters, and the Trust currently has 23 young people on the second wave across Stalybridge, Nottingham and Wolverhampton.

 

Richard Parry, chief executive at the Canal & River Trust, said: “The waterways are navigated by boats in much the same way as they were 200 years ago, whilst today also playing a crucial role in bringing free, accessible blue spaces to local communities. The skills originally used to construct the canals are still in use today, and it’s great to see our apprentices learning their craft alongside some of our experienced colleagues. There are new skills that keep the waterways flowing too, with apprentices involved in office-based roles as well as on the bank.

 

“It was a pleasure to meet the apprentices at Bratch Locks and I wish them well as they help us build a better future for the waterways and preserve this important part of the nation’s heritage.”

 

For more about apprentice opportunities at the Trust, please visit: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/work-for-us/apprenticeships

 

ENDS

 

For further information, please contact:

Fran Read, national press officer, Canal & River Trust

m 07796 610 427 e fran.read@canalrivertrust.org.uk  

[Pluto]

Another training programme which seems to think that you can just take anyone and make them into a skilled craft worker. Having gone through a craft apprenticeship 50 years ago, and then higher education, I would say that the best craftsmen I worked with were equally in intelligence to people I met at university. What is needed is to raise the social standing of those with proper craft training, such that entering that sort of job is valued, both financially and socially, as those who go to university. It is one of the themes I look at in my recent book, which also looks at the technical and economic aspects of canal building.

[Hudds Lad]

“Well done young Johnny, you’ve served your time and have finished your CRT apprenticeship!”

 

”Cheers, can i have a job then?”

 

”No we don’t do those anymore, but you can volunteer if you like!”

[Heartland]

I have offered wondered if the modern computer age CRT office has links with the nineteenth century enginnering office as overseen by G R Jebb  in the SU and later in Birmingham which produced designs for buildings, such as stables, warehouses and offices and other examples canal infrastructure. The light house at Ellesmere Port (1881) being an example of varied skills as was the Delph Stables at Brierley Hill 

 

It is extremelt important to preserve traditional skills and I trust these apprentices will contribute to a modern waterway engineering as well as ensuring heritage structures are maintained and preserved.

[Bee]

I have stood and looked in glass cases in museums and looked at some of the ancient metalwork within and wondered at the skill of the people who made it.  Would love to have a time machine and have a pint with a Celtic metalworker.

[Stroudwater1]

44 minutes ago, Bee said:

I have stood and looked in glass cases in museums and looked at some of the ancient metalwork within and wondered at the skill of the people who made it.  Would love to have a time machine and have a pint with a Celtic metalworker.

I expect there still a few metalworkers in the crowd to share a pint with 😁

 

[MrsM]

My son decided to do an apprenticeship after sixth form rather than go to university and rack up £50K of debt like his older sister, much to the disgust of his school. (Kids that didn't want to go to uni were generally viewed as failures.) He is now 3.5 years into an advanced apprenticeship in classic car restoration and he loves it. He works at an Aston Martin specialist restorers. Every 6-7 weeks he has a week at the Heritage Skills Academy based at the Brooklands motor museum. Completely agree that apprenticeships should be given more respect as an option for young people.

[matty40s]

On 11/02/2022 at 17:25, Pluto said:

Another training programme which seems to think that you can just take anyone and make them into a skilled craft worker. Having gone through a craft apprenticeship 50 years ago, and then higher education, I would say that the best craftsmen I worked with were equally in intelligence to people I met at university. What is needed is to raise the social standing of those with proper craft training, such that entering that sort of job is valued, both financially and socially, as those who go to university. It is one of the themes I look at in my recent book, which also looks at the technical and economic aspects of canal building.

As a fairly intelligent youngster in the top band, I was forced to drop wood/metalwork and art, only being allowed to continue music if I did it out of lesson time.

I managed brilliant O level grades, even though rebelling, and got to Poly on a single grade E at A level.

After 30 years of management that led to senior operational roles, I finally chucked it all in and came back to what I enjoy, and am quite good at. 

I am no longer at mercy of a vicious spreadsheet accountant,  next months performance, boardroom buyout, suicide off a rail bridge.....

I am happy in doing what I do, proud seeing boats I have painted, saying hello to someone I helped sort a problem, saying thankyou to someone who helped out at the start or helped me with a problem I didnt know the answer to. 

I dont earn the figures I used to, it's irrelevant. I am absolutely over the moon to be working with boats on a daily basis and not working for a multinational profit squeeze who wants your life as well as the profit you generate.

 

Sometimes, kids should be encouraged to do something they enjoy, even if 10% of this intake stay put, that's a good return.

[Ray T]

When my mum was a primary school teacher she had a boy in her class who just failed the 11+ by one mark.

On representation from the school some officials from the education department came to interview him to see if he could be awarded a pass.

One of the questions he was asked "What would you like to do for a career?"

His answer "I want to do something with my hands."

Because of this answer he was failed which in those days (early 1960's) meant relegation to a Secondary Modern education.

 

For all they knew he may have wanted to be a brain surgeon but didn't articulate to their expectations.

There was even discrimination between an academic and practical education then.

 

I often wondered what happened to him.   

[Pluto]

14 hours ago, matty40s said:

As a fairly intelligent youngster in the top band, I was forced to drop wood/metalwork and art, only being allowed to continue music if I did it out of lesson time.

I managed brilliant O level grades, even though rebelling, and got to Poly on a single grade E at A level.

After 30 years of management that led to senior operational roles, I finally chucked it all in and came back to what I enjoy, and am quite good at. 

I am no longer at mercy of a vicious spreadsheet accountant,  next months performance, boardroom buyout, suicide off a rail bridge.....

I am happy in doing what I do, proud seeing boats I have painted, saying hello to someone I helped sort a problem, saying thankyou to someone who helped out at the start or helped me with a problem I didnt know the answer to. 

I dont earn the figures I used to, it's irrelevant. I am absolutely over the moon to be working with boats on a daily basis and not working for a multinational profit squeeze who wants your life as well as the profit you generate.

 

Sometimes, kids should be encouraged to do something they enjoy, even if 10% of this intake stay put, that's a good return.

The problem is that we have a society where 'good' jobs are seen as those where you sit behind a desk and don't get your hands dirty. Perhaps we should be aiming for employment where we get the best out of people, rather than just forcing them into any old job. It would probably result in an improvement in productivity, something where the UK does not excel, as well as improving the mental and physical health of society in general.

[IanD]

6 minutes ago, Pluto said:

The problem is that we have a society where 'good' jobs are seen as those where you sit behind a desk and don't get your hands dirty. Perhaps we should be aiming for employment where we get the best out of people, rather than just forcing them into any old job. It would probably result in an improvement in productivity, something where the UK does not excel, as well as improving the mental and physical health of society in general.

 

The other problem is that the number of well-paid "craft" jobs are ever-decreasing, because mass production and low manufacturing/shipping costs from abroad mean that the cost of goods is continuously dropping, so the price premium for "hand-made in the UK" is going up and up, so fewer and fewer people can afford such things -- and also even the well-off can get very similar "hand-made in China" stuff for a fraction of the price.

 

A long-time friend was trained as a cabinetmaker, and made high-quality furniture for high-end clients including the royal family. Eventually the firm closed down, and he's now working in IT doing computer hardware maintenance -- a terrible waste of his talents with wood (I've seen photos of some of his work and it was stunning -- as is his kitchen...) but paying double what he previously earned. Such a shame... 😞

 

Changing the education system can't really fix this, it's the usual global trade/offshore manufacturing problem -- to which there is no simple answer, before certain people chime in with suggestions...

[Pluto]

31 minutes ago, IanD said:

 

The other problem is that the number of well-paid "craft" jobs are ever-decreasing, because mass production and low manufacturing/shipping costs from abroad mean that the cost of goods is continuously dropping, so the price premium for "hand-made in the UK" is going up and up, so fewer and fewer people can afford such things -- and also even the well-off can get very similar "hand-made in China" stuff for a fraction of the price.

 

A long-time friend was trained as a cabinetmaker, and made high-quality furniture for high-end clients including the royal family. Eventually the firm closed down, and he's now working in IT doing computer hardware maintenance -- a terrible waste of his talents with wood (I've seen photos of some of his work and it was stunning -- as is his kitchen...) but paying double what he previously earned. Such a shame... 😞

 

Changing the education system can't really fix this, it's the usual global trade/offshore manufacturing problem -- to which there is no simple answer, before certain people chime in with suggestions...

I certainly agree that there is no simple answer, but at least those who think they are in power should realise there is a problem in how we train and value people. We look at artefacts made centuries ago and marvel at the skills used, but then often do not value the same skills today, when everything comes down to how much money you  can accumulate, something which does not necessarily require great skills, at its simplest, just a desire to take excessive amounts of money off other people.

[Heartland]

There may be no simple answer, but apprentice schemes are one of the ways forward to redress the problem.

 

There are those that talk about education, levelling up and much more. Talk is not the answer, doing is the way forward. That CRT have an apprentice scheme is is step forward as long as there are jobs for them at the end of their apprenticeship.