..to think that £6.15 an hour...

[BertrandRussell]

.....really is shit wages?

@MidweekObscurity I know a lot of tradespeople and none of them would want their children to go into it. It’s bloody hard work, dangerous, and particularly well paid, poor benefits, and time limited as you are rarely physically able to continue to to anywhere near retirement age.

It’s not as desirable as people who aren’t close to the trades seem to think

@Passthecherrycoke. Get what you say, but suggest a better alternative?

Sorry a better alternative to what

In most circumstances, I think teens would be better suited to do something, almost anything, practical, before deciding on uni. Via DS, I know lots of university students, and I think most would be better and more attentive students if they were required to do something, or anything, before they were permitted to specialise and chase dreams. It may work at top universities, but the rest, no not really the same success story. Fortune 100 companies only recruit from the top 30 universities; they don't attend job fairs elsewhere.

Revision... teens would be better advised.....

@kazzyhoward, we had one similar, but the LA, instead of feeding in right minded students, decided to use it as a PRU to achieve enrolment numbers. Once the referred "students" had trashed the building. nobody wanted it.

16-18 year olds are supposed to be at college or doing an apprenticeship. Therefore anything they earn at that age is a bonus as theoretically they should be subsidised by their parents

Someone made a similar point further back, but does that therefore mean that you should earn less if you are married because your husband is subsidising you? Your family situation should not dictate how much you are paid, only the job you are doing.

Quite agree, berlin, but I think that the idea of marriage and parental responsibility on teens is imposing duty too young. It obviously happens and some times works out fine , but the price is usually paid by the female partner who ends up as the easily dismissed caring person.