Earlier in the week I wandered back home from from a clients office to find a letter from who else but David Cameron. I had a feeling it was genuine because of the mass produced signature and the "we know it has been tough for small businesses" rhetoric. The long and short of the letter seemed to suggest some type of tax break and a request to consider employing someone. While my partner carried the letter away to feed the shredder I gave the matter a little thought.
It seems quite a few people leaving schools and universities can be lacking in basic skills. It can be quite easy to find someone who is capable of operating a computer, but areas involving reasoning, craftsmanship and the fine line between creative flare and real world experience to problem solving are sometimes not what I would hope for. Recently we were contacted by an architecture student who was offering to work for us for free, sadly we were not able to help her as she had chosen to attend a university who concentrates heavily on conceptual architecture and does not cover many of the skills and specialities we work with. In essence after all her studies I would have needed to train her from scratch and invest a considerable amount of time to begin getting her proficient in our field. It is surprising how precious your time becomes when you are trying to ensure a continual stream of both work and income.
Today I found myself back in a clients office working on a couple of schemes. After a few busy (and productive) hours shut off from the clatter of the office environment with headphones, I took a break to find my clients employees discussing a howler of a mistake on a CV submitted for an apprentice position within their company. The applicant had listed "time keeping" as one of his strongest points and had backed up his statement by presumably attempting to say "he always turned up early for a shift", sadly his typo was to miss the f from the word shift. I found myself wondering if the mistake was just clumsy or perhaps deliberate after someone cajoled him into applying for an unwanted position.
Despite some of the head shaking moments, onwards we go taking delight and inspiration from those with a dedication and a passion within their life and remembering to learn from the mistakes along the way. It seems when you have a passion for what you are doing, the mistakes are still hard but are approached differently and the willingness to learn and improve becomes stronger.
