More solar light frames but made by 16year ild

[F.J.]

Hi all,

If anybody saw one if my previous threads I made a pair of hinged frames for some solar panel lights to mount to for the Manchester Ship Canal Company, and today saw a few more leaving the workshop only with a totally different design.

The old, existing lights don't work anymore but they are on a railway bridge about 100feet in the air and hang off a fixed frame about 3feet out away from the bridge platform. The lads fitting the new lights didn't feel comfortable removing the old lights so I was asked to come up with an easier method of fitting the new lights next to the old ones.

The walkway has a kick plate running the length of the bridge so I came up with a simple idea of fabbing up a form of clamp with a plate cut for the lamp to mount on. After getting the plate laser cut by a friend down the road I left the rest of the job up to my 16 year old apprentice, he is as keen as mustard and more than capable than the three adults I trailed last year. He cut the steel, marked and aligned it all up and welded it all together.

For a 16 year old to produce work like this had me feeling very proud and also confident of what the future may hold for me, him and the business.

I will try and get a picture if it fitted with a light on tomorrow but here are a few of the frames in the shop.

The angle is 8mm thick and the flat plate is 10mm thick. The top plate is 5mm and the gussets are 10mm bar cut on a diagonal. He obviously needs to neaten up in areas but I am over the moon with the outcome, he even ran multiple passes over the flat plate incase the bolts broke the weld when clamped to the bridge (I didn't even tell him too).

 

[F.J.]

Here is a picture of the original light above the canal

 

[500e]

Looks the sort of job for a battery grinder & rope, You cant leave the old ones
Congratulation is in order for your lad one to nurture, good with tools & self motivated thinker

 

[F.J.]

Looks the sort of job for a battery grinder & rope, You cant leave the old ones
Congratulation is in order for your lad one to nurture, good with tools & self motivated thinker

I offered to replace them myself but my customer can only gain access to the lights by confirming dates with network rail and I am busy until next weekend and they need fitting by this weekend!! My customer told his lads to take the battery grinder to the bolts and kick the old ones into the canal but they didn't fancy leaning over to reach the furthest bolts.

And yes, a big pat on the back for my lad, he turns 17 next month with his sights set on his driving licence so lets see how he shapes up as I know what I got up to once I got behind the wheel at that age!!!

 

[Kent]

I offered to replace them myself but my customer can only gain access to the lights by confirming dates with network rail and I am busy until next weekend and they need fitting by this weekend!! My customer told his lads to take the battery grinder to the bolts and kick the old ones into the canal but they didn't fancy leaning over to reach the furthest bolts.

And yes, a big pat on the back for my lad, he turns 17 next month with his sights set on his driving licence so lets see how he shapes up as I know what I got up to once I got behind the wheel at that age!!!

Oh gosh, caution apprentice driving! The apprentice for a firm I once worked for jumped a hump back canal bridge, on landing he removed the sump and got about 200 yards before the engine gave up. I wasn't at the company by then but saw the engine in for repair Good lad but he blew the engine to bits. His boss the charge hand / foreman was giving him grief right up until someone let slip him about him removing the sump off a works mini van playing rally driver on a building site when he himself was much younger many years ago and far more crazy. The apprentice in question became part owner I believe in future years.

Its interesting you chose a young guy to work in a smaller / newer type business, do you not find the restrictions on what they are and are not allowed to do and general safeguarding rules that are in place today a big hindrance? Having looked into it myself with a wife involved in FE its just not viable for me.

Must stop him over welding mind, no matter if it is tidy enough for a young un as it costs too much and adds nothing to the design.

 

[F.J.]

Oh gosh, caution apprentice driving! The apprentice for a firm I once worked for jumped a hump back canal bridge, on landing he removed the sump and got about 200 yards before the engine gave up. I wasn't at the company by then but saw the engine in for repair Good lad but he blew the engine to bits. His boss the charge hand / foreman was giving him grief right up until someone let slip him about him removing the sump off a works mini van playing rally driver on a building site when he himself was much younger many years ago and far more crazy. The apprentice in question became part owner I believe in future years.

Its interesting you chose a young guy to work in a smaller / newer type business, do you not find the restrictions on what they are and are not allowed to do and general safeguarding rules that are in place today a big hindrance? Having looked into it myself with a wife involved in FE its just not viable for me.

Must stop him over welding mind, no matter if it is tidy enough for a young un as it costs too much and adds nothing to the design.

I think every 'old' apprentice has a story up there sleeve, I know I have. Although I can't say I've ever been airborn in a works vehicle!!!! I bet that was a sight!

As for taking on a younger employee, it was purely for the reason that he was recommended and at the time I was fed up with people my own age saying they could do this and that but yet struggled with the basics. I don't mind working with people who admit to not being capable of doing something but when you expect something from someone and they fall at the first hurdle it gets quite frustrating as I was paying a proper wage for what I would class less capable than my young apprentice. I'm paying him above his recommended earnings as I want to keep him and believe he is worth it. He can measure, cut, tack, fabricate and is even a better mechanic than me!!!

I must admit that I do get him doing some stuff in the shop that I probably shouldn't but when on site he is purely a pair of hands to speed me up at the moment

 

[Kent]

So you used to be an instructor or assessor or something is that correct yes? How do you cope with safeguarding issues involved around his age? I agree with you about so called capable person over 21 yrs BTW. I could do with a hand myself it not only slows me down I am also pushing my battered body a bit too hard and it limits the manual handling of jobs to the point that I need to turn stuff down . If I go down this route though I should at the moment take the route a mate has taking on a semi skilled plumber who is now doing an adult apprenticeship in his own time but the companies cost as an electrician (the firm does maintenance at care homes and such) but I am all ears if you hold the answers?

 

[F.J.]

Yes I used to be an NVQ Assessor/tutor and there are limits to what someone Aaron's age is allowed to do, but under strict supervision and coaching he is learning daily how to use equipment safely and adequately, I am putting him through his apprenticeship as of next week yet we have been gathering evidence H+S evidence since day one which will help him with his first three mandatory units. Although I used to teach about Automotive Body Repair/Body Building and Aaron doing a welding apprenticeship, the H+S units are pretty much the same and the first ones needed to be completed in the programme.

Don't get me wrong, he has made mistakes and cost me money as he is a bit clumsy but he has a lot of potential and is 100% a lot more astute than some that have been through the door. I too was very dubious about taking on a school leaver as the majority of my caseload as an assessor were deadlegs and amounted to nothing. I could honestly say that about 5% of learners who complete will actually be of any use in a workshop and I believe that I have that in Aaron. To find someone at such a young age with so much enthusiasm and skills (although limited), is like finding a unicorn and I am making sure he stays that way by keepin him interested and keeping him involved but not too involved that he may come to danger.

For your situation could you not find some one to work for you on a self employed basis so you can use then as and when needed, obviously that method won't work out all the time but it may help on the bigger projects?

Failing that, trial I few labourers and see who has the potential and angst to learn. You'd need to be patient though to find the right one. I felt like giving up sometimes due to the amount of hours I was doing and with no one decent i thought was it worth it. Having an apprentice has let me be home for reasonable(ish) hours now and I am actually earning more too

 

[Kent]

Yes, certainly the next post and rail estate fence I do will involve a self employed helper now I know the crack with them. I am sort of lucky living were I do because you get to know everyone and most of the lads grow up with a good work ethic on the farms. My mrs is dead against it though having been a director of a large engineering training establishment previous and now another FE establishment I think she hears more of the mentioned 95% than the 5% and some of the poorer instructors rather than the better.

 

[F.J.]

Well that's another issue that determines a learners outcome, the tutors/assessors and managers. I left not only because I was going self employed but because the morals of the company I worked for rapidly went out of the window when the recession hit which was also at a time when we bought out another training provider. In my eyes the company got too big too quick but as it had agreed to a new £1million training facility it needed to pull in the number of learners to pay for it all. As a result my caseload shot up from 50 to 110 learners along with other assessors yet the timeframe for completion came down as funding had been slashed. Most of the learners on our caseloads admitted to being on the course so they could claim benefits and therefore had no real interest in the course, yet we were under a serious amount of pressure to complete them so the company didn't have to hand any money back to the LSC.

Your wife must work for a more established, more recognised FE establishment if those kind of percentages are completing. That's great to hear as things must of improved since I quit three years ago, yet the stories of where I worked remain the same. It was a shame because for the first two years of doing it I loved it and could see myself doing it until I retired, but saying that's wouldn't change how things have worked out.

Subbing labour out will help you massively, i do it, just make sure you agree to either ££p/h or day rate so you both know where you stand and so that you can put you bit on top of that

 

[Kent]

oh, they were not completion rates! Training at her former place was Rolls, BAE, Jaguar Landrover and other big names but also a fair share of not in traing or employment stuff. She is a better set up now more focused on the rural side