17yr old and offered £26k p.a. would you take it…….

Life is far to short not to be enjoying it. Unless you are lucky you’ll be working until you’re 70, if it was a son of mine id tell him to enjoy life while he still can..

Of course, if he chucks the bulk of that £27k into a pension at 17 and can keep it up for a few years he’ll be able to retire at 50.

“Of course, if he chucks the bulk of that £27k into a pension at 17 and can keep it up for a few years he’ll be able to retire at 50.”

Sounds about right 20 grand a year for 33 years , retired at 50 on an income of about 2000 a year…

Early retirement is 55 these days?

Just to answer a few Q’s

Who pays for his accomodation/travel to worksite when your on the road.- assuming as you say you move around alot.

I pay £65-75 a night on top of wages to cover digs/subsistence

How long will the actual working days away be though?

07.30-16.30 generally – not covered opting out yet, as he hasn’t started

I have not been through all this thread but remember a previous one by the OP.

Don’t you work long night shifts?

Being 17 and away from home with somebody nearer your dad’s age dose not sound that great.

Do you supply him with his own room or does he share with you?

Sometimes it’s nights, sometimes it’s days – days at the moment and he isn’t old enough to work on the motorways. Sometimes it’s away, sometimes it’s close to home. Sometimes we get a mid-day Friday finish.

Good point about the age difference, although I’m very young at heart, but maybe he hasn’t clocked that yet

Nah….working away all week just crushes your social life and turns you into a piss head. I did it at 18 till I was about 25 and it’s time I’ll never get back. All the lads were chronic alcoholics and ate fry ups and mixed grilles at the local pub each night and just got totalled….. Which is fine when it’s with mates but not a bunch of hairy arsed fitters and sparkles

I generally finish work, go to Morrisons, get a salad box and some chicken for the next day, go to the gym, maybe go for a pint, some of the lads have a carvery in the Toby, then retire to rooms. Once in a blue moon will we all have a piss-up.

That’s good money.
Are these actual contracted permanent positions with guaranteed annual salaries , or a projection of estimated earnings from hourly wages?
If so, what are the hours and rates?

The lad was going to be a permanent, subject to probationary period, but most are subbies to be honest.

Trainee – £80-100/day + subsistence
Labourer – £125/day + ^^
Sparky mate – £150/day + ^^
Sparky – £180-200/day + ^^

Anyone who decides to share a room can come out with an extra £50 a day

And yes, the rates are good, because the work can be a bit crap/away from home etc.

My requirements vary, as I said and there are no permanent positions at the moment. My main clients requirements vary and at this moment in time, it’s certainly not anything I’d expect anyone to jump ship for, although I’m trying to secure more permanent contracts. Last September I could have guaranteed work until this March, but that has passed for the moment. I’m fully aware it’s not ideal for attracting decent skilled workers.

Anyone is welcome to send me a CV to info @ marshall-electrical DOT co DOT uk and I’ll have an informal chat

It takes a special breed at times though, although it can be great in the summer 😉

Untitled by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

Untitled by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

Untitled by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

Untitled by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

We didn’t do much work yesterday…

@TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR .. What part of the world are you, currently do maintenance at a university and doing my level 3 electrics as a home study course 🙂

If you do a bit of research and find his website (the clue is in his email address) you can find all his details and where he operates from.

Kids today !

I pay £65-75 a night on top of wages to cover digs/subsistence

That’s pretty tight theses days
I only stop in basic places like PremierInns etc. and they seem to be running at £70-£100 by the time you add breakfast, another £20 for a meal and you could easily be down £25+ per day on the above rate.

More fool you. Premier are always more expensive than Travelodge (albeit a little nicer – meh), but I only ever stay in them for convenience. I don’t pay subsistence as a bonus – it’s up to the lads if they choose to share and save a few quid. If you are spending £20 on one meal every day, then again, you are doing it wrong. I can easily live on £10-15 a day. If you were at home, you’d still be spending on food.

Next week, I’m staying here for £29 a night for my own double room

More fool you.

I don’t pay for it

I just book them, turn up, eat, sleep and leave.
I get up to £30 for a meal but usually spend £20 ish, if I’m away, I want to eat as well as I do at home without it costing me, a salad box from Morrisons would be slumming it TBH.

I do know lots of people that work away and I stand by my claim that £65-75 a night on top of wages to cover digs/subsistence is a bit tight these days and I don’t know anyone getting that little.

Fair enough – anyone also has the option for me paying digs and getting £25, so not really that far off.

I choose to eat salad boxes – that was my retort to the comment about constantly eating fry-ups

anyone also has the option for me paying digs and getting £25, so not really that far off.

That’s OK
I can’t be doing with all the hassle of finding places myself, I prefer PremierInn to send me a file to my Tomtom and I just hit go 🙂

I stayed here this week for £61, Hilton with breakfast.

I am rather charming though. 😀

I used to print your business cards (I mean for Bouygues).

Was it any of you lot I witnessed making their lunch from the ‘all you can ea’t premier inn breakfast? Foil all laid out on the table and somebody splitting the sausages while his workmate did the honours with the butter?
Stay classy dudes.

I’ve done that before! 😆

Thats what its for isnt it 🙂

I usually liberate a yoghurt or 2 for a snack later but I see plenty of people stocking up on bacon and sausage to take with them.
Personally, I don’t even eat it for breakfast so unlikely to have cold seconds for lunch.

EDIT: the little tubs of jam, marmalade, honey and (especially) Marmite are fair game and can give you quite a selection for home without having to go to the trouble and expense of so many different jars of preserves 🙂

It seems like a great opportunity but I’m saying that as a 33 year old.

When I was 17 I wouldn’t even have given it a second thought if the choice was between a good opportunity requiring some commitment and hard-work and just going to get pissed with my mates….I would have taken the choice of getting pissed with my mates every time. At that age, I would have just told myself that I’ll get another opportunity just as good another time in the future so wouldn’t even have batted an eye-lid.

It seems like he’s made a poor decision on paper but I guess it’s hard to put yourself in the place of a 17 year old lad when you’re middle-aged. At the end of the day if there’s ever a time when you can be so blase about such decisions it’s when your 17 years old I guess.

Sounds about right 20 grand a year for 33 years , retired at 50 on an income of about 2000 a year…

If he starts with 20% contributions and his employer puts in 5% he’ll have a pension pot of over half a million by the time he’s 50. Can reduce the % as he gets older / earns more.

I love my job but I’d not be able to stomach doing it until I’m 65.

1st thought – as a 17yr old WOW deffo would have taken it
2nd thought – a 17yr old doesn’t think like that, its one hell of a commitment
3rd thought – if we all thought as wisely as we do now at 17 we’d probably be aiming a lot higher?

Just coming back to this as the OP’s had the decency to answer the questions raised.

Initially, I thought “fair play to the lad”, but the more detail that’s been revealed the more I think it looks like a real good opportunity missed.

Must admit I had reservations- around training and the commitment to the lad’s future- but have to admit it looks like I was wrong, the “permanent position” swung it for me.

Fair play to the OP for giving apprentices a chance at a good future and a decent salary.

I think a lot of you are looking at this through the eyes of a middle aged bloke with kids/Audi repayments. If he’s a normal 17 year old lad his life will revolve around girls/drugs/music/partying/girls. Working away with an older guy would put a right spanner in the works; £26k or £126k. No offence OP 😉

As others have said, why not get someone older?

Cant get my head around the thinking a younger lad cant think about more than beer and trim. I joined the army at 16 and lived abroad still got plenty of beer and trim but worked too 😉

Been to see him today to get his PPE back and had a chat. Told him no hard feelings and maybe we can speak in the future if circumstances change.

He genuinely seemed like he wanted to work for me, but just had doubts about the working away. I actually ended up speaking to his mother more than him. She thanked me for the opportunity and openly admitted that she’d probably had a big hand in convincing him that it might not suit him.

He’s now out of work – I will be speaking to some local sparks I know to see if they want to employ a nice lad with a view to completing his apprenticeship.

What size PPE did he take? I’ve already completed 1 apprenticeship in the print trade in 18 months perhaps you could just pass the PPE right this way and carry on as you were, as if nothings changed :p

I’ve taken it back today, mostly hi-viz

Fair play artist id have loved that chance at 17 tho i think the army would still have won. Tho my parents might not have signed my paperwork to let me join had i had an offer like that on the cards

Parental pressure when you are young can be very hard to hold up against. All sorts of emotional blackmail can be deployed. Its not the sort of thing you want to admit to other people as you loose face. Sometimes children are not aware enough of adults sometimes selfish motives.

I can think of a couple of people I have known who have been told if they do not behave as the parent wants (not particularly in the childs best interest either) they will be punished or cast out from the family.

My sisters son was not allowed to go to university (back when it was still free). He was told if he tried to, to not come home again. However his sister was parent destined “to be a doctor” and from when she was about 10 there was talk of university. Both kids were equally bright. It was a vile situation, mostly based on the fathers favouritism.

A lot goes on behind closed doors. Not saying this lads family behaves like that, just saying the young are not all feckless – be aware of the sort of power, blackmail and threats families and parents can occasionally wield. Sometimes you don’t know rules even exist until you brush against them as a child and all hell is unexpectedly let loose when you show any signs of thinking or behaving like an independent adult.

You don’t tend to look too far ahead when you’re 17. I certainly didn’t, so I would have just considered two things if that offer had come my way – money vs social life, and social life, fun would have probably won out.

When I was 17 I was making the decision between work or Uni. I applied for a job with british rail whilst researching universities and after meeting a couple of managers at BR I was offered a fantastic opportunity to do an apprentiship with a very good salary and overseas travel. Amazing chance. But my mates were going to uni and I just didn’t want to miss out on the craic so I turned the job down. I just couldn’t see any further ahead than the first few weeks of uni life and I figured i’d got plenty of time to chase other opportunities. I don’t regret the choice I made. More to life than money.

Sorry, I thought the majority of people went to work for money, not fun

I don’t go to work for either of these things.

I think you have to remember that despite an outer appearance of being teenagers/young adults a lot of 17 year olds are still really just children underneath. He may well be a bit scared, and his mum could be being a bit overprotective. I’m sure the job would help him to grow up quickly, but thats not necesarily a good thing, people do it at different rates.

Kids at that age will often also be told by teachers and well meaning parents that you should do what you enjoy, and it takes a few years of being worn down by the world before you begin to think that maybe you should just have picked something that pays well. So he’s probably not thinking too much about the money, and his parents are telling him not to think too about it too.