I left school at eighteen and began a five year apprenticeship at a highly prestigious engineering company that incorporated an HND college sandwich course.
Forty eight years later I still see some of the chaps I met during that time there.

During the first three years, I lived in digs in one town to attend college for six months, then lived in a hostel near Bristol whilst learning the job for the next six months, then back to college again, and so on.

My first six months at college was not a happy time. I lived with a retired couple and spent most of my time there in a box room, and I became very lonely and homesick.
The next two college periods were much better as I lived with a young family, had a big room, and the use of the lounge and kitchen as well.

The course itself was condensed and accelerated so there was very little time to socialise. I joined a community TV organisation and went out into town to film and sometimes interview people. One of my pieces was broadcast on a (very small) local cable network.
Other than that it was mostly eat, sleep, study, and wander round the town at lunchtime.

The apprenticeship in industry was the complete opposite. There were roughly a hundred apprenti in the hostel situated in what had been a former RAF Officers Mess.
The company had its own college so the first seven weeks before college, then the six months after were all spent there in the training workshop.
The hostel was on a "live" airfield so we had to cross this twice a day to get to and from college or the main site.


In the works college there were machine tools of all kinds as well as classrooms and a lecture hall. There were also specialist bays. One had a working aircraft undercarriage, one had a whole light aircraft, and one had several old jet engines.

The hostel had a gym, a football pitch, a half sized snooker table, dart boards, a library, and table tennis facilities.
There was also a garage and workshop where I learned how to repair and maintain motorbikes and cars.

The nearest pub was half a mile away, but that involved scaling a security fence which was not a good idea if you wanted to keep your job. That either meant a long walk across the airfield plus a long walk to a pub, or someone had to drive.

Living on the airfield meant we got to see all sorts of unusual sights. Concorde aircraft taking off and landing, a Harrier Jump Jet doing ground runs at the end of the football pitch, a five engined Vulcan Bomber flying test bed for the Tornado fighter bomber, a three engined VC 10 flying test bed for the RB211, the Sultan of Oman's private executive jet, and a Bristol car testing its anti-lock breaks on the main runway to name but a few.

Alcohol was prohibited on site. Yeah, right.

"Why were there searchlights outside pointing up at the sky just now?" Oh, that was Malcom. He's just driven his land-rover over the air raid shelter."
Not to be outdone, I did the same with a moped I had been given.

There were pranks galore.

One poor chap came back to the hostel after a weekend away to find every stick of furniture had been removed from his room and hidden around the place. He had to sleep in his car that night.

Someone took all the screws out of the end wall of a prefab accommodation unit, which promptly fell over in the wind, exposing the interiors of two end rooms.

Someone else had all their furniture removed and placed on a flat roof.

Locked cars would mysteriously get moved around during the hours of darkness.

Oh the jolly japes that were had.

Time off involved long motorbike rides with my mates, weekends in Minehead, evening runs to the chippy after cutbacks meant there was no food provided at weekends, and my first ever pint of Real Ale.

In my third year, I did meet a certain young Miss who later became my wife, but that was completely separate to my college/apprenticeship.

In years four and five, college and book learning were over, and everything then focussed on learning the work of many engineering departments until I found one I really liked, and managed to get a permanent placement there, where I stayed until I retired.

My memories of college are that it was okay, but nothing to write home about, but my apprenticeship overall was a truly happy time.

All of my further education was down to day release from work.

ONC, HNC, Rubber Technology degree - all done on day release with a shedload of study at home.

The only times I sobered up a bit was for "labs" ' cos we often worked with some very dangerous equipments.

Sometimes now wonder how I ever graduated. Spent more time "off my face" than working! But that all stopped the day I graduated. Stopped dead.

I read physics

What's your favourite atom, Todger?

What's your favourite atom, Todger?

What's your favourite atom, Todger?