For most trainees, switching from school to the world of work is a big change. This is why they often lose their motivation during their training and frequently make the same mistakes. Read this article to find out how you can avoid the individual mistakes or get your trainees back on the right track.
Unreliability:
It often starts with being late. Constantly oversleeping because you may have skipped school a few times to get a good night's sleep. On Friday, of course, you also want to be on time. Regardless of whether work is finished or not. After all, the weekend is just around the corner. Sick days can also pile up over time. Organisational channels and company guidelines are no longer adhered to or are cleverly circumvented. During training, you have significantly more responsibility and some trainees still have to internalise this. You can be late sometimes, but this should not become the rule. Otherwise you will be labelled as "unreliable", which is usually hard to get rid of. Therefore, try to take your trainees aside in good time to find a solution to the problem of unreliability.
Impatience and frustration:
Many trainees become frustrated and impatient when they are unable to contribute directly to large projects. It is therefore important to make it clear to them that the craft must first be learnt before they can work on such projects. Motivate your trainees with interesting exercises or let them look over the shoulder of a colleague on real projects. Accept suggestions and ideas from your trainees and trust in their abilities. After all, you didn't hire your trainees for no reason.
Lack of stamina:
Unfortunately, it also often happens that some trainees want to throw in the towel during their training. In most cases, this is because they have not looked into the profession in detail beforehand and now realise that it is not what they had originally hoped for. Often, however, they also decide to go to university or do a further qualification. And still others are simply disappointed and dissatisfied with the way they are treated during their apprenticeship. Take your trainees seriously and look out for signs that could indicate that they are dropping out of training. Signs of this include, for example, frequent absences from work and school, unsatisfactory realisation of tasks or a lack of contact with other colleagues. If any of these signs occur, try to talk to your trainees and find out the reason for these abnormalities.
Laziness in learning:
Quite often, trainees only want to concentrate on the company-based part of their training and have no interest in the school-based part. Perhaps because they have had enough of "cramming" or because they didn't have the "best" grades before. Try to offer your trainees as much support as possible, e.g. through tutoring from an older trainee in the company.
The most important thing is that you get the message across to your trainees that "quitting" is not an option.
For my part, I definitely had the problem of lazy learning. I've never been a model student and therefore didn't really enjoy the academic part of my training. With the right support from my training company, I still managed to complete my training successfully. Perhaps you recognise yourself here too.