- Hi guys, James here from PlumberParts.Co.UK.
This is an unusual Plumber Parts video.
This is not a normal one.
I've been asked to do this video
probably twice a day, at least,
for the last couple of years.
And I've finally got around to doing it.
It's not an instructional video.
This is for the apprentice, for the young person,
for the person looking to get into our trade.
And the ways I think, what they can expect,
and also the ways, I think,
currently you can get into the trade.
Okay?
Because it's not like it was 10 to 15 years ago.
Also, there is a shout out here for students
who are currently in college,
and also for chooters.
There is a massive competition going on,
on Graham Plumbers Merchant, at the moment,
for a college to win 10,000 pounds.
Now I don't know the details,
the in's and out's of all this fully yet.
But I have got a link for it below
So students, colleges, chooters.
Anyone who's got an interest in further education
and getting people through that plumbing course
and everything.
Click that link, sometime through this video.
You are going to have a massive opportunity
to win 10,000 pounds, maybe for your college.
So I mean, that's wicked, isn't it?
If your watching this video after September 2018,
I think all those competitions
and that will be over.
But by all means, click the link below.
You never know, it might still be running.
There's no harm in finding out.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this video.
Remember to subscribe.
Remember to follow us on Facebook, Instagram,
SnapChat, and Twitter, and I'll see you soon.
Hold tight.
(dramatic music)
So what I want to do is give you
a few pointers about what I think.
This might not be right, okay?
But this is my perspective as a plumber.
And also, this is similar to the perspective I hear
from a lot of other tradesmen.
So this doesn't just go for plumbing,
this can go for carpentry, electrics and all that as well.
Some of this video is going to sound like
I'm having a go at you.
And some of this video is going to sound like
wow, I don't ever want to do that.
Or it's too hard or whatever.
So look, let's just go over a few things.
We're going to do it in these stages.
Number one, what to expect.
Not just out of the work,
but also how you're going to have to change your life
to be able to suit this job.
Okay, because you are going to have to change your ways,
especially if you've just come out of school.
Then what we'll have a look at is how
you get an apprenticeship.
How I think now is, the only way your going to be able
to get work-site based education,
in the particular trade you're looking at,
be it plumbing or anything else.
So I try to cover as many points as I can think of.
I have write anything down for this,
this is just coming out of my brain.
So this might be slightly divisive video.
Some of my points might be wrong,
some might be right, you just don't know.
I hope there right.
But one thing I really want is for the comment section below
to be a place to not be nasty to each other,
but to be constructive about how you can help people
get into this trade.
Because if your already a plumber,
it should be a trade you care about.
And let's face it, if you're already a plumber,
you already know how insanely busy you are.
Let's face it, there is a skill shortage
in the country at the moment.
I'm going to say it now,
I don't think it has anything to do with money.
I don't think it has anything to do with that.
I actually think it's to do,
oh God you're going to hate me for this,
I actually think it's to do with parenting and education.
Alright, I've said it, let's get on with the video.
Number one, what you think should happen,
how you should change,
and what you expect
when you actually become an apprentice,
and change this job out of school.
So let's start.
It was probably about 50 million years ago
that I was in school.
It's actually crazy to think back
the 17 or 18 years that have past
since I left school and what has happened since then.
I think it's 17 or 18 years.
I never did very well at math.
So number one, let's say this.
If you're not great at math, it doesn't matter.
You can still do this job.
Okay? There's a lot of different things
that come with being a plumber.
Math is just a tiny, tiny bit of it.
You can learn all the other things as you go along.
But the one thing I have heard from lot of people,
and this includes parents,
and this includes apprentices.
Some apprentices have said this to me themselves,
but a lot of employers say this to me.
Is school, is it currently teaching people that
number one, you can get things wrong.
Number two, when you do get things wrong,
there are consequences.
It doesn't even look like now at school,
you can lose at a sport.
You know, it seems ridiculous
that you can't lose at anything anymore.
To tell you what, this is the first thing,
this is the first live thing,
you can lose at stuff, okay?
And in fact, when you do lose at stuff,
that is the time that you learn the most.
A lot of people, a lot of young people,
15, 16, 17 years old, maybe 18.
Just come out of A level or whatever.
You're going to be leaving an environment
where you can't lose, you can't be told off,
and you can't be said "You've done that wrong.
What the hell."
To an environment where that can happen.
But believe me, if you're 100% dedicated to this,
you know, there's going to be a vast percentage of time
when you're being praised.
Okay, you'll be praised by the guy.
The second thing, and the next thing to expect,
is the fact that you are going to be getting employed,
a lot of the time, by someone like me.
Someone who is relying on the youngster
or the person they're taking on,
to be reliable, to be punctual,
to be quiet when they have to be,
to ask questions.
I mean ask questions.
Don't just stand there
and go "I don't know what that's all about."
I had a teacher, Mr. Donoughy, at school.
He said to me "The thickest person in the class,
is the one that doesn't ask the question."
Don't just stand there in the background
when you're with the guy you're working with.
S-Plan, Y-Plan system drawings and what's that,
number them, okay?
And get them to come back to me
with the components.
So when they got back from work,
they were still thinking about what they
had learned that day,
and we would always go over what we'd done that day.
So that's it.
Anyway, buy the pie.
I am going to lose my drift here,
because that's such an important subject
and it's something that means so much to me.
And it obviously means a lot to you
because I get asked this so many times.
But we're going to get around to how
you can get an apprenticeship in a minute.
So you're going to be getting employed
by probably 50% of the time,
by someone who is a one-man-band,
who you probably maybe know already.
You might know them through sport,
you might know them down the pub,
or your local area,
they might be a friend of the family.
This is not one of the most important things
you're ever going to do with your life.
If you...
If you continue with the course you're going to go on,
your going to become a plumber.
Some of you,
I mean I don't know what the percentage is.
But some of you are going to go self-employed.
And,
it's going to be the best thing you ever do.
Alright, it's been the best thing I've ever done.
It's given me the freedom to earn money when I like,
earn lots of money when I like.
Or, you know, have Friday off and play golf,
socialise with my friends,
take my Mrs. out, stuff like that.
I've got a lot of freedom to do that.
And that is because I made this choice
to take up this job from an early age,
and do it with passion and love.
And if you guys can do that as well,
then you know, you're gonna end up in the same boat.
Okay? And it's a good boat to be in.
Alright? This is the Noah's Ark of trades.
I know so many people right,
who've gone off to uni,
and Scott is going to be watching this right now,
they've gone off to uni,
they've done a business studies degree.
They've come out with a draught
of another six or seven thousand people.
And they're all trying to go
for a very small pool of jobs.
And all of a sudden, they have massive debt.
You just don't get that, okay,
with the path that your hopefully thinking about taking.
It just doesn't happen.
Or it didn't happen to me anyhow.
So when you get into that guy's van
on the first couple of weeks, okay,
just take this right.
Your not turning up at school,
your not going to sit down and be talking to your mates.
It's going to be you and that person.
That is a daunting thing.
Okay, that is a really daunting thing
for a lot of people who are coming out of school.
They're not only mixing with someone
who isn't part of their age group,
probably knows nothing about them or anything like that.
Sometimes you've never met this person before.
But believe me, the things you learn over the next year.
I'm just talking about interacting with another person,
who's older than you.
You'll learn so much about life,
and how to interact with people,
just in those few months.
I remember a time, I was sitting down with my apprentice,
he was in the passenger seat,
and he said "Jimmy, have you ever
masturbated in the van?"
I looked at him and I was like "Not in this seat, Mate."
(hysterical laughter)
It starts off as this really cold,
kind of strange, sort of stand-offish relationship.
But I think, but I don't think I've actually seen anyone,
have no love for their apprentice at the end of it.
Literally, it's like a father/son
relationship at the end of it all.
So stick with that.
And if you, one thing I'll always say,
you need to expect to be on time,
punctual, ask questions, put your phone away.
A lot of the time,
my apprentice would allow his phone out
at 10 o'clock and then at one o'clock.
Okay? The rest of the time it was in.
And then at four o'clock or five when we got finished,
boom, get your phone out,
you know, you're off duty now, let's go back.
Think about, you're talking to someone about a point,
and you're actually helping them out
by giving them this apprenticeship.
Giving them the opportunity to learn,
and all they can do is be on their phone.
There is literally no quicker way
of ending your apprenticeship
then that small device you hold in your hand.
It's like shining a torch, the Batman torch,
up in the sky saying "I don't really care about this job."
So the next, and most frequent question I get asked
on all of our social medias, YouTube, Facebook,
Twitter and all the rest of them, SnapChat and Instagram,
is "How do I get an apprenticeship?"
How do I go from school
to getting work-based learning placement,
which is what I'd say is the best way
to learn plumbing or any trade.
Or, you know, I'm changing jobs,
I'm at a certain age,
I'm looking to try and get into this trade here.
Talking from personal experience,
it used to be that you sent letters out,
sent CVs out,
tried to get job interviews with local
one-man-band plumbers
or slightly larger firms or even nationwide firms.
And basically you get you get your foot
in the door like that.
Now that might still work maybe for nationwide firms.
But I can tell you now that for
one-man-bands and small companies,
from the feedback I'm getting from youngsters
trying to get into this trade,
and also any other people,
is that the letter approach isn't working.
So, I just sort of thought,
what would make me take on a youngster,
make them stick out of the crowd for us a little bit more,
and maybe think "yeah, maybe I'll take them on."
This is how I'd see it.
Number one, go online and
find out where your local plumbers merchants are.
Number two, dress smartly.
Now don't take that meaning to turn up I a suit,
just turn up dressed smartly
and bring along your contact details
and a few copies of your CV.
Get to the branch at seven o'clock in the morning,
speak to the manager and say
"Look, I'm trying to get an apprenticeship.
I know that there's probably going to be,
over the next few hours,
20 or 30 plumbers coming through
to pick bits and pieces up.
Can I just approach them,
while they're being served, to ask them."
Okay, be 100% honest.
And then door-stop those plumbers
when they come into the merchant
and say "Hi, I'm desperate for an apprenticeship.
I'm really keen. I'd love to come,
and can I work for free for you,
for a couple of weeks or a month?"
You know, anything. Just get your foot in that door.
Alright?
Because youngsters are really struggling at the moment.
With all those things
I've just said to you previously in this video,
you need to think about the worries
that a one-man-band plumber has,
on taking on an unknown quantity,
like a youngster out of school.
Let's face it.
So if I turn up somewhere
that a youngster there is well-dressed,
they're there at seven in the morning.
I mean, my God.
And they said I want to want to work,
I'll work for free for a little while.
I'm just desperate for this opportunity.
I tell you what, if you do that for five days in a week.
If you don't have any leads at the end of that five days,
then well give it a go the week after.
Alright, don't give up.
You will meet that person.
Go to another plumber's merchant, if it doesn't work.
I've got to say, if I was looking out for an apprentice,
or if I didn't even know I wanted one,
or I thought "I've got a big job coming."
I'd turn up at a plumbing merchant,
there's a young lad there, or a young girl,
trying to get an apprenticeship like that.
I tell you what,
you're going to stick out miles more
then that letter that comes through the post.
Not with all the bills and all the rest of it.
Saying "Oh, I'll just come out of this. Oh. Oh. Oh."
You know, it's just...
Stand in front of them, show them that you're keen,
show them that you can be up at that time of day.
Because, believe me,
you're going to be needing to get up
at that time of the day for a few weeks yet.
And I think that's probably your best way
of currently getting an apprenticeship.
But who knows, I may be totally wrong.
Alright? I may be totally wrong.
So there you go.
That's my thoughts on this particular matter.
As I said, comment in the comment section below.
If there's plumbers who are qualified
and been through all their apprenticeships and everything.
Tell you what.
Comment your story about how you went through that process.
That might help some youngsters who are on there,
to learn themselves.
The same goes for apprentices looking for apprenticeships.
All I want to see
is you guys sharing your experience on the channel.
And you know, it being a place for good.
Okay, that's what I want to see, if anything else.
And if I've got something totally wrong,
by all means, tell me.
But just be polite because I can't get everything right.
Ask my Mrs.
Alright? I mean in her eyes, I get nearly everything wrong.
So, you know what I mean.
There is a link appearing right now to my Vlog.
So you can go over to my Vlog channel.
There's loads of stuff going on there
that's nothing to do with plumbing.
It's just about my life.
And also some mini-documentaries
that I'm going to start making.,
outside of the world of plumbing,
with my free time.
It's a hobby for me, all this.
And therefore, you know I'd like to sort of maybe
branch out and do a little bit there.
So there's going to be a link to that Vlog there,
at the end of this video.
Also you can buy our t-shirts as well with that link,
so pop over there and do that.
And I will see you soon.
Thanks ever so much for watching guys.
Remember to subscribe.
And remember to follow us on Instagram,
Facebook, SnapChat and Twitter,
and remember to hold tight.
See you soon and thanks very much for watching.
B-dup.
(mellow music)