Hi Andy, in my experiance its now almost impossible to get a good apprentice.In 15 years in the trade I've had one good apprentice and know of about another three!Its mostly trade work I do and its a very common moan up here(glasgow) from owners trying to get even a reasonable apprentice.
The biggest problem I see is that they have no concept of what work is ie never done a days work in their lives and have had everything handed to them by the parents.
I had one apprentice who's dad dropped him off + picked him up every day and on the way out the door he phoned his mum to have his dinner ready and run a bath for him!
Most of the people on here are interested in what they do and alot probably tinkered with bikes,m/bikes,engines + cars before they got their first job but none of the apprentices we see are at all interested in what they have chosen to be their job(not career as they are just doing this until they get a job from 1pm to 4pm 4 days a week which pays about £40,000 pa).
Its going to be a big problem in the future but for those of us with a good few years left in this trade it can only mean more than enought work to go around
Rant over, Sean