LEARNING CURVE FOR APPRENTICES

Written by Brydon (@bry.keys on Instagram)

My first week of being an apprentice I was running communications and AV cables across a 20 meter length roof space. It being my first week I was unprepared, unequipped and unsure of the task itself, but I still accepted the job and did what my tradesman told me to do. As I was traversing the roof space I only had a small hand held torch, and used that to plan and navigate my trips to and from in order to pull runs of cable to multiple AP points in the space. After about 3 successful runs I began to become more confident and speed up, while in the process losing a bit of focus.

This lead to me missing and tripping over a 6 inch tall stud securing the projector to the roof tiles. It being brittle roof tiles I fell through the ceiling being saved by a central beam that the roof tiles were secured to, but left both my legs hanging through the ceiling. I left the situation with minor injuries but my mentality took the bigger hit with embarrassment and disappointment.

The moral of the story I’m trying to get past is for every new apprentice to take your time! Ask for a better light, eg head torch, flood lighting if possible.

It doesn’t matter how good you think you’re getting at a job, you’re only the apprentice, it’s good to have initiative, we all have a lot to learn before we can be the best we can be.