"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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Example Trigger Phrases
- "My apprentice starts Monday."
- "How do I train the new guy?"
- "Plan a new labourer's first week on site."
- "What should a new apprentice be allowed to touch?"