This country will be f****D in twenty years

[glenn1340]

We had a shutdown over the bank holiday weekend, and in my department alone we had over twenty contractors in: boiler engineers, combustion specialists, insurance inspectors, a confined space recue team, scaffolders, water tower specialists and pipe fitters. Not one of them was under the age of forty, and most in their fifties; there was not one youngster among them. So where will this leave this country when these guys start to retire or leave that work to find employment that`s not so physically demanding. It seems that there are two problems here: the first is that many companies don't want to invest the time and money in training apprentices; the second is, and I know many will disagree, that a large number of youngsters aren`t willing to take on the trades that are hard, dirty work; preferring to be IT consultants, sports scientists, physiologists etc. Just how many of those do we need I wonder? I would advise anyone starting out, if they weren`t academically minded to get a trade in one of the industries where the workforce are "older" as I a few years they will be seriously in demand.
What are other`s thoughts on this?

[monkey spanners]

Its the same with farming, most of my customers are getting on, kids only want to drive tractors, not interested in actual farming so there are now a lot of Polish and Romanian workers.

We need some younger works to pay our pensions when we retire! (more likely we will be working till we drop)

[jonjon]

Know exactly what you mean I'm 25 and I'm the youngest at my place. Nobody seems to want to get into the trade. I fell into the trade via my brother. On the other hand less engineers means u can demand more £££££££

[NewmanRef]

I must have the youngest firm in Britain then! 8 men now and not one over 40! Youngest 17. Perhaps the future of refrigeration lies in my hands?.... Hmmm

[install monkey]

im good for another 20yrs;)

[NewmanRef]

The whole world will be ****ed soon enough unless us lot stop leaving leaks everywhere!

[install monkey]

ive been promoted to chief water pipe consultant- doin plumbing and drains for lil break out area- plumbing only leaks at weekend-

[jonjon]

The whole world will be ****ed soon enough unless us lot stop leaving leaks everywhere!

But it makes guessing the weather more interesting

[Brian_UK]

im good for another 20yrs;)I'm effed now.:D

[FreezerGeezer]

Over here the Gov't has just raised the pension age to 70!
Needless to say, this was an idea thought up by office workers who've almost certainly never done physically demanding work.
There's been quite a bit of debate about what us tradies etc. are going to do, how can we cope. But really, there's nothing you can do except try & get off the tools any way you can, as your body becomes unable to manage.

[mikeref]

I'll just leave this here and scoot off.:)

I reckon the current form of our refrigeration industry will be shot to bits within 20 years.

No doubt someone somewhere has developed a prototype for a nano tech energy transferre device using rare earth magnets.....or something just as radical.

Sort of a plug in and leave contraption where only those proficient in Quantum mechanics will be able to trace and repair faults.
:off topic:

[r.bartlett]

the graveyard is full of indispensable men

[Josip]

Hi, glenn1340 :)


We had a shutdown over the bank holiday weekend, and in my department alone we had over twenty contractors in: boiler engineers, combustion specialists, insurance inspectors, a confined space recue team, scaffolders, water tower specialists and pipe fitters. Not one of them was under the age of forty, and most in their fifties; there was not one youngster among them. So where will this leave this country when these guys start to retire or leave that work to find employment that`s not so physically demanding. It seems that there are two problems here: the first is that many companies don't want to invest the time and money in training apprentices; the second is, and I know many will disagree, that a large number of youngsters aren`t willing to take on the trades that are hard, dirty work; preferring to be IT consultants, sports scientists, physiologists etc. Just how many of those do we need I wonder? I would advise anyone starting out, if they weren`t academically minded to get a trade in one of the industries where the workforce are "older" as I a few years they will be seriously in demand.
What are other`s thoughts on this?


Agree with you in all,

sadly, but young people all over the world dream just about some office or control room job, sitting behind monitor/s with remote access to process plant of whatever kind ...

sometimes they do not know where physically their plant is ...

this is not a bright future for all of us over 50 or 60, but as always hope will die the last ...

Best regards, Josip :)

[NewmanRef]

Hmmm not sure I agree with all you old farts... :p

I would imagine that 20 years ago men in their 50s and 60s were saying much the same about you lot!... I bet they will have some kind of space age digital case controllers not the good old mechanical stat... This industry will be ruined!

I know lots of young men in the industry who are passionate and very good at what they do. I work with several medium to large RAC companies in East Anglia, all of which are training young apprentices.

Every generation will have the "office" boys who are afraid of getting their hands dirty, but there will always be plenty of us who still want to get out there and get stuck in.

Yes the industry will evolve, as I'm sure you oldies have seen it evolve enough through your careers!?

Don't be afraid of it! Embrace it!

[The Viking]

Hmm, Newman...

Sadly I have to disagree with you.

Not so long ago the aspirations of the kids in an average class leaving school was something like:
Top achieving 10 % - Doctor, Lawyer, Top public sector worker.
Next 10 % - Engineer, Trades man, Officer.
Next 40 % - Skilled worker, military
Bottom 40 % - Any job.
This also happened to closely match the needs of our society.

Sadly the needs of our society remains the same but the expectations of our youth has changed, more than half of them expect to go to university and to get a "clean" job, preferable in front of a computer, the only ones considering a future in the trades or as an engineer is the last 40 % at the bottom...

:(

[install monkey]

so thats why most apprentices are lazy thick f******s always texting on their phone, apparently know everything, never get dirty and usually eating- thats when they get out of bed!- maybe i should rephrase that as it to poor timekeeping

[Magoo]

I read somewhere the other day that there are 300K illegal immigrants waiting in North Africa to get into Europe. 60K had got there so far this year.
I do not think you will have to wait 20 years for Europe to be economically and socially stuffed.
I have been banging on about trade training, or lack of it, for decades. Starts at High School where they steer them all to Universities.
grump.

[jonjon]

so thats why most apprentices are lazy thick f******s always texting on their phone, apparently know everything, never get dirty and usually eating- thats when they get out of bed!- maybe i should rephrase that as it to poor timekeeping

kn ow what you mean we have laborers who whinge they get paid f uck all compaired to engineers so why should they do all the s hite jobs. rather text/facebook then learn about the job. when i was at tech there was 16 students, and 10 finished.

[jdunc2301]

If your hard working and thorough with a good attitude you always get ahead... People still pay for quality

[NewmanRef]

so thats why most apprentices are lazy thick f******s always texting on their phone, apparently know everything, never get dirty and usually eating- thats when they get out of bed!- maybe i should rephrase that as it to poor timekeeping

Yes, I agree there are plenty out there who act as above... At first. You have to teach them...

I'm not very old but I have had lots of different apprentices under my wing, lots of which school leavers and at first complete mongs!!! No clue what they want to do with life, not really who are as a person and quite often not what day it is.

I think training an apprentice goes further than teaching the job, quite often you need to teach lifestyle choice as well or at least advise. Obviously there are ****ing idiots out there beyond hope! But most will come good! Surprisingly quickly if you press the right buttons.

As for texting... If I catch an apprentice on phone he gets a poke in the eye! Never heard of anyone getting in trouble for poking in the eye but it really hurts. It's kind of old school but with a new school twist. Try it yourself....

[NewmanRef]

Hmm, Newman...

Sadly I have to disagree with you.

Not so long ago the aspirations of the kids in an average class leaving school was something like:
Top achieving 10 % - Doctor, Lawyer, Top public sector worker.
Next 10 % - Engineer, Trades man, Officer.
Next 40 % - Skilled worker, military
Bottom 40 % - Any job.
This also happened to closely match the needs of our society.

Sadly the needs of our society remains the same but the expectations of our youth has changed, more than half of them expect to go to university and to get a "clean" job, preferable in front of a computer, the only ones considering a future in the trades or as an engineer is the last 40 % at the bottom...

:(

I see your point Viking but aspirations are very little to go on really. When I was leaving school I wanted to be an astronaught...

[Tycho]

The recruitment curve between "office" jobs and "field" jobs move in a sinus curve (if that makes sense) with approx. 10 years between the top and bottom.

Let's start on top of the office curve, the office jobs are saturated and filled up, slowly people move towards either "field" or "office" then after 5 years it reaches the base line where it's equal opportunities and people start leaning towards "field" jobs, another 5 years and the "field" job market is saturated and the "office" job market is in demand...

At least that is what the surveys say :) But being 36 years old and the oldest service technician in the company, and the next guy down is 23, that's a pretty huge gap.
however, the most worrying thing is that there isn't any passion for Refrigeration "it's just a job" there is no desire to take in any knowledge to widen their own possibilities unless the company "pays them to read up on it" or "I haven't had a course on that"

The only thing they take in is "on the job" training when I am with them...

pisses me off :)

[HVACRsaurus]

I see your point Viking but aspirations are very little to go on really. When I was leaving school I wanted to be an astronaught...

I think I know where you went wrong... Astronaut?? :p

I wanted to be a Gynaec untologist

[RANGER1]

I think I know where you went wrong... Astronaut?? :p

I wanted to be a Gynaec untologist

Either way your a fanny man