For everyone like you Coyote there are many that see this as a way of circumventing the minimum wage legislation. I suspect you would find some way to do what you do if these schemes didnt exist.
My daughter is doing an apprenticeship and hoping to go to Uni next next year. She is doing a necessary and full time job with significant and I think inappropriate levels of responsibility. She is being exploited but this is a stepping stone for her career.
Starting at the bottom, doing menial tasks and being paid the minimum wage would be acceptable but at the moment it is pretty disgraceful what her employer is doing but she wont rock the boat.

Ah I see. You were the pie shop boy, sent everyday to fetch the lads’ lunch.

Working on a multi skilled large works 2000 plus employees,we had our own canteen so no need to be sent to the pie shop, but i did visit the takeaway hatch at the canteen/cafeteria for various refreshments, but was always timed, and the lads i worked with where all over 45 and didnt ride bikes, and read the daily express,the Daily mail and sun, just like the forumites.

Hopefully after 12 months I’ll have two guys who will be on a career path that they don’t have now. What did you do today?

Taught people to walk again – same as i do most days.

I’m always impressed by the quality of people of our apprentice scheme, I’d recommend it to ‘kids’ looking for an IT career…

https://www.uk.capgemini.com/careers/your-career-path/apprentices

barkm – Member

What is wrong with shelf stacking?

Nothing- but it’s a job, that should be paid minimum wage.

Apprenticeships are a great thing when done right, and yes often the correct choice where university isn’t. (as college can be, or just plain old getting an entry level job). But browsing current apprenticeship ads, I think it’s impossible not to conclude that it’s often a pisstake.

For example- a 2 second google and I found that Bank of Scotland now offers their “customer service assistant” role as an apprenticeship- previously that exact role was an entry level, school-leaver type role requiring no previous experience, but now it’s a lower paid apprenticeship to do the exact same job with no particular advantage. A scam, in other words.

So, call me cycnical if I say a lot of this government’s apprenticeship “success” will be made up of pisstakers exploiting the fact that we have a horrendous level of youth unemployment, with government aid. Same sort of shit as sending the unemployed to do unpaid work for companies that should be paying people and as a result creating extra unemployment

Hopefully after 12 months I’ll have two guys who will be on a career path that they don’t have now. What did you do today?

Hmm! Well. Assessed an old dear with dementia treat, her so she could stay at home rather than go to hospital, helped a husband who’s wife is in a palliative pathway care made her comfy with meds and positioning in her dying moments. He couldn’t thank us enough for what we did. Then finished 2 hours later after helping an elderly lady who fell due to complications with COPD, she caused an open fracture to her arm. Made her comfortable, helped her breathing the best we could but sadly she went into late stages of respiratory failure on route to hospital. On top of that I mentored and supported a new student who was working with me. Added to that congratulated my last student who got his results yesterday and next week enters the real world. Plus a few more routine jobs on top of that, not bad for night’s work.

Sadly no trips to the canteen hatch.

Just getting sorted to do it all again.