Gen Z kid at the parts counter changed my mind about union apprenticeships

I was grabbing a new disconnect switch at Platt in Austin last Tuesday and this 19 year old apprentice was arguing with his foreman on the phone about using rigid instead of EMT for a outdoor run. Foreman was pissed but the kid was right about the moisture rating and he held his ground without being disrespectful. It got me thinking about how these younger kids actually understand code better than half the old heads I know because they study for their test instead of just going off what they were shown 20 years ago. Has anyone else noticed the new generation being weirdly good at catching code violations that seasoned guys miss?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_angela2mo ago

Damn, I used to roll my eyes at young apprentices but this actually makes sense.

henry6041mo ago

Tbh I'm not sure if that 40% number is as big of a deal as people are making it. Like yeah failure rates dropping is good but what was the failure rate before? If it was 5% now it's 3% that's not exactly earth shattering. Also some of these old school apprenticeships sound nice in theory but I bet they waste a ton of time too. Ngl I've seen guys who shadowed for a year and still couldn't do basic stuff because nobody actually taught them anything useful.

evan_campbell2mo ago

wait they actually let you apprentice under that old method where you shadow for like a year before touching anything serious? @the_angela i always thought that was just some romanticized version of trades from way back. hearing those numbers about failure rates dropping 40% is wild though. makes me wonder how many projects i accidentally screwed up early on because nobody walked me through the basics first.