Mark Conacher: Why learning a trade needs to involve picking up soft skills as well as technical ones

Apprentices may be desperate to get their hands on a cordless drill, but learning to sweep up in a clien't house can be just as valuable – if not more, says Mark Conacher, CEO of consultancy KBB Momentum.

A common complaint from apprentices, especially during the first year or 2 of their apprenticeship, is that they spend far too much time sweeping up, cleaning vans and basically doing all the jobs no one else wants to do, and not enough time actually learning the trade they signed up for.

I can understand that frustration. If you’re 16 or 17 years old, and excited about becoming a joiner, a plumber or an electrician, all you want to do is get your hands on the tools. You want to learn how to build things, how to install things, how they work, and how to get paid more. You certainly don’t start an apprenticeship dreaming about becoming particularly good at sweeping up after someone else.

And to be fair, some apprentices really are used as cheap labour and are not given enough opportunity to learn. Spending months doing nothing but sweeping floors and making tea is not an apprenticeship, and we shouldn’t pretend that it is. There has to be some kind of progression. There has to be time spent learning how to handle tools properly, working with different materials, understanding how to measure accurately, practising, and slowly but surely taking on more responsibility.

But no one has taken the time to explain why some of those less exciting jobs matter. You see, it was never really about sweeping up.

When someone first starts a trade apprenticeship, particularly one that involves working in people’s homes, there’s a huge amount to learn before mitring worktops even comes into the equation. You’re learning how to act in a customer’s home, or how to communicate with customers and different trades. You learn how to keep your working area safe. The best way to leave a job at the end of the day, how to make sure the van contains what you expect it to. You’re learning that tools and materials need to be looked after because they cost money. You’re learning that if you walk through a customer’s home with dirty boots, if you leave their front door open, if you block their driveway or if you leave packaging blowing around their garden... they notice.

All these things might not feel like part of learning a trade when you’re desperate to get hold of a cordless drill, but they’re definitely part of becoming a professional tradesperson. That distinction matters in the kitchen and bathroom industry because for the most part, you’re working in properties that are occupied. You’re entering someone’s home, for days or weeks at a time, and asking them to trust you with what is most likely one of the biggest purchases they will make outside of buying the house itself. 

The average customer often doesn’t know the difference between a technically good installation and an exceptional one, but that doesn’t mean they’re not judging you. They know whether you arrived when you said you would. They know whether you listened to them and treated their home with respect. They know whether you explained what was happening and warned them about a problem rather than hiding it. They know if you left their house reasonably tidy at the end of the day. And they know whether they feel comfortable having you in their home.

We tend to call these soft skills, but there’s nothing particularly soft about their effect on a business. Communication, reliability, respect, and the ability to deal properly with customers have a direct impact on things like reviews and recommendations. Before you’ve even stepped out of the van, a customer is already forming an opinion of you. It starts with the first phone call or an email, it continues with whether you arrive on time, and it carries on as you walk through their front door.

This is why we have to be careful about shortening the process of becoming a tradesperson simply to get more people through an apprenticeship scheme. Technical skills can sometimes be taught faster. Experience can’t be accelerated in the same way.

There’s a maturity that develops from spending time on jobs with experienced tradespeople. Watching how tough situations are handled and gradually understanding what’s expected. It comes from seeing how experience deals with a difficult customer or a job that has suddenly gone wrong.

We also need to keep in mind that being excellent at a trade doesn’t automatically make you excellent at teaching that trade. It’s one thing to be great at something for 20 or 30 years, but it can be incredibly difficult to explain that same process to someone who’s never done it before. Mistakes will happen as part of that process. Materials will get damaged and time will be lost. For a sole trader or small installation company, this can be hard to navigate.

So yes, apprentices need to get their hands on the tools, but there is another apprenticeship taking place alongside the technical one. It’s learning how to work in someone’s home, how to take responsibility for your surroundings and how to handle situations when something doesn’t go to plan. Soft skills are far harder to measure on a training spreadsheet, but a customer can spot them a mile away.

Long after an apprentice has stopped sweeping up and started running their own business, they may turn out to be some of the most valuable skills they will ever learn.