Re: Back in my day
"Where are the tea making trainees?"
In the 1980s our IT company took on students for a year as the work part of their Poly/Uni course. In our department they were given real work and responsibilities. One had to be offered a job later because he was running the marketing section so well.
When they met up with their peers again - they were surprised that many of them with other companies had only been allowed to do tea making and photocopying all year.
When we had kids for a school's work experience week they were usually given to me after the first day. They had quickly become bored with shadowing a production line role. So I had to find them things that were interesting to do. One lad reported that he had started and finished his Year 10 IT project in the week he spent with me. In return he erased the pile of floppy disks that were due for scrapping.
Another lad was not so lucky. Being assigned to an IT company raised his expectations. A week working in the canteen was a great disappointment.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
