Best apprenticeship to do

He has indicated he wants some in a trade line. He is not interested in indoor/ office work.

Trades are fairly limiting.

Currently heading into my third year pipefitting apprenticeship at the moment i was working with a fairly large reputable company until Christmas but left as i wasnt getting enough time on the tools im with a smaller local firm now and ive learned more this month and got more hands on experience in the trade than i did in my time with the last crowd. I initially wanted to do plumbing myself but came across the pipefitting one at the time and went for it and have no regrets about it yet. Its a relatively new trade as the apprenticeship was only launched in 2016 and theres not a massive amount of lads taking it up either from what i gather. Most lads at it these days are either qualified plumbers or fabricators so youd be pulling from a fair pool of experience if you went down this route. Youd be fairly handy after it and can branch out into a few things after it. You can do welding courses where after 6 months you might be qualified to weld pipe but youd have little experience after it and most lads want lads to fit and weld altough the welding course is a stspping stone starting out.

Both big companies and small companies have their pros and cons, most likely if you go to a big company i.e suir/mercury/jones youll be sent to Intel it will be handy enough there the moneys good but when youre out of youre time or work dries up up there youll be institutionalised and find it hard to work anywhere else for a while after.

Every tom dick and harry seems to be doing electrical or plumbing these days and the wait times are massive for off the job training regardless of trade but those two are worst affected, i myself was told if i was extremely lucky id be called this summer but realistically it will be December or January before im called ill have been about 30 months in phase1 by theb. Thats something to be aware of for the moment theres a lot of bodies ahead of you in the queue at the moment

If i was to go back again i would probably go for the MAMF (Mechanical Automation and Maintenence Fitting) as its a much broader area of work you could go down the route of maintainence on a factory close to home or you could end up working off shore on an oil rig or windfarm or even keeping a fleet of ships ticking over. Plenty of nixxers with any mechanical trades too but would not reccomend mechanicing.

My main bit of advice for you at the moment is get away from the farm for a while itll be there when you come back. Go work in England for the summer or even Scandinavia or The Continent plenty of work going on up there and open youre mind to new things, i regret not doing thar when i was 20, i went to England farming that was middling at best calving cows outdoors in all weather September to November i should have gotten a train for London after that but instead i came home to slobber around calving cows again and I had to travel the whole way to New Zealand to realise how the other half lives

You do not need to take a day off they are online. My son was working 10 years ago part-time. My wife collected his results and she dropped them.out to him.

Daughter got 589 points in the leaving as is considering doing going the apprentice route as she won't get accommodation in college or will she get a grant. Not a pile of stuff out there for Girls to do. She's currently working in Dunnes stores so may continue there for the next while.

Good mix of subject but mainly maths stuff she liked, she wanted to do electronics but we are an hour and a half from UL, no bus in west Clare so it's staying away from home is the only option. We are not even high earners just both parents working but really only getting by.

No grant + no accom doesn't really inspire someone to do the college route

Ya Clare is one of those places badly served by third level. There is not third level institute in Ennis.

Limerick was not the most expensive for third level but prices have increased substantially over the last 3-4 years. Not sure what the campus accomodation costs are now. There is a lot of off campus accomodation but quality can be very poor

The mamf apprenticeship is a great one. Mechanical automation maintenance fitter. Its broad enough so when qualified your competent in many many fields. 27 years one myself and never out of work.

And as for the heavy donkey work, them days are mostly gone now with the health and safety side of things.

Or electrician

Be aware of color blindness, problem for these trades.

Apprenticeship with nearby ESB, Moneypoint, might be worth checking out with the above in mind.

+ 1 I think this is a fantastic way to go and if I was back again I'd definitely have done an apprenticeship rather than go to college. If she gets into a multinational they may well fund her to continue onto degree level in engineering as she clearly has the ability.

There is an apprenticeship in manufacturing engineering which is quiet broad and lots of great companies are running that. Bother brother here qualified from ucd as a manufacturing engineer, worked his way up then and earning 6 figures per year now.

Friend of mine went back at nearly 30 to do MAMF apprenticeship and has gotten into a pharmaceutical now, 66k salary and he says the heaviest tool he lifts is a no. 8 spanner. Definitely wouldn't be set on the college route particularly if interested in electronics.

College is fairly critical to progress in those pharmaceutical companies though.

I'd argue its of more value than an apprenticeship.

Every apprentice wants to turn white collar eventually

All aspects of your last paragraph are right on the button. Seeing it even with a lot of the engineering degrees lads are qualifying in in the last few years. Pure muck. Has really diluted down the value of a degree to be honest

That bloody HR/PR crap, i was working on a project a while back and if you were to believe the companys social media you would think everything was running like clockwork while in fact it was just an organised shitshow. Non qualified lads down from The North getting top dollar and not even capable of reading a tape, massive hours, a higher up from said company kicking a higher up from the clients side, an absolute prick in H&S who was so useless in life all he could amount to was going around hanging lads actually doing a bit and then despite all the talk of health and safety and great working conditions Saturdays and any time after 5 during the week was a free for all do what ye like just dont get hurt. Im sure HR has some part to play but again i reckon most of it is wishy washy stuff like you said.

€1000/week take home isnt bad going either to be fair ill be on the fringes of it in a few months as a third year its the most earning potential ill have had in this country ever. Everyones told me youll quickly adjust youre lifestyle to what wage youre on however i saw a fells on Tik Tok last week who was saying that was the biggest downfall of fellas going off to FIFO work as there wage more than doubles the FIFO work dries up and you end up being used to the high wage lifestyle living off a standard wage again.