What’s going so wrong in our plumbing industry?

You would have to be there to believe it.

Two lads – mid thirties – having a conversation in the plumbers merchants. One had proudly announced he had only been in the industry four months, working as a sole trader yet was now Gas Safe registered.

The other lad laughed. He was massively experienced in his opinion. 3 years in the trade. 3 years??? Really. Is that even be considered as experience? He didn’t mention he was selling car parts for Volvo not long ago.

I know we have been in this industry since medieval times but really, here are two chaps going out and about, charging full whack and possibly haven’t much idea as to what they are doing.

Whatever happened to 4 year apprenticeships? Plus, buddying up with older, knowledgeable engineers?

Why do we have this desire to ‘fast track’ everything. Who is going to benefit? Not the customer, that’s for sure.

It’s no wonder this industry has such a poor reputation for honesty and competence. Hardly anyone knows what they’re doing. But they all want to charge top dollar for it.

There’s a real need to go back to encouraging lads to join a proper apprenticeship scheme and get some real skill back into this dying industry – before the skills are left forever.