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Apprentices 'being failed by school curriculum' says Peterhead employer


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By Rachel BellBBC Scotland reporter
Apprentice at Score Image captionScore is a major employer of young apprentices

Scotland's largest private employer of apprentices has claimed the school curriculum is failing young people.

Conrad Ritchie, the managing director of Peterhead-based engineering firm Score International, said he had seen a decline in the basic numeracy and literacy skills of school leavers.

The company now funds private maths classes for many new recruits, ahead of entrance exams for apprenticeships.

The Scottish government said it was committed to teaching the right skills.

Score - one of Peterhead's biggest employers - has been operating in the north east of Scotland since 1982.

Prospective apprentices must sit a basic aptitude test before joining the six-year programme.

Half are said to have been failing.

Conrad Ritchie Image captionManaging director Conrad Ritchie described the situation as "very concerning"

Mr Ritchie told BBC Scotland: ''We've been taking on apprentices now for over 30 years.

"We currently have 300 in our programme and over the last 10 years, since the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), we've seen a steady decline in their basic grasp of numeracy.

"It's very concerning for a company like ours.''

In the last four years, the firm has taken on about 200 apprentices.

'Like a foreign language'

It has paid for 120 young people to receive extra classes to help their basic skills.

The classes focus on basic numeracy, such as fractions, areas and perimeters.

About half of those young people are now employed by the company.

Ian Barbour, the senior technical trainer at Score, said of the recruits: ''Some of them are not able to do fractions, some of the time. Not all the time.

"Some of them find it quite difficult. They find maths just like a foreign language.''

Shaun Philip and Alanah Hepburn speaking to BBC Scotland's Rachel Bell Image captionShaun Philip and Alanah Hepburn spoke to BBC Scotland's Rachel Bell

Two apprentices - Alanah Hepburn and Shaun Philip - took part in the maths classes before sitting their entrance exams.

Shaun said: "To start off with, it was definitely a challenge because I felt I wasn't up to the level of what I should know by this point."

Alanah said: "You're touching up on fractions and stuff that you haven't touched on for a long time.

"Like from primary school because in secondary school you kind of move on from that because you're expected to know that kind of stuff."

'Skills they will need'

Managing director Mr Ritchie - a supporter of the Scotland in Union campaign - insisted his concerns were not "politically motivated".

He said: ''As a company we have concerns, and we want acceptance that there is a problem.

"We're urging the Scottish government to engage with us, to get round the table to try and fix the problem."

Peterhead Academy Image captionAberdeenshire Council praised Peterhead Academy's improvement

A Scottish government spokesperson said: "Through our STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) education and training strategy we are committed to ensuring children and young people are equipped with the STEM skills they will need in later life.

"Employers also have an important role to play here, working with schools to enrich STEM learning and inspire young people to follow careers in these areas.

"The development of school-employer partnerships is a key part of our Developing the Young Workforce strategy and our wider STEM strategy."

Strongly refute claims

Vincent Docherty, the head of education at Aberdeenshire Council - himself a former maths teacher - said: "While we wouldn't normally be drawn into a debate concerning the national curriculum, it's important to highlight Peterhead Academy's attainment record has been improving steadily for the last five years across a number of subjects, including maths.

"The percentage of S4 pupils attaining literacy and numeracy at National 5 was 8% above the national average in 2018.

"I would strongly refute any suggestion that the majority of young people are leaving less equipped and without the basics.

"Fractions, for example, are a part of the curriculum from age three onwards."

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Could this be due in part to the numbers now going to university? Leaving those not so good at numeracy to fill apprenticeships? Before our resident know it all comes on and accuses me of defending poor teachers, Scottish Government etc, I’m only asking if that could be the case. When I left school very few went to university and others with decent qualifications from school took apprenticeships on.

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Joiners, Plumbers and Sparks tell me it’s very hard to get a decent apprentice. They reckon one out of eight or nine is any good although part of the problem is attitude as well as education.

 

One joiner boss taught an apprentice multiplication tables. The owner of a removal and storage firm taught an autistic to read and write. 

 

Why could schools not do that?

 

Perhaps because teachers are about to go on holiday for seven weeks to add to their Easter fortnight, with another week in October and Christmas holidays to come plus half-terms. Teachers deserve holidays because they work hard in an exhausting and at times a soul -destroying job but they get too many. 

 

No doubt there will be teachers who will apply themselves to their own educational development and others who will supervise children on visits to Paris and Rome and take them on adventure trips though none I know personally will be doing that.

 

Four or five weeks would be enough in the summer.

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7 minutes ago, BEARGER said:

Could this be due in part to the numbers now going to university? Leaving those not so good at numeracy to fill apprenticeships? Before our resident know it all comes on and accuses me of defending poor teachers, Scottish Government etc, I’m only asking if that could be the case. When I left school very few went to university and others with decent qualifications from school took apprenticeships on.

No it's simply a case of falling education standards due to 10 years of SNP incompetence.

 

Score purchased part of the old Petehead Prison turned part of it into a very successful museum but also had to install classrooms to teach maths because the Scottish education system failed to.

 

Vincent Docherty is a rabid Tim and Republican/Nationalist just like his brother Tony the Aberdeen Assistant Manager.

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Perhaps Scottish education has reached a state where teachers are now required to do so many non-teaching duties that the time devoted to teaching and the powers to enforce discipline have been so eroded that the inevitable consequence is the failure we see all around us. As a mature student I share a university course with about 30 young student, some of whom can’t construct a simple sentence properly, so I wouldn’t go thinking universities are immune to the Scottish disease. I know some lecturers who are quite demoralised at having to award pass marks for submissions that verge on illiterate. Like much else in Scotland, education has been so politicised and so interfered with by inept politicians that many able professionals have long since left.

 

Btw, the long summer holidays are for the benefit of pupils, not teachers. The vast majority of teachers are back doing preparation at least two weeks before the pupils. We had longer summer holidays when I was a boy and no one lost out because of it. Look elsewhere for the problem.

Edited by Bill
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BG is right in that many who in the past went from school to learn a trade are now being wasted on useless college courses. Apprenticeships should be promoted as being at least as valuable as a degree.

 

A lot of graduates with professional entry qualifications come out of University, their heads stuffed with knowledge but in limited areas only and they are almost incapable of applying that knowledge to any situation that deviates from normal. 

 

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14 minutes ago, forlanssister said:

No it's simply a case of falling education standards due to 10 years of SNP incompetence.

 

Score purchased part of the old Petehead Prison turned part of it into a very successful museum but also had to install classrooms to teach maths because the Scottish education system failed to.

 

Vincent Docherty is a rabid Tim and Republican/Nationalist just like his brother Tony the Aberdeen Assistant Manager.

You may be correct well at least partially. When I was at school there were some pupils who where just not academic (trying to put this diplomatically), they had no chance of getting an apprenticeship and went on to semi and non skilled jobs. Nowadays some who in the past had an apprenticeship go on to university or college leaving the not so academic to fill apprenticeship needs.

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31 minutes ago, Scott7 said:

One joiner boss taught an apprentice multiplication tables. The owner of a removal and storage firm taught an autistic to read and write. 

 

Why could schools not do that?

Teachers nowadays have to deal with so many diverse nationalities,with many not having any grasp of the English language,it is not surprising that standards are falling IMO.

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3 minutes ago, BEARGER said:

You may be correct well at least partially. When I was at school there were some pupils who where just not academic (trying to put this diplomatically), they had no chance of getting an apprenticeship and went on to semi and non skilled jobs. Nowadays some who in the past had an apprenticeship go on to university or college leaving the not so academic to fill apprenticeship needs.

The obsession with universities and colleges is utterly baffling and is a huge part in the skills shortage not just in Scotland but UK wide. We used to have an excellent Technical College in Fraserburgh which served the need of the locality now its churning out hairdressers and beauticians by the bucket load, "positive destinations" right enough eh?

 

A few years back my nephew attended the college full time as part of  his OPITO apprenticeship such was the quality of their education that OPITO made the entire years intake return to college the following year to redo what they were supposed to have done the previous year.

 

Education in Scotland is totally f*&ked its what happens when the education policy is based on a soundbite and the children of Europes billionaires and millionaires are given a free education at the expense of Scottish children.

 

Remind me again just whose "number one priority is education"?   

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3 minutes ago, forlanssister said:

Education in Scotland is totally f*&ked its what happens when the education policy is based on a soundbite and the children of Europes billionaires and millionaires are given a free education at the expense of Scottish children.

 

Remind me again just whose "number one priority is education"?   

In general, people think they know more about education than most other professions. Largely this seems to be because we have all been to school we think we all understand what goes on there, which of course isn't the case. hence the willingness to create and respond to the simplistic soundbites you rightly mention. The classic being too many holidays.

 

Unfortunately, a government that has little vested interest in being judged by the aspects of life most important to ordinary people has been only too willing to be directed by such soundbites, while devoting its energies entirely to the politics of protest. Education was never a priority of the SNP, any more than policing or healthcare. It's far more interested in having Gaelic on ambulances and police cars, 'free' prescriptions or discriminating against English university entrants.

 

It's a sorry shambles from the SNP but far more worrying is the willingness of so many voters to accept it like lemmings.

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