Trainees no longer ready for workplace

You start by asking what ghey expect from the placement and ask them what they expect from you,

my first pre-reg (optometrist) expected me to train her and I'd expected her university to train her (as it had mine)

Get expections met from either side

One of them recently left early without their work done (that they’d had plenty of time and support to do) as they had an “important appointment”. Obviously their manager assumed it was a last minute medical appointment and stepped in to take over the work. As it transpires, the important appointment was for…lip filler. When pulled up on it they said they “felt bullied”. I wish they’d feel sacked to be honest 😂

I'm hearing the phrase 'It's not fair'more and more in school.

What the child really means is 'I didn't get my own way'

So is this a particular cohort of around 21-25 years old now? As some posters are saying the 18yo are great, the over-25s are ok?

If teachers come down hard on pupils not turning up at school ready to work, their parents get angry with us.

In my industry we have a lot of problems with this recent generation of trainees which we didn’t have with previous cohorts. A lot of “it isn’t fair”, “it’s negatively impacting my mental health” and even tears at times. They seem unable to handle constructive criticism (the criticism I’m referring to is literally of their written work to help them improve/advance) and take everything as a personal attack. They also really seem to struggle with looking things up for themselves if they aren’t spoon fed information.

It's not just teaching..my friend is manager of a large diy chain store, some of his new starters barely manage the min 4 hour shift and wander off to the car park to smoke and use their phones. Every week he fires about 2 or 3 as they are hopeless, rude to customers or just useless.....some new youngsters do a few hours and then text to say they have left....he has asked me to do part time, its lcoal and i might do it..!!

Wow. What happened in the end?

I knew this would be teaching!

I blame covid. It all went to shit then and never recovered. I started teaching when if you survived your pgce year, you were basically just told to get on with it. If you survived your first 2 years after that, the rest kind of fell into place.

I mean, I wouldn't want to go back to that, but there is surely a middle ground where the adults doing an adult, professional job behave like... adults in a professional job.

No, it's not all of them but I do think there seems to have been an increase in young people with minimum work ethic. It's been done to death on here though. Maybe they think that even if they graft it still won't get them in a position to buy a house so what's the point....

I knew you were going to say teachers! Part of my role is dealing with ECTs and trainees and 90% are honestly more hard work than our actual students. It is almost impossible to fail the ECT - we have had extensions of up to a YEAR. It’s killing us.

I work in a third level exams office and really wonder how some of the students will do when they eventually get out into the real world. Between showing up for exams without a calculator, or pen or other requirements and expecting us to have spares, or not having a valid ID to sit the exam, having their parents call up requesting extensions of deadlines or even their results. It's a real wonder what some of them are like

I'm with you OP. I am in software development, a trainee grad started being repeatedly late. I had a meeting with him yo find out why and if he was having any problems etc. His reply "I moved to X place (200 miles away) so I can't get here before 11.30 you need to get me to work from home". I pointed out that we are not set up for remote working, as a trainee he needs support of his team members to learn. I ask why he moved to X and he told me because he wanted to and hadn't thought it would be a problem even though his contract states he is office based. The level of entitlement he felt was unreal. I've been employed for a long time but have not seen anything like that, I should add that not all grads are like that in my experience bur it is becoming more common.

Agreed

I'm an academic. Some of my colleagues complain about how useless our students are, funnily enough these are the colleagues that students complain about the most for being unengaged, uninspiring and disrespectful.

Some trainees will suck no matter what but quite a few will improve with great training.

I'm in a similar situation in secondary. Honestly I think the profession has gone to the dogs. The standard is so low.

Just don't think anybody realises!

I don't work with PGCEs trainees so much, more ECTs but the standard is getting lower every year.

This is partly the fault of the teachers who taught them when the were children.

We praise them for doing nothing and don't tell them off for being lazy.

Schools have been too soft on pupils for years and it's producing adults not fit for the workplace.

I'm a teacher with 24 years' experience. I no longer discipline kids like I used to it,'s not worth the nasty email I'll get from their parents.

Soft, fluffy schools produce soft fluffy adults who are poorly equipped for adult life.

It’s the same in secondary, the calibre is shocking (ironic given I couldn’t spell calibre 😂). It’s not just the public sector though my partner works in the private sector and has the same issue with young staff coming in. They lack resilience, lack self awareness, don’t seem to respect the hierarchy and want maximum pay for minimum effort. I am aware some young people are not like this but a lot are!

Also had one that thinks they should be HOD within a year but finds it too overwhelming to read long emails!!

Also a teacher and the support from the university for us with the trainees is so poor- they will do everything in their power to not fail them even if it means kids are being let down.

People said the same thing about my generation 30 years ago
People always complain about young people! I saw someone once post similar complaints from ancient Greek texts or something.
I work with young people and there's the usual mix of amazing, average and lacking as in any generation. So yeah maybe complain to your provider but it's not all trainees or young people.

It makes me feel ancient, but yes I do find young people (under 30s!) to have pretty low skills levels and commitment, but greater expectations for rapid career progression than the generation above!

I am with you, I am in secondary and our two first year teachers need so much hand holding. Can't manage time, can't read and email without someone pointing out it needs doing, classrooms are a complete bombsite, no awareness of other classrooms - one likes to play really loud music and get the kids to scream and shout at the end of a lesson - really disruptive to all around her.

Sadly all think they are amazing and we need to mummy them through.