Longterm sickness, need to resign

[Alldelicious]

DS is employed on a 4 year apprenticeship, coming to the end of the 3rd year. Started at 16.

His father was diagnosed with a terminal illness at the start of y2 and died towards the end of year2

DS did very well in year 1, but the wheels have come off since then. He kept telling us all was well, but it became apparent 4 months ago that he hadn't coped at all well and was seriously behind at work and college. Hadn't been turning up much for either. He has since been off sick since, engaging well with treatment, you can see a marked improvement. However, he reamind bery anxious at the prosect of returning and he has gained a good university place for September.

Therefore he needs to leave the job. They're still paying him in full, but the only contact he's had in this time is to chase up doctors certificates.

Obviously he let himself down, I feel that I let him down by not noticing sooner how badly he was coping, but I also feel that the employer has failed him. He was 17 when his "trauma" began, wfh (covid) with very little contact from work, his mentor went on ML and the replacement was allocated from another city, but wfh. They never met and hardly spoke. Company knew about the bereavement.

Then when things started going wrong, there doesn't appear to have been any response or support from employer or college. There have been staff changes at college too and no one seems to be able to tell us exactly what he has (or hasn't) passed.

The difference in the way this (large) company responded and my own employer did, for example, is huge.

So,

• He could just leave it, keep getting signed off until they stop paying him. This doesn't seem like a good lesson for him, but I kind of feel it's what they deserve after deserting a grieving 17/18 yo.

• We could have an attempt at negotiating some sort of settlement. I think this might be possible, they'll want to solve this problem as much as we do and they can't deny there have been failings albeit, DS has failed too.

• He could just give his 4 weeks' notice. This feels like the right thing to do, but I don't know if it sells him short. It's the straightforward option, but I do feel the company should have to face their own shortcomings too.

Obviously any cash he can secure now will help while he studies.

WWYD?

Move on? To another apprenticeship? Are you having a fucking laugh? Do you not realise how difficult that actually is to get it all arranged and sorted. It's not easy to just move on.
I'd stay and fight, and not go anywhere yet. Why hand in notice immediately?

He doesn't want another apprenticeship. He's already made plans to go to uni.

I think staying and fighting, finishing the apprenticeship might have been the best option (certainly financially), but he doesn't have the fight in him and wants a fresh start .

He has secured a place at a RG university to start next month, so he does need to leave the job. At 16 he was determined not to go to Uni, but that was probably his best option all along. He's a studious soul.

Oh ok.

The can any gas paid his salary and funded his apprenticeship thus far. They didn't see how much he was struggling, as you didn't either.
Just let him hand in 4 weeks notice asap so they can offer another young person a place.

He needs to resign then move on to the next chapter in life.

He has actually learned a valuable lesson, very early on in his working life - in 99.9% of cases you are just a number - and he’s been very lucky to have received sick pay.

Don’t give him false expectations of employers “caring”, having a “duty of care” is very different beast.

Hopefully he’ll find his feet in Uni, have the right support and get what he wants from it.

The difference between school and college/work is that college/work treat you like an adult and doing and submitting your work is on you. That's what I found, anyway.

You don't have a case here, they aren't there to molly coddle him.