Hi guys,
I'm feeling pretty shit on at the moment. I started my training around 6 years ago and have seen and heard so much crap it is unbelievable. It all started of well but after the first year of 1 block course and assignments it quickly changed. My contact at the ITO seemed to change monthly. Work took forever to be sent back or never came. Finally get to a second block course and find I'm missing work books an a whole lot of assignments that were never sent in the first place.
Next thing I know I am told my course is changing an I will be transitioned to the new system.
Next 4 or so years are total bullshit.
Ito and training facilitator hate each other and openly express it. We were doing certifying level assessments at 20+ pages (currently all changed and a quarter of the size an at baby level). Block courses were now 1 week long and absolutely un-organisied.
Anyway I take this shit for year after year and just feel sick about anything related to my apprentership. I passed my reg exam last year with flying colors and finished what was supposed to be my final block course. This year We had to go back and complete a whole lot of entry level shit like cutting and crimping pipe which somehow got missed by all of us. I told those f****ers I wasn't leaving until I was 100 percent signed off and signed off I was. That was in jan-feb, now it's September an I still don't have a national certificate. Month after month and a new excuse every time. They maintain I have finished but its bullshit like: waiting on nzqa results to show on their system, delay in transferring results from old system and now they may be having printing problems.
f**** our trade

Linkback: https://www.plumbers.nz/plumbing-gas-fitting-and-drainlaying-apprentice-support/3/feeling-bent-over/1537/

Hi Uncle, don't feel discouraged its not your f**k up.
I had a similar problem being drawn into the Manakau institute of technology debacle and being one of the last lot of V3 apprentices.
Go to your local M.P and have a chat and see if they can help.
Do all your correspondence in writing and request written responses. no wriggling out of that eh, write to the head of the ITO or Skills as they are now called and the head of any other of the involved partys. Keep it seemly and to the point.
Give them heaps, make it clear that your not happy and want resolution.
Remember that a apprenticeship is a binding contract between two partys.
Perhaps the Federation may be able to help.
Best of luck just dont give up or roll over....

Uncle PM me - I had a similar situation with one of my apprentices and I got his National Certificate results in three days after I threatened to go public with a few things.  If you want me to help you I can.  What is your employer doing for you?  If you want to contact me I am confident I can help - but I will need some information - what polytec, who is your contact at Skills etc.  Send me the info if you want, and let me know if you would like me to do what I can for you.

You should not have to wait this long.  Stephen Joyce's office will be very interested in your case as it is a barrier to you carrying on in the trade.  I agree, this is bullshit, but again I ask what your employer has being doing amongst all this.

I know I fronted at the polytec to see what was going on with the transitioning, I encourage employers to attend when the ITO are there to see what they are saying to your apprentices.  You should not be having to fight this alone, it is an industry battle.

Providing you have done all your stuff, there is NO justifiable reason why you do not have your National Certificate.

I find it ironic that those who like to employ apprentices (usually charged out at tradesman's rates), also implemented the "craftsman" ticket to retain people and prevent them from leaving and setting up in competition.....these same muppets.....just so happen to be involved(heavily, last time I checked) in running the apprentice scheme.....that keeps apprentices from becoming qualified. A sceptical person might think it a source of cheap labour. Either way they are either totally incompetent or dodgy as.

I feel for you mate, Uncle, gather you info and fellow apprentices and get in touch with the Federation, they will and can make a difference.

These goons got to go.

I agree Robbo - this system was impartial and defended apprentices.  We currently employ five, with a new one starting in a fortnight.  When we first took on apprentices Tubby Tolra came out and interviewed us to see if we were "worthy" of having an apprentice.  We had to prove we had the systems in place to look after them.  I see training apprentices as a privilege.  Sometimes they are bloody hard work, but more often than not the rewards are great (and I am not talking money here, I am talking about successfully getting a young person through their trade).  There is great celebration in the company when an apprentice passes their exams and gets qualified because it is a "team" effort to train them.

Employers have a moral, legal and ethical obligation to their apprentices - to fight for them if necessary with the ITO and the polytec, to fight (sometime WITH them) to ensure they put in the necessary effort and work to become competent tradespeople, and to at all times guard against them being belittled, treated unfairly in any way, or not given the proper training that they are due.  Apprentices are the future of the industry - they will only be as good as they are trained.   Currently the only voice they have is through the Federation - so Uncle, use that voice to help you in your predicament.  After four years or more of training you deserve more than to be working as a labourer.  Do not "accept" just sitting where you are.  It isn't good enough, and it isn't right.

Thanks Robbo    I have done some digging and I believe that there could be about half a dozen apprentices from Weltec that were on the transition scheme that have not yet got their National Certificates.  Uncle, have you completed your - working at heights course, your first aid course and your confined spaces course?  Are any of these holding up your National Certificate?  If not, then there appears to be NO reason why you have not got your NC, other than incompetence from the ITO or the polytec.  The results are verified quickly by NZQA once they receive them.

If none of these are the barrier, then contact the Federation, or myself by PM and let us help you.  If you do need to complete one of these courses then you should have got a voucher from Skills to do it at no cost to you - so you need to contact them and get yourself on one of these courses pronto.