Education & Reference Should I do a trade?

[anon7909]

I'm 18 years old and doing year 12 at the moment but I'm just not cut out for school, I feel like I'm being strangled when in the class room and I want to drop out.

I'm guessing that a trade is the last chance I have of making something of myself, should I go down that path?

If so I have a few questions:

- Which trade should I be looking at? I'm not a very smart person so things like electrician trades would end up a failure.

- Is it going to be hard to find an apprenticeship for someone that will be 19 in 3 months?

- How long would it take to find one and where should I look?

- Do I need to do a pre-apprenticeship course?

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[Cohzee]

http://www.australianapprenticeships.gov.au/

Don't drop out of school unless you have something to go straight into.

Best bet is to talk to a career advisor.

 

[bunsen burner]

I'm not a very smart person

May I suggest the Army or Police Force as viable options?

 

[Rioli magic]

I'm 18 years old and doing year 12 at the moment but I'm just not cut out for school, I feel like I'm being strangled when in the class room and I want to drop out.

Finish it.

I'm guessing that a trade is the last chance I have of making something of myself, should I go down that path?

You're a kid, you've got ages and plenty of options, don't stress but it's not a bad option. Just do something you want to do.

If so I have a few questions:

- Which trade should I be looking at? I'm not a very smart person so things like electrician trades would end up a failure.

Plumber is a good option.

- Is it going to be hard to find an apprenticeship for someone that will be 19 in 3 months?

No, finishing high school may work in your favour.

- How long would it take to find one and where should I look?

- Do I need to do a pre-apprenticeship course?

No, but if you can't find an apprenticeship it would be a productive way to fill your time while you look.

Thank you very much in advance.

Answers in bold^^.

 

[anon7909]

@Rioli thanks for the helpful post.

Btw it's easy for you guys to say "finish school" but you have no idea what some people go through before considering it.

 

[bunsen burner]

Unless you're unbelievably thick, you should finish school. People aren't just saying it. There's every chance you will regret it if you don't finish.

 

[hayes]

In all honesty if school isn't for you and there's no reason for you to be there then get out. I know plenty of people who left in year 10 or 11 to do a trade and are doing very well for themselves now. For them and maybe you there was no point of them being at school if they had their eyes on a trade. I finished year 12 and I'm doing a trade and year 12 didn't help at all. It didn't hurt, but you get the point.

School isn't for everybody. If you're certain that's what you want to do then get out. If you aren't then it might be worth finishing year 12 just in case or just for the fact year 12 is a really enjoyable year.

 

[Black Flag]

what interests you? do whatever you need to do to pursue that.

if nothing interests you things get complicated lol.

 

[Mooster7]

I'm 18 years old and doing year 12 at the moment but I'm just not cut out for school, I feel like I'm being strangled when in the class room and I want to drop out.

Please take this as the nice and very sincere advice as I'm offering it:

Your first 12 years of school are a training ground. Not just educationally, but socially, and with respect to self discipline in putting up with stupid shit. You're learning to be someplace every day and having finished the work you were supposed to do. You might have a dick for a teacher and you have to deal with that and still do your work. It's very simple.

If you feel stifled or "strangled" and cannot complete something as simple as year 12 in school, then what you're "not cut out for" is a real regular job. The real world job market is tougher than school. You have to become tougher than a year 12 student to succeed and you're not. Furthermore, in the grown-up world, no one will give a shit if you feel strangled and 'not cut out' for this or that. You have a job to do and bills to pay. Your "feelings" about that mean nothing.

If you "drop out" of your job, you will go hungry and homeless. If you "drop out" of the job because you don't like it and go running back to mom & dad (or some other safety net) then you would be nothing more than a little kid. A kid who belongs finishing his school without whining about it.

Quite being such a soft pussy. Finish school.

Oh, and yes, the OP is probably a troll but it's still good advice to anyone.

Peace,

 

[Poseidon]

Nice work Mooster.
Let's be honest, High School is piss easy. It's simply dumb logic to think that if you can't handle high school classes that you can handle a full-time job. Besides, you'll probably end up with bosses and supervisors who are bigger twats than any teacher you ever had (I assume arseh*le teachers are the reasons a lot of kids hate school)

 

[WeetBixKid]

@Rioli thanks for the helpful post.

Btw it's easy for you guys to say "finish school" but you have no idea what some people go through before considering it.

How long did that take you to write out? You spelt "considering" correctly & put the apostrophe in "it's" in the right place. That's more than plenty of people can do believe it or not. Take a bunch of history & english classes, double major them if you have to, & at least get your Y12. Then work it out from there.

 

[Igloo]

Definitely not your "last chance" as you put it. You are still a teenager, you have a LONG time to do what you want. I know a guy in his 40's who has only now changed his career, and he has no experience at all in what he wants to do now, but he is doing what he needs to do.

You might as well just finish year 12. It's only like 8 more months until year 12 finishes, which isn't long at all. The year I did year 12 was the hardest of my life so far, but I still did it. It's always going to be helpful to just have that completion there, whether you use it or not.

Do whatever interests you. Don't think you aren't smart enough to do something that you want to do, because that is a pretty pathetic way to view things. A trade isn't the be-all and end-all for people who aren't the brightest.

So yeah, just do whatever you need to do to get where you want to be.

 

[The Passenger]

@Rioli thanks for the helpful post.

Btw it's easy for you guys to say "finish school" but you have no idea what some people go through before considering it.

man don't take this the wrong way but 90% of kids struggled through year 12. yeah some more than others and i don't know you're exact circumstances, but at this point with half a dozen or so months to go, you might as well just finish it.

if you were going to drop out of school, you should do it at the end of year 10 or 11 with a clear path that you like this trade, (or at least tolerate it) and i'm going to do an apprenticeship in it and i'm going to go from there.

obviously from your post you're not sure what sort of trade you are interested in. so by the time you've decided, then you've got to actually sort the apprenticeship out and get accepted (although i think that is reasonably easy) it'll probably be april or may, which is even closer to the end. i don't know of the apprenticeship acceptance process but it's also entirely possible they only take in people for the start of each semester (february and july)... if that's the case then by the time the next chance to start one is up, you'll be within 2-3 months of finishing. really not worth ditching school by that stage.

as mooster said, if you are feeling strangled and what not, at this stage you're best bet is to just suck it up and even treat it as a bit of practise for post school because 95% of people will find themselves at some point in a job that they dislike and feeling strangled by a w***er for a boss whom you're working for making him richer and richer while you seem to get nowhere.... but because they have a mortgage to pay, kids to feed, themselves to feed, or a drug habit they want to feed or whatever expenses out there, sometimes you just gotta suck it up for a while to something comes along.

and if you finish year 12 you will just have a few more options at the end of the year. who knows, you never know, you may get enough of a mark to get into uni. some of the marks people got in my year 12 i thought was a massive turn up.

even if you get a shit year 12 mark, you'll still be half a chance to get accepted as a mature age student a few years down the track. but that's almost no chance if you haven't even finished year 12.

judging from your post you don't sound like you enjoy studying, but even still i would highly recommend considering uni at some stage if you can get in. it's nothing like school. it's a lazy lifestyle for people who want to have sex, drink a lot, study a few hours a week just to keep on top of things then become complete hermits for 3 weeks a semester when exams are on.

you can do an apprenticeship for 2013, or if you don't see a trade you like, just go and get some menial job somewhere - work in a factory, call centre, retial job, get a bar job...

a lot of these options become much harder to achieve in the next couple of years if you dropped out now, in fact even getting an apprenticeship might be a battle if they see you dropped of school with 8 months to go. it's not a great look.

getting into uni is basically not possible without a year 12 as far as i know, unless you've got some freak portfolio in the field you want to study.

and if you want to get a job, no matter how menial it is, obviously bosses don't get too excited about 19 year olds who dropped out of year 12.

tl;dr version:
- you're that close to finishing year 12 now you might as well just get it done
- a few more immediate options open up by finishing
- don't get too bogged down in you're year 12 mark, just getting through is good

 

[The Passenger]

Oh, and yes, the OP is probably a troll but it's still good advice to anyone.

possibly, but it would be a rather strange subject to troll about

 

[Vecto]

Yeh go for your life you are allowed to trade as much as you like before the season starts. just look out because after round 1 you can only do a certain amount of trades.

hope this helps

 

[stmookeyj]

Finish school and concentrate on getting decent marks in Maths and English. Most trades would definitely need something a little greater than competence in Maths (adding up, measuring).

If you're passionate about getting a trade then by all means. Just be prepared to be patient and the jobs will surely open up.

 

[Gough]

You are eighteen with your whole life ahead of you, don't feel that you have to make decisions on your future right now. Too many kids at your age are pushed into making choices that may effect their whole life. Chances are by the time you hit 30 you will be a different person to the one you are now.
Probably should finish school though.

 

[JimDocker]

Speak to a counselor about doing a workplace placement while still at school.

I am not sure what the situation is like in Melbourne, but I signed on 2 apprentices who are doing their first year right now that both came to me via school based work experience schemes.

One was with a company that arranged students to do work in the mining industry. I have nothing to do with mining but the system offered placement in any value adding industry. ie, I operate a sheet metal company and metal is made from ore which is mined !!!! He came to do 2 weeks work experience and I offered him an apprenticeship.

The other kid did 1 day a week traineeship at my place and 4 days a week at school. He got to finish his year 12 while getting credits towards his apprenticeship.

I left school after year 10, but that was in 1981 and did a pre apprenticeship in 1982. That stood me in good stead, but I still had to work as a junior TA for the whole of 1983 as there was a recession. (Then Brian Burke and Bob Hawke took over WA and Australia and all was fixed !!!!! )

I often regret not staying on at school to do year 12 and see where I would have ended up, but a trade has served me well also.

The world is full of different people and all have different needs, wants and aspirations. There are many paths one can take. Do not make any rash decisions.

 

[Taylor]

My adult life so far has been about coming to terms with the fact that most people are stupid and selfish.

You need to get out and work a really shit job on the weekends, I mean really shit. Carry heavy stuff around for a ******** who doesn't appreciate your efforts because he can have five other guys taking your spot the next morning. That way, if you don't finish school and your trade falls over, you know exactly what you'll be doing for the rest of your life and it might motivate you a bit.

I worked in a warehouse while I was at uni, they had a problem in my field of study, my manager told me I was only good for sweeping and to shut up. I watched them piss money up against the wall trying to fix a problem I knew the solution to.

You need to feel worthless. Nothing makes me try harder than remembering that, it's where I'd end up if I didn't care and didn't have a brain and that's not good enough for me.

Go find your own shit job. Do it, then tell your mates to do it too because there are a lot of kids telling me how they deserve a pat on the back for getting to work on time.

Good luck. That wasn't supposed to sound like a bitter dad lecturing his son, try and read it like it came from a shell shocked soldier speaking from behind a thousand yard stare..

 

[Dazb86]

I'd advise you to stay in school and finish year 12. It will leave you more options in the long run.

If you aren't sure which trade would suit you there is a course at Holmesglen tafe that takes you through the various trades for two weeks at a time. By the end of that you should have some sort of idea of what you'd like to do.

Pre apprenticeships are a help. You come into the trade not completely useless and less likely to be treated like an idiot for your first year. It also shows you are committed to the trade. If you take the pre-app seriously you'll often end up with work at the end of your course that the tafe will organise for you. These jobs are usually for large companies which pay well after you finish your apprenticeship.

 

[Gabbie]

Speak to a counselor about doing a workplace placement while still at school.
I am not sure what the situation is like in Melbourne, but I signed on 2 apprentices who are doing their first year right now that both came to me via school based work experience schemes.

One was with a company that arranged students to do work in the mining industry. I have nothing to do with mining but the system offered placement in any value adding industry. ie, I operate a sheet metal company and metal is made from ore which is mined !!!! He came to do 2 weeks work experience and I offered him an apprenticeship.

The other kid did 1 day a week traineeship at my place and 4 days a week at school. He got to finish his year 12 while getting credits towards his apprenticeship.

I left school after year 10, but that was in 1981 and did a pre apprenticeship in 1982. That stood me in good stead, but I still had to work as a junior TA for the whole of 1983 as there was a recession. (Then Brian Burke and Bob Hawke took over WA and Australia and all was fixed !!!!! )

I often regret not staying on at school to do year 12 and see where I would have ended up, but a trade has served me well also.

The world is full of different people and all have different needs, wants and aspirations. There are many paths one can take. Do not make any rash decisions.

That scheme is very popular in my part of the world. I know of a few kids doing a trade while still going to high school.

I don't have kids but do Year 12's do work experience? Maybe see if you can get some experience with a plumber or whatever. Talk to school counsellor about your options. What about looking into what trades are available at TAFE colleges, e.g. not just "butch" trades, what about Chef?

Back in the days of black and white TV anyone who did a trade started at around 15/16 and by the time they were 20 were fully qualified. Also it was easier then to get into a trade where now it seem you need to know someone.

A friend of mine is kicking goals in the ex-husb (she gets on ok with him) and son-in-law stakes. Ex is an electrician and son-in-law a plumber. When you have your own place and are paying your way you will understand why I think she's laughing.

 

[Kyptastic]

School based apprenticeships are probably the way to go. You still do the majority of Year 12 and have one day working in your chosen trade (as long as you can organise with someone to do it). You still have your Year 12 to fall back on, it can give you a taste of what to expect working in that job and can give you some contacts for when you eventually go into full time work.

 

[Igloo]

I wish it was still like the old days, where you finish school and they tell you what job to do

 

[Cynic]

Gengar > Haunter

Always trade

 

[Black Diamond]

Definitely finish. Year 12 is hard for everybody in one way or another. You will be better for it.

And yes, a trade is a good option.