Hull certainly changes rapidly, then, doesn't it. When I lived there, I went round a lot with students from the College of Architecture, which seems now to have been wiped off the face of the earth. Can't even find any references to it on Friends Reunited!

I went to a University that used to be called Constantine College of Technology when I began there and Teesside Poly when I finished!

Where was that, then?

'Twas in Borough Road, Diddlesbrough, me dear.

College of Architecture?

When was that?

And whereabouts in Ull was it?

I suppose Constantine must have been some local industrialist bod? Have never heard the name.


I'm not telling you when I was at Hull. it was, er, some time ago.
But bloody hell, that's pulled me up a bit Ripper. I can't remember exactly where that College was. That's really worrying
It must have been in the Avenues area because all their students lived around there

If so it became part of the Poly, and subsequently Uni of Humberside, and so on and so on.

The Room was quality.

Well, I'm glad someone else's heard of it, MJ. That's a relief

Go on go on go on go on go on.

I can't remember that either.

I'm afraid I'm what they used to call, in Victorian novels, 'a lady of a certain age'.


Well, OK, except for the 'lady' bit

He was a HUGE name in shipping, wannee.
http://genforum.genealogy.com/constanti ... s/114.html

10 CSE's from grade 2-4. 5 O levels, 1 A level and a Certificate of Education, a BILA award and numerous others concerned with teaching.

O Levels were harder in the 1970's ha ha

As so often this thread has led to a bit of reminiscing.

I was remembering the people who used to live in my student house, seemingly from a different era. There was a Trinidad lad who used to occasionally confide crises of confidence about his love-life. As in, 'It takes a lot of courage, kissing a girl for the first time...will she scream, will she laugh, will she run away?'
He was really concerned about this, even tho he was very attractive and good company.

Who worries along those lines now? Everyone seems to hop between the sheets at the drop of a hat, no thought about consequences. It's all a bit soulless

If you want me to partner with you Ms Grabec you've only to say

And me

So did you then?? It was more frowned upon, apart from in intellectual circles, between 1954 and 57 when you were at Uni.

You bloody lot.

Not one apprentice among you so far. Is there anyone else with a five year apprenticeship or is it just me and Vin Garbutt.

just about to complete my four year apprenticeship, cant wait!

nope only a four year one for me

maintenance fitter with turning as well served at the tees and hartlepool port authority

Yet despite all the paperwork you are approximately my intellectual equal.

What a fooking waste of time that was, then.

For the record I have 4 GCSE's (from a time when they were worth the paper they were written on) and a handful of City and Guilds in fook knows what, to do with the apprenticeship I did after I left school.

I hated school, left with no qualifications. Then went to college & got 5 GCE O levels & 2 GCE A levels. Then got an apprenticeship with the GPO as it was then - this was only a 3 year apprenticeship and I got an HNC during that time. Since then I've got a degree and 3 post grad diploma's.
I've met people with lot's of qualifications who I wouldn't trust to do anything and are nasty (and often nazi) and others with no qualifications who have been top people intelligence wise and work wise.
I used to think education was wasted on the young but now think that some teachers are terrible and fall into the category of "I wouldn't trust to do anything and are nasty (and often nazi)".

8 GCSEs
4 A Levels
BA (Hons)
MSc
PGCE

AND I'm a teacher

Shame really, history could have come in handy, what with the last time the 'Loids got promoted being in the dim and distant past.....

Still I'm sure those couple of trophies will make up for the constant disappointment

That's right, probably why I only got 4, one of those was while I was in the RAF,still in the '70's.

Only other 'real' qualification is MAAT (Member of the Association of Accounting Technicians) (Lapsed).

I have 8 GCSE 'O' level equivalents, 4 'A' levels and a degree. I've also done 3 quarters of a post-grad marketing qualification, but have never got round to finishing it.

I have never been asked for any certificates by any employer. It seems that if you can talk the talk you will be believed. I've been tempted to lie about meself on job applications, but getting sacked because of something like that would be a complete ballache.

However, the only case I know of someone nearly coming a cropper by lying about qualifications is one of my mates claiming he had a 2:1 degree, when in fact he only got a third. This landed him a job with BASF, and the HR woman chased him for his degree certificate for weeks, until she went on maternity or had an accident or something and got off his case.

Unless your qualifications are really specific to your job (doctor etc), a lot of time is wasting learning rubbish. If nothing else I suppose having a qualification proves that you can conform to rules and apply some intelligence at times, which is what you need to do in a workplace.

Given some of the naive, mollycoddled and clueless types I met at University, I can honestly say that growing up in somewhere like Hartlepool really does give you a head start in life, whether you have qualifications or not.

Yes I've got them, but I've reached that cynical point in my life where I don't give a toss any more...by the way, I went to a decent school, the 'Tech', long before your time of course .... the old man insisted I get a 'proper' job and served an apprenticeship, you didn't 'disagree' with my old man .... I despised every minute of it and especially so the five years studying electronics, wasted years .... but now I know what I want to do and I'm doing it.,,, and i don't need a pat on the head off anyone anymore.

You're probably about the same age as my old man Mr Snowy.

He went to the Tech too, left and did an apprentiship at 16 cos that was what was expected etc.

He's done well since then, progressed way above the "trade" that he served his time in and I've no doubt that had it been the norm for people to go onto further education in his day he would have got a degree no bother. I'm sure that is true about loads and loads of people of that generation.

Familair story.

My old man went to the Grammar and got several 'O' levels. By rights he should have done 'A' levels and gone to University, but my grandad made him get a 'real' job in the sawmill. He believed that education 'unhinged' working class people, and that they should know their place and stick to it. A crying shame because he was very intelligent himself.

Whoever it was wrote about apprenticeships ... I've been there and done that too.
The thing is my mother couldn't afford to keep me on in the 6th form, so I did an apprenticeship at ICI then went back to full time education (complete with grant ) after getting my ONC.

Having said that, I can't see how the apprenticeship enhanced my life or gave me an advantage in any way. It just delayed things really.

8 'O' Levels @ The Tech (Hartlepool)
ONC @ The Tech
&
HND @ Constantine College (M'boro)
while doing a 5 year apprenticeship @ ICI Billingham as an Instument Artificer !

MSc @ University of Teesside aka Constantine College

quite a time gap between the last two

Think you and I had parallel paths Monty ?

They do sound suspiciously similar, don't they. From when to when were you a tiffy?

A FIVE year apprenticeship?? Surely the last couple of years at least you must have been doing a proper job but at half the 'adult' wage?

Mind, my Dad's apprenticeship at RW was 7 years long...from to 14- 21. I still have his copy of the contract. His wages rose form 7 shillings to 15 shillings a week during that time

thats about right as well
i was still an apprentice when they gave me an apprentice to look after
mind he is now a full time freddie mercury tribute artist
step forward mr billy west
i dont know what that says about my help in looking after him
started on £13 a week in 1974
the first year was spent at the E.I.T.B. training centre in billingham and my award for the apprentice of the year was presented by
jackie charlton who was manager of the smoggies at the time and his son was serving an apprenticeship and was at the centre the year after me

I'm still chippy about not passing the 11+ from Lister Street Juniors. I remember the passes and fails list coming out and then all the kids who's parents were teachers got through cos they knew their way around the appeal system.

My 5yr apprenticeship got me into day release and then into full time education and eventually a job in Liverpool City Council that payed lots of dosh, well more than I could've expected. (Ref another thread I was there all hours but achieved very little and yes everyone pays a lot for people sitting around in meetings). I was a part time student until my mid thirties and ended up with a couple of post graduate management diplomas.

So from a not very promising start where selling seacoal was a career option my apprenticeship did me nothing but good and really was a bit of a lifeline. I do remember my wage when I was 16 was £3:8s:3d.

apprenticeship was 63 => 68

Transferred to 'staff' shortly after that and ended my ICI days at Wilton, in 80