Teenager Rant: My Son has just turned 18 with Level 3 NCEA, was going to go to Uni and work towards an electrical engineering degree.....now looking at a Marine Engineering apprenticeship ( this week) I'm not sure how waking up at 10 and playing Guitar Hero on Xbox is going to get this....when I suggested printing out a CV and going around the Marine Engineer places was given the " thats how you did it back in the day"....... His mates are off to do Engineering this year.....odd I thought at none of them seem the slighest bit interersted in mechanical or electrical things other than the TV and the Computer? What am I missing here.....?
Friend's son wanted to do the same so he got an apprenticeship with P&O. At the age of 28 he has his Master's ticket and is captaining a tug boat earning megabucks and only works 6 months a year. There is a massive shortage of people wanting to do that job and they are getting guys out of retirement ( 70 year olds) with the qualifications just to be on the bridge. Licence to work anywhere in the world and print money. No-one ever asks me what I do, so in a few years I will simply fold my business, walk away to the Eventide Home and leave a big hole in the process engineering scene. So far this year I have earned more than half the average annual salary........Having said that, like all the companies I work with; I would NEVER employ a Uni graduate. NZCE or NZCS are valuable. Most graduates are not. I have some creative ideas for you at the Lodge about what we use the Lodge for to prepare the few kids who want to listen and get mentored into science and engineering careers.
thanks Simon, after a 'chat' and a bit of Google steering him along to the Manuakau Tech who do a Diploma in Marine Engineering.....sounds more 'hands on"...anyway I'll keep making suggestions. I thought all you guys with your own companies had the Three B's....boat , batch and BMW..... ( or BMW,BMW and BMW...)
I have a son of 17 dithering about his future also. Another XBox career hopeful... He is too big to beat sense into so perhaps I can ship (HaHa) him up to Manakau too. PS: As a business owner, I have the three B's - Bills, Bullshit & Bad debts.
BMW ( cost me $1000 33 years ago and is now on vintage rego) Bach is a rental and sold the boat before the crash. Part exchanged it for a 450hp V8 Caterpillar so did okay. Get your son to do a Marine Course at Mahurangi Tech. A couple of years on superyachts will give him the $ and experience to sort himself out. Have a coffee at Gasket and ask my daughter about it. Plus he will have to leave home and stand on his own two feet. Just like we did.....
I would be a bit cautious about Manukau Tech, I've been doing a B Tech degree part time for the last few years & even the students realise it's a low grade qualification. They also did cutbacks a few years ago & tutors aren't paid to write the exams, which means they now just recycle old ones. The clincher is that the old one are available on the computer network. Unna's correct about NZCE, it was much harder than the degree I've been doing.
Its a generartion thing! My son (19) spent couple years doing a ART Course at EIT , left there went Bar tendering and Coffee . HE had to come BACK home back in October as he was out of work getting self in debit .he has been appling for jobs but againist the numbers that are also appling for same jobs chances around here of getting a job is the old adage " Its not what you know but who!" This morning he left on a six week course ( Limited Service Volunteer) he put his name down himself and was not pushed by either WINZ or the old man! I'm pleased with him as at least he is trying to get somewhere
apparently its been noted before by some Greek bloke who according to Monty Python was permanently pissed..... The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."
My son is preparing the new school year to teach teenagers. One girl lists cell phone talking as her only hobby and admits to never having had a memorable moment in her life. Don't laugh. It is us that has failed her. If a market gardener sows the seeds and fertilises and nurtures the crop he will get a good yield. If he leaves the field to itself and wanders about later looking for the few useful plants amongst the weeds, he won't have much of a future. Are we guilty of that with our kids?
we are quick to critsize the generation but for all the bad hoppeless ones there are heaps that get on with it quietly in the back ground, one of my biggest gripes is that to me the poly techs encourage the youths to take out student loans on the sales bases of when you finish this course and have our dipoma employers will be waiting at the gate to offer you fantastic jobs and wages.
My son (19) had the job he wanted with no qualifications, just the desire. He lost it last year and was moving towards Uni....but now with someone leaving he might get his job back, so no more thought about Uni. The younger (16) we are moving to other things, but if they don't know what they want to do how can we really help? There is a junior parts job going at our tractor division, but I wouldn't want them to work there. I know they would do exactly what I would do if I had to work with the parts guy - go home and never come back. There are no jobs to just walk in and out of these days, just finding a shit job is almost a hopeless task. From 1970 to 1990 I had 20 jobs - only one wasn't my trade. Walked in and out of any job I wanted, or didn't want....I can't do that anymore.
You never know how it will all work out. My son wet to school to eat his lunch, barely scraped through 6th form then decided he was going to leave school at 17. He wanted to be a pilot . He enrolled at Ardmore & has worked his arse off for 5 years with terrific dedication. At 22 he has just started as a copilot for Eagle Air. You & I funded it , the student loan is eye watering but good on him.
" One girl lists cell phone talking as her only hobby" ... I spent two years teaching 'at risk youth' at a PTO and had some who could not even list that. The part about nurturing the crop is right and the success of what people thought was a hopeless case was why I did it - and the money of course. I eventually quit when I got to the stage of really wanting to use Roundup on the weeds but my employer said no.
I ran a 6 months Practical Welding Programme at the Poly a few years back. The students were" all at risk", most had gone to school to eat their lunch . One student had received permission from the ED dept to leave school early, conditional that he attend the course. He pissed me around once too often when coming back from lunch 1/2 an hour late. I pulled him aside and spoke to him in the appropriate language, finishing with a threat to send ham back to school. He knuckled down, and was the star pupil by end of the course. He ran into me in a pub a year later, and thanked me for straightening him out. He is now a qualified Fabrication Engineer, who has just returned home after years of working in remote areas around the globe. He is now a really well balanced individual, with a great sense of humour. There are a few success stories out there, but unfortunately they are the exceptions.
Youth is a passage, not a destination. Some will have a course, a mission and a passion to pursue their target. Others will mill about seeking inspiration from unreliable sources. It is these we need to reach out to in order to prevent them making expensive mistakes. By spending time we can give them the directions and inspirations they need to set a course. Sometimes just getting them to do whatever they can, wherever they can will give them the work ethics and motivations they need before moving on. We may snort at their directions but things have a habit of working out. John Lennon's mother said he would never make any money from noisy music. And if all else fails; there is always the fast food industry. A lot of "successful" career paths have turned to custard but there is always a need for someone to pick up the garbage or make good coffee.
