Many moons ago I was an apprentice electrician.

This was after doing an apprenticeship mechanic for a year - dropping out and then doing a bookkeeping course.

Yeah, when I was young I tried everything.

But I was once the bottom of the pecking order, I know nothing at all!

The closest I had come to electric was when me and my brother plugged a bmx horn into a plug to charge them up.

That went with a bang!

—----------------------

Hello Ben Poulter, your host of tool box talk for electricians here for another episode about being an apprentice.

Every electrician has a different experience as an apprentice.

You can work with some electricians who think you're their salve, fetch this, clean that up….

And not really teaching you a thing about the industry.

I understand you need to start at the bottom and to start with these jobs are yours, but having some actual experience of being a spark each day will help you keep interested.

I never planned to be a spark, I always wanted to be a car mechanic. I did get an apprentice too. But it didn't work out.

An Electrician's Mate, that's what I entered the electrical industry as.

I wasn't even interested in electricity, it was just a job that paid.

As an apprentice I was put with different electricians every day.

Grensells, the company I worked for, did mainly DC Power for telecoms, so some of the guys I was working with didnt even have an electrical qualification to their name.

To be honest, somewhere plumbers!!

But the work we were doing, running 54v dc cables to power supplies was pretty simple, I suppose anyone could learn it in a few weeks.

So some of the guys I was working with couldn't really teach me anything about being an electrician. They didn't know themselves.

After a while I was offered an apprenticeship, the money was good at the company and I was working away most weeks, So i jumped at the opportunity.

I was doing a 3 week block release if I remember right.

Dam college was boring!

Sitting in a classroom listening to the theory side of it all, I'm a hands-on learner.

I struggled to stay awake sometimes.

But, like school - I wish I listened a lot more in college.

I wish I tried harder to learn all the fine details that would have helped me out in exams and further qualifications.

But I got through it in the end.

Being an apprentice is hard. Harder than being an actual electrician sometimes.

The paperwork you have to do with all the evidence is crazy.

I had to explain to the qualified electricians I worked with what I needed for a part of my college work, they would say “write it out yourself and i will sign it”

To me that was great, I didn't even have to do the work, or prove I could.

I think my apprentice days were when you filled in your portfolio in the pub after work.

To be honest, that's where most of mine were signed off.

Its was difficult then to be able to get a job that fitted the description of the coursework unit you were about to cover, as most of my work was DC Power.

I can admit it now, but most of my college work was made up.

I didn't find a heating system on a commercial building.

This went against me when I got qualified. The company I worked for went into liquidation.

The time of easy money and travelling the world was over!

Like every male testosterone filled environment, there is a pecking order.

The apprentice is at the bottom - even below the plumbers on site.

There were times I fell for the “go to the van and get a sky hook jokes” You just need to laugh with everyone.

I really didn't have a clue sometimes what the older guys on the side were going on about, private jokes to try and make fun of me.

It's a good thing I didn't get it, because it happened a LOT!

Now I was 19 and thought I could take on the world just because I had a few fights in town, but these guys walked around with tools in their pockets.

If I was an idiot to try and start a fight, they would put me down straight away - then I would lose my job.

To be honest it wasn't too bad. I did get on with whatever I was told to do and I actually enjoyed cleaning the van.

Then I got to take it home for the weekend, and when you got a van with a fuel card and no tracker….

You can load your mates up and go for a night out anywhere you want.

This happened a lot of times, and we also slept in the van just to save that bit of money.

But doing what I was told at work, I was good at that.

I wanted to learn, I wanted to have a job that I could use for college and do a write up on.

If there were 10 SWA cables to make off, I was asked to be shown 1 and I will do the rest.

I figured electricians liked that, because then they can come along and just connect it up, or rip it out and tell me to do it again - that happened too.

The more jobs I was able to do properly like

SWA cable

Cable trey

Metal trunking

All the jobs that the electricians found boraring, I wanted to give it a go.

The better I got, the more respect I got from everyone else.

Every job I did as an apprentice there was a handover to the clerk of works.

The electrician would go through and just talk about what we had done, why and how.

Basically sign this piece of paper - we want paying.

I used to get the tools packed away clean and tidy the side ready to head off as soon as we were done.

I know what you're thinking - complete geek!

Yes maybe, but then I could get on the good side of the electricians and get them to help me with the college work on the way home.

Always an alternative motive.

There was one occasion in amsterdam.

The DC Power install always produced a LOT of scrap!

We were removing copper and ali buzz bars and asked to remove all rubbish.

This one job there were 3 of us and we got £3000 of scrap, it was amazing.

The electrician in charge told me it's going 3 ways, But I only got a 30% cut because I was an apprentice.

This was my chance to stick up for myself as I know none of that money was going back to the company.

Not a chance I said - 3 ways split or give it all to the boss back home in the uk.

There was a little bit of an argument, the other 2 went off to the pub and I went shopping around amsterdam.

There will always come a time where every apprentice has to stick up for themselves, you can only take so much all day every day.

Then when there's money involved - make sure you get your fair share.

College was the boring part of becoming an electrician. You have to do it I know - everyone does.

It's the opportunities being an electrician can give you.

I know a few guys who have moved out to Australia to work, some electricians have started up on their own, others have built a whole building company.

It's rare to find an electrician out of work,this is why it's a good trade to be in.

As soon as I sat my AM2 in Nottingham in the UK, the company I worked for went into liquidation.

I was screwed!

No job, Not even sure if I was an actual qualified electrician.

I had to go subbing on site, that's a whole new story for another day.

So don't forget to subscribe and let me know if the electricians were tough on you as an apprentice.

Until next time