Apprentice First Week

---
name: apprentice-first-week
description: "Plan an apprentice's or new laborer's first week so they're useful by Friday and safe from hour one — day-by-day teaching order, the safety non-negotiables stated before anything else, what they're allowed to touch unsupervised, and the check-out conversation that decides week two. Use when a tradesperson says 'my apprentice starts Monday', 'how do I train the new guy', or 'the apprentice is useless and I don't have time to teach'. Produces a first-week plan, a can/can't-touch list, and the Friday review script."
---

# Apprentice First Week Skill

"Watch me and you'll pick it up" is how apprentices stay useless for a year —
and how thumbs get lost in week one. A first week that works is planned like a
job: safety rules stated as absolutes before any tool moves, one teachable
task-block per day with the *why* attached, an explicit list of what they may
do unsupervised (short) versus with eyes on them (everything else), and a
Friday conversation that tells both sides the truth. The payoff is selfish and
immediate: an apprentice who can safely prep, fetch, and finish doubles a
one-person business by Friday afternoon.

## What This Skill Produces

- A **day-by-day first week**: one skill-block per day (demonstrate → assist
  → attempt supervised), plus the standing jobs that make them useful between
  lessons
- The **safety brief**, written to be said aloud on Monday at 7:55: the
  non-negotiables, what to do when unsure, and the "stop means stop" rule
- The **touch list**: may-do-unsupervised / may-do-watched / not-yet — updated
  Friday
- The **Friday review script**: what went well, what to fix, one goal for
  week two — both directions (the apprentice reviews the teaching too)

## Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):
- The trade, and the actual jobs booked for that week (the plan teaches from
  real work, not exercises)
- The apprentice: age, experience (school-leaver? career-changer?), formal
  scheme requirements if enrolled (college days, logbooks — flag, don't
  invent scheme rules)
- The user's honest pain: what they most need taken off their hands
- Site realities: one-van solo work vs a site with other trades

## Framework

1. **Monday is safety and setup, taught as identity.** The brief: PPE
   always · the tools they must not touch yet, by name · "if unsure, stop
   and ask — asking is the job" · where the first-aid kit and shutoffs are ·
   the one-sentence rule: *nothing we do today is worth a finger*. Then teach
   the setup/protection/cleanup routine — it's the frame of every day and
   they can own it by Wednesday.
2. **One block per day, taught in three passes.** Demonstrate (they watch,
   you narrate the why) → assist (they do the low-risk half) → attempt (they
   do it watched, you resist grabbing the tool back — the hardest part of
   teaching). Pick blocks from the week's real jobs, easiest-reversible
   first.
3. **Standing jobs make the dead time useful.** Between lessons: material
   prep, protection, tidy-as-you-go, van stock check, watching-with-
   questions. An apprentice never stands empty-handed wondering; the list is
   on paper.
4. **The touch list is the contract.** Short unsupervised list that grows
   every Friday — visible progress is the retention tool for young workers.
   Growth is earned by demonstrated care, not by days served.
5. **Friday review, both directions.** Three questions each way: what did
   you do this week you couldn't Monday? · what did I explain badly? · one
   goal for next week. Ten minutes, and it's the difference between an
   apprentice and a decade of laborers who quit in month two.

## Output Format

```
## Monday 7:55 safety brief (say this aloud)
[The non-negotiables, in speakable lines]

## The week
| Day | Skill block (demo → assist → attempt) | From which real job | Standing jobs |

## Touch list v1 (revisit Friday)
Unsupervised: … · Watched: … · Not yet (and why): …

## Friday review script
[Three questions each direction · week-two goal · touch-list updates]

## Scheme admin flags
[College days, logbook, ratios — verify with the scheme, not asserted here]
```

## Quality Checks

- [ ] Safety brief is speakable in under 5 minutes and contains the
      stop-and-ask rule verbatim
- [ ] Every skill block comes from that week's actual booked work
- [ ] The unsupervised list is genuinely short on day one and has a named
      growth path
- [ ] The review runs both directions — the teaching gets reviewed too
- [ ] Formal scheme requirements are flagged for verification, never invented

## Anti-Patterns

- [ ] Do not plan a week of fetching — usefulness without teaching is how
      apprentices quit; teaching without standing jobs is how the business
      loses a week
- [ ] Do not soften safety rules to seem friendly on day one — absolutes on
      Monday, warmth all week
- [ ] Do not let "faster to do it myself" win the attempt pass — say the
      quiet math out loud: slower Tuesday buys a faster month
- [ ] Do not write scheme/legal requirements (hours, ratios, wages) as facts
      — flag and verify

## Related

[[onboarding-plan]] — the office cousin; [[teach-the-game]] shares the
demonstrate-then-play bones; [[sop-writer]] when a routine deserves writing
down for every future hire.