Trainees no longer ready for workplace

[Kukcoo]

I used to love having trainees allocated to us. They were so enthusiastic, hardworking and a breath of fresh air. It was great to see them develop.

The last few have acted like they're doing us a favour if they turn up by lunchtime because they could have called in sick for nothing. Seriously can't be bothered doing the basics and expect everything to be done for them. Little respect for anyone else and the huge support they're being given. Won't meet a deadline, because this would affect their mental health and basically impinges on their human rights.

They all still expect to qualify and will be passed by the provider unless they do something truly dangerous, but they won't have the real experience or skills to join the workplace and get on with a job.

I'm barely even a different generation, but wouldn't have dreamed of acting the way they do when I was learning and felt I had to prove myself. AIBU to expect standards to be the same?

Yes, I’ve noticed on those threads that there is a lot of use of “we” rather than he/she/they e.g. “we’ve heard back from the college now”; “we’ve firmed Exeter” and so on. There is no “we” about it - your child is applying as an independent soon-to-be adult. Your role as a parent is to support them, not get so involved that you end up announcing “we’ve got in”!

This is ridiculous, Dd’s (private) school basically tells parents that too many abscences will result in their kids place being withdrawn. If you can’t be arsed to come then they can’t be arsed to hold a place for you. Theres a big focus on parents doing their bit.

Like a previous poster I also know a woman in her 50s who was recruited a couple of years ago as BA cabin crew! Newly divorced, grown kids, working hard but having a fantastic time and, as you say, her work ethic and customer-facing skills and reliability are appreciated and well-rewarded.

Yes -I know a civil servant who has managed to get yo work entirely from home (the rest of the team office based) because if his OCD makes it difficult for him to leave the house yo go to work. (But not for his numerous hobbies)

Yes 100% soft parenting and making things too easy for them. They pay £30 a week house keeping.. and get everything for that. We were not brought up like that we had tough love and all have good jobs and own houses. This soft parenting is doing them no favours whatsoever.. this young generation are so different though.. I was out every night socialising but still at work on time everyday. This lot don’t leave their bedrooms.. never go out.. (other than a couple of shifts per per week) how boring! Totally alien to my youth.

Yes that stuff is disturbing. I see it all the time at open days - the parents asking question after question and the kid, the one who is actually going to be doing the course, stands there with a blank impression.
I do sometimes joke to them that we accept mature students too. But they’re asking about assignments, contact hours, all sorts. I only went to one open day when I was in 6th form and I went on my own. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone come on their own for years now I think about it. It’s always mum, dad, sometime some bored-looking younger siblings who are promised “it will be your turn soon” by the parents.
That’s why parents then expect us to know where their adult child is at all times and to inform them if they fail an assignment (which we can’t do).

Thank you so much for saying this.

That misconception has a lot to answer for.

I suspect a lot of these young people are actually missing ideal developmental windows because they aren't being allowed to have the necessary experiences.

There is a reason every functional society gives teens and even tweens big increases in real responsibility, and very firm social feedback.

@fiddleleaffig they will also find that becoming a YouTuber/TikTok star takes a lot of luck and hard work, in a different type of way. It's only the unusually good looking ones and the ones who are good at talking constantly and really churning out content who can make a living from it.

Some evidence for that statement would be helpful, and not just anecdote from this thread.

I also wonder if it's to do with the fact that schools involve parents for everything these days.

Back in the day, if you did something naughty in school, the school disciplined you and that was that. It had to be something pretty awful and/or repetitive to get the parents involved. Schools seem to want parents to helicopter these days. I used to get told about the most ridiculous thing my son did like throwing a rubber across the room. Whereas my school wouldn't have phoned parents unless you were eg pulling someone's hair out.

How many parents come on here and talk about punishing their child for something they did wrong in school? That doesn't breed resilience, it breeds resentment.

I also don't recognise the idea that teachers don't or can't discipline children. As I said above, the rules are ridiculously strict now, especially around things like uniform. Teachers should concentrate on teaching and learning. Also reduce homework so kids can do out of school activities and enhance their soft skills.

I actually don't think any of this is that hard.

The young people alongside my Ds are generally hard working and very conscientious, and know how to take responsibility.

Ds and all his friends did Scout activities that would have half MN (from the posts I see) having a conniption fit. Building shelters in woods and spending the night in them, planning 2 day hiking expeditions (with none of the spoon feeding that goes on with DoE Bronze) , learning proper first aid, all manner of skills and experiences.

One of them got a very good, very well paid entry level opportunity in a prestigious company that works for clients, had to deliver under pressure to big deadlines. His public sector, union member parents nearly scuppered his probation for supporting his naive understand that at 5pm you simply stop, down tools and leave, no matter how important it might be to spend 10 mins completing a vital task in the run up to a deadline.

There is a real balance to be struck between work ethic and fair employment conditions and so few seem to get it just right. Employers of employees.

I think the WFH culture is terrible for junior members. They lose so much general experience that you pick up just being around a team.

Parents are s nightmare.
I gave a detention to a boy who was poking a pen into and electrical socket instead of working in class.
The mother insisted that he would not sit it as it was too severe a punishment (3O mins).

Not teaching, but my OH is in retail, and he says over the last five years, the standard of new starters he's being sent has plummeted. A huge number of them are coming in with no concept at all of how to function in terms of getting into work on time, adhering to a shift schedule, and generally doing what they're asked. He's had a complaint made because management asked one of them to put their phone away whilst on the till because it wasn't "fair" (this is a strict company rule) He said he feels like he has to teach them how to "behave" before he even gets to think about teaching them how to do the actual job. He's had people's mums phoning in sick for them (a cold, not anything rendering them unable to make a call themselves) and friends being invited into the store for a cuppa and a chat whilst the member of staff was on duty! He started full time work at sixteen and it's shocked by the change in attitude.
On the up side, he's recently employed a guy who's 64 and apparently is utterly brilliant! n
Please note, this isn't a bash of youngsters in general, I know there are loads of great ones out there! It's just worrying to hear how things are going downhill in certain sectors, and makes me wonder how businesses will continue staffing.

This is true. My DDs teachers have all been lovely but we are held back at pickup time to talk about things I think are quite inconsequential ie DD had a meltdown (their words) because her cereal bar had a wrapper on it. If this happened at home I'd tell her to get over it but I've started removing the wrapper and putting it into tupperware for school because I don't want to be held back about it again 😂

There was a poster on here recently who said that she decides whether her child should have a detention, not the teacher. I think it was on a thread where the OP proposed to remove her child from all English lessons because she didn’t think they were up to scratch. It’s actually no wonder they grow up like this.

You just give it at lunchtime in that case, instead of after school.

At my school we had lunchtime detentions, you had to be REALLY bad to get the dreaded Friday night detention.

No / not going to pander to the parents by letting them happen at lunchtime. Parents are all aware of the behaviour policy when they chose the school (and it is fee paying so they do o actually choose it).

Ah, but then the parents accuse you of deliberately starving their child - ignoring the fact that the detention never, ever extends across the whole time.

Sending screenshots of their lunchtime canteen purchases never seems to elicit an apology for blindly believing the shite they're being told by their kids, though.

It’s so bizarre to me. Be proud and excited FOR your DC… but don’t claim it as your achievement. Children are not a project you can claim success as a parent. They are independent people in their own right. You are just there to guide and support them.

If you get too involved there is a real danger that they will end up on the wrong path in life for them and could end up unhappy and not living their own values that may be different to their parents.

My son only gets 25 mins at lunch time. As a teacher I used to hate lunch stuff, because I didn’t have enough time to do that, eat and set up for next lesson (during 30min lunch break).

New recruits are the same at our place- no communication skills (refusing to speak on the phone as it triggers them), no basic English skills (submit formal reports in text speak) and have the emotional resilience of a prawn cracker dipped in a cup of tea (one turned up with an emotional support snail)

Fml

Oh, the ignorance and arrogance of someone who wrongly believes theirs is the majority view. Obviously, nothing would be particularly hard if parents were all in agreement on what schools should and should not be doing, rather than constantly undermining and criticising other parents, other children, and whatever the school actually does do about anything.

I went to 3 university open days, spread across the UK on my own. I took the train. This was 20 years ago mind you (I paid uni fees)

My parents were interested and gave me the money for the trips but weren’t overly invested. I decided which universities to visit. I can’t remember a single parent at these open days- it was all young people. I’m sure some were driven there by parents but they didn’t come into the sessions. One uni even gave us accommodation for the night and dinner. It was great. We went out clubbing in the evenings at two universities. Wouldn’t have been able to do that with my parents!

How pathetic that no young people go to your open day alone any longer. Why has this changed so drastically in 20 years?!

The problem is that you are one of the few reasonable parents that think it is ridiculous to be told such things. For every reasonable parent like yourself there will be many more that expect/demand to be told and if they are not told will kick up a fuss either in person or by sending a complaint e-mail to the head . The extra admin this involves makes it easier just to tell parents. I have been screamed at by a parent before for not telling her that her child had an argument with her best friend the day before. The issue was dealt with swiftly and the children were friends again by the end of the day. The children told the parents all about it but there were still complaints that we had not told them personally. No comprehension at all that we have over 200 children in the school and if we told parents absolutely everything there would be queues around the block at hometime. Their child is the only one that matters and they are more important than anyone else.

Yeah I figured it was school policy rather than the teachers trying to be annoying.