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?