Teachers get it handy!

[clonian]

https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/0815/1399798-schools-unfilled-teaching-posts/

No teachers to be got in Dublin. The country struggling for doctors & nurses. No decent car mechanics to be got either. A culture of taking a year out. What are our policy makers / civil servants at?

Yeah, mechanics very hard to get.

Always need them in a panic but fully booked for at least 2 weeks.

Nobody wants to do a trade anymore

Certain trades still have a decent amount of lads going into them out it's mostly electricians, joiners (more shopfitting than 10 years ago) and some plumbers. Still nowhere near enough to cover the ones retiring out of those trades.

Heavy trades are dying completely - bricklayers, plasterers, steelfixers & mechanics. You'll be doing well to find many of those lads under 35 on a site.

Difficult to understand. A student getting a fairly crappy degree with associated costs, starting out with a huge student loan. Compared to a 4 year apprenticeship in a required trade like blocklaying, car mechanic, welding etc. I would definitely see in monetary & employment terms bright days ahead for trades.

It's hard work and most young lads have no interest in that. And some of those trades are really well paid.

The construction industry has to take some of the blame. In the 80s & 90s teenagers at 15/16 laboured on sites during the summers and it gave you an idea what you could you do well. Big sites don't want anyone under 18 so most kids are pushed to stay in school/tech and then come out. Unless you're following family into something it's difficult for them to get in.

Also a lot of the men that did those heavy trades pushed their children away from the roles they did so have an easier life. I did a civil engineering degree and have worked in various sections of the industry over 20 years - I wouldn't encourage my lads (or girl) into that industry. It suits some but not others.

[Captain Scarlet]

A few of my mates starting moving out of the trades in their 30s and went for education and training because their knees and backs were in bits.
I'd say a lot of the older lads on sites can hardly move and don't want to see their kids in the same way.

[Milltown Row2]

As someone that went through the trades and family that have been in the 'outdoor' trades you'll not be physically fit to lay bricks at the age of 55, and you'll have not made enough money to retire either, mechanics (if you don't own your own business) get shafted by the owners in comparison to what the owner charges the client, and working 'homers' is doing a full weeks work and then working nights and weekends to make some extra cash.

Joiners as in site joiners its hard work too and unless its your business then you are just getting a wage, there wouldn't be sick pay or holiday pay, you aint in work you are not getting paid, and like a brick layer, you'll not be up and down ladders, scaffolding carry tools and so on when you are over 55.

Plumbers, christ its nearly impossible to get a recommended within in 6 months, a decent one is a dying breed and while they might have a longer working span to the other trades its still physically demanding, clients are demanding and these guys do end up working nights and weekends to get jobs done to get to the next job and so on. Sparks would fall into the same bracket.

Kids, in my experience don't want the hard work, they want the work from home, holiday and sick pay schemes, the pensions and would work harder at getting out of work than actually rolling the sleeves up and doing it.

That is based on me putting kids through apprenticeships for over 12 years, albeit 10  years since I've been doing it, but still have good friends in that line of work who say it hasn't changed too much, some centers actually pulled trades due to the fact that no one was taking them up after leaving school.

Schools have been encouraging pupils to stay on and get softer exams results and chase the college pathway, we have encouraged our kids to better educate themselves, so how do you you reverse the mindset of a student to go get an apprenticeship, getting up at the strake of dawn to head to some mucky building site were everyone is taking the piss outta ya!

[trailer]

Couldn't pay me to do a wet trade and anyone with an ounce of sense wants nothing to do with that kind of work. Technology and a change in building techniques will make a lot of trades obsolete. Only a matter of time till your architect gives the drawing to a machine and it stiches your wooden frame house together. More and more work will become automated. AI and automation, that's where it's all headed.

[Cavan19]

Couldn't pay me to do a wet trade and anyone with an ounce of sense wants nothing to do with that kind of work. Technology and a change in building techniques will make a lot of trades obsolete. Only a matter of time till your architect gives the drawing to a machine and it stiches your wooden frame house together. More and more work will become automated. AI and automation, that's where it's all headed.

This is the future now for building blocks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGBRA24qlEg

[marty34]

A few of my mates starting moving out of the trades in their 30s and went for education and training because their knees and backs were in bits.
I'd say a lot of the older lads on sites can hardly move and don't want to see their kids in the same way.

I'd say plastering would be the toughest of the lot. Plastering ceilings etc. All the pressure on one shoulder.

Lads must be wrecked by 40.

Teades people could be a lot harder to get in a year or two.

[armaghniac]

This is the future now for building blocks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGBRA24qlEg

And that video was 3 years ago!
An older experienced guy could supervise several of these machines on a bigger site and get a lot of work done and still work to 67. There will probably be simpler machines that can build a straight wall with a bit of guidance you'll be able to rent one of these to build a wall in your garden.

[LC]

Couldn't pay me to do a wet trade and anyone with an ounce of sense wants nothing to do with that kind of work. Technology and a change in building techniques will make a lot of trades obsolete. Only a matter of time till your architect gives the drawing to a machine and it stiches your wooden frame house together. More and more work will become automated. AI and automation, that's where it's all headed.

Not so sure re above, a lot of money being invested in modular in recent years but does not seem to be working out:

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2022/12/05/housing-association-shuts-in-house-modular-factories/

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2023/06/09/ilke-homes-put-up-for-sale-in-battle-to-save-modular-builder/

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2023/06/21/berkeley-backpedals-on-modular-factory-production/

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2023/07/27/lg-modular-forced-to-dismantle-new-bristol-homes/

[clonian]

Couldn't pay me to do a wet trade and anyone with an ounce of sense wants nothing to do with that kind of work. Technology and a change in building techniques will make a lot of trades obsolete. Only a matter of time till your architect gives the drawing to a machine and it stiches your wooden frame house together. More and more work will become automated. AI and automation, that's where it's all headed.

The shortage of those heavy wet trades have been pushing more buildings towards modular construction for apartments and hotels etc where you have the same set up being repeated constantly. It's harder to do that for the frame and facade of the building. A building we were working we had it all sorted for precast concrete construction for the entire structure and then it was to be clad in limestone slabs. Precast company then didn't have the resource to complete it because it took 2 other similar projects on - you still need men shovelling concrete somewhere as it is so they only have so much facility on the production line.

[Olly]

A lot of scarmongreling here. I've been trimming bushes for over 30 years and theres loads of that work if you want it. Bushes won't trim themselves and no drones can do it yet.

[marty34]

A lot of scarmongreling here. I've been trimming bushes for over 30 years and theres loads of that work if you want it. Bushes won't trim themselves and no drones can do it yet.

Always room for one more Olly.

[RedHand88]

A lot of scarmongreling here. I've been trimming bushes for over 30 years and theres loads of that work if you want it. Bushes won't trim themselves and no drones can do it yet.

Must have seen some amount of bushes in that 30 years.

[seafoid]

Back in the Joy

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2023/0908/1404290-enoch-burke/

[Itchy]

Back in the Joy

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2023/0908/1404290-enoch-burke/

He'll be there a long time as the courts good will before Christmas was thrown back in their face so why bother

[seafoid]

Back in the Joy

https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2023/0908/1404290-enoch-burke/

He'll be there a long time as the courts good will before Christmas was thrown back in their face so why bother

I think so too. The authorities have figured him out.