College projects

[owenmcc]

I'll post some of the private work in a different thread. For now, here's some of the projects that were completed working towards an NVQ3 in bench joinery.

I'm sure the system will be familiar to many of you and I'd be very interested to here from those who completed apprenticeships in any era as to what their experience was.

As a few starting points I'd suggest from my experience:
1) Day release (one day a week with college, the rest at work) is not an effective way to learn, particularly practical skills. A short college day takes a while to get going, the time for set up, discussion and packing away eats into the very limited time for practical work. Also Wednesday is an entirely impractical day to lose in the week for the employer.
2) There isn't enough practical teaching (for whatever reason: cost, time, weighting of assessment).
3) The NVQ system is plagued with jargon. It's been written to apply the same words to every job and ends up being much harder work than necessary.
4) The employer and specifically the tradespeople you're placed with matter a lot. I'm very grateful to the efforts of those at my old company and at college for their efforts within the system.

That's enough of that, here are some pictures [hopefully]...

 

[xy mosian]

Hi Owen, I am no master craftsman, nor vastly experienced, but to me that body of work looks to be to an extremely high standard. Well done!

xy

 

[Tierney]

Very nice work.q

 

[Stimpi]

When I first saw your pictures I felt proud that the standard being taught is still high, but disappointed with your comments on time available for tuition. I did my City & Guilds in the 50's we did a full day release and three nights.

 

[owenmcc]

Thanks for the comments.

The standard of teaching was good, but actually with just one day a week the majority of pupils seemed to turn up with a laptop and head straight to a classroom to be helped with the NVQ paperwork, which is long and tiresome.

I came to an agreement that I'd do the paperwork at home and would therefore have the chance to take on some wood related tasks. The bay fronted window was the only college project required for the NVQ with other on site examples required for evidence.

It seems a shame that the paperwork element should comprise such a large amount of the course, when apprentices, employers and probably lecturers would all prefer to see more work done with wood.

Stimpi: maybe it's time to bring back the night class...

 

[Steve1066]

A nice selection of work. Well done

 

[The_Stig]

Very nice! A few years ago I did my C&G two evenings a week. We had to do the same thing but the bay window for some reason. A nice way to learn, get qualified and meet some nice folk along the way. We used to have a tutor who would make you do something week in week out until it stuck, there was no cutting corners which at the time felt harsh but it ensured that you didn't rush things.

 

[worsley947]

Hi owen which college are you studying at
dave