Gen Z and DiY

[Spectric]

There is more to DIY than just working on a house. You learn skills because you have a desire to learn and achieve which should begin at at young age, just getting kids interested in books and being inquisitive would be a good start. Many of us would have started by making go karts and fixing our bikes and helping our dads with things on the car and around the house and then progressed into whatever floats the boat. I was really young when I first started playing with old radios & Tv's and making crystal radio's but then the local radio / Tv shop proprietor was so helpful and off course we all had chemisty sets to experiment with and no health and safety to restrict us.

 

[David Lloyd01]

I've been retired for 16 years, I was a maintainence engineer on sewage treatment plants and pumping stations, all heavy and messy engineering. Just before I retired I had an apprentice for a short while who was utterly clueless. If I asked him to pass me a 22mm spanner he offered me a handfull from 10 to 30mm, he didn't know the difference between stillsons and an adjustable spanner, watching him with a screwdriver was painful. He hadn't got a bloody clue. The really bad thing was he was in his second year, he'd been with another very good fitter in another area for 12 months! He was glad to glad to be rid of him.
The apprentice was a nice enough lad, completely clueless both practically and theoretically in all things engineering, but he could sort out any problems on a mobile phone in an instant.