apprenticeship

[watts45]

I am a journeyman electrician with 25 years under my belt. I have an apprentice that I signed for but only works with me occasionally, About an hour each week as he is a journeyman industrial instrument mechanic and has his own work to do. Is this a legal apprenticeship or am I getting into trouble having him as an apprentice. He is in his 2nd year as electrical apprentice. I was under the impression that he would be working with me all the time when I signed the form. We work in a plant and both have enough work to keep each of us busy in our own trades. Any comments??

[twh]

Is it ever done any other way?

[neil seidner]

What you could do is work under him for an hour each week and get your Instrument Mechanics Journey mans papers. As to wether or not its a legal apprenticeship, that's a provincial issue to be determined by Apprenticeship And Industry Training in each province.

But!! The big problem is this, people who go through an apprenticeship in this fashion do not actually acquire the job skills that are necessary to work in the trade. If after completing the apprenticeship, he were to apply for a job as a journeyman electrician, he would in a short time be fired because he simply can not do the work without supervision. Also he could not work as an apprentice or a "helper" in the trade, because he already has journey mans papers.

However this is not necessarily a bad thing. Many of us have career goals that go beyond working on the tools in one particular area of interest. Having a mixture of academic and practical experience in a number of trades can be of benefit to such career goals as education, design, engineering and management.

[JamesB]

There were guys in my 3rd year class that had only ran pipe, nothing more. now that's sad.

I agree that a few hours a week is not enough time to become a competent electrican.

but if the apprenticeship board thinks it's ok then it must be.