|
For decades groomers
have taken on apprentices. Most employers will
agree the results from offering
apprenticeships can be the proverbial mixed
bag. Imagine you are a business owner. You
provide training and a wage to a career
seeker and once the trainee felt they had
acquired enough knowledge and experience, they
quit! Do you want to start over again
repeating this same cycle? Unfortunately this
scenario has been played out thousands of
times. It gets worse. Sometimes
departing apprentices open competitive
businesses down the block from their past
employer/trainer! Some even take
their past employers' client lists! These are
not rare cases. How unfortunate
for today’s career seekers that so many of
their predecessors have stained the
reliability of offering apprenticeship
opportunities. “Burned” employers don’t
make the same mistake more than twice. It
takes a lot of convincing for them to be
sold on offering apprenticeships again.
Don’t rule out an apprenticeship if one
interests you. Review the
PetGroomer.com Help
Wanted Classified Ads updated several times a
week. Be honest and faithful to our fellow
groomers offering you these opportunities.
There are apprenticeships available, but
they are few.
If you find one, honor the owner who does a
good job of training. Stay employed with them
for a reasonable period of time once you
are capable of being a standalone groomer.
Give them plenty of advance notice when you do
depart. You are affecting the future
for tomorrow’s career seekers.
 One of the key differences between
apprenticeships versus fee-based education is
time. Educational opportunities immerse you in
the challenges of education daily because
curricula hours are set. Apprentice groomers
can achieve the same education but the length
of time is in the control of employers. It’s a
trade-off sometimes. On the other side of the
coin, apprenticeships cost nothing and usually
include wages while learning.
Other
Training Programs
PETCO
and
PetSmart
offer training.
They have
been sponsors of PetGroomer.com for many
years and they list many of their job
openings in the
PetGroomer.com Classified Ads.
If you cannot afford a school, home study or
find an apprenticeship, their career path may
be ideal for you. Even if money is not a
determining factor in your education choice,
working in a corporate environment may be
right for you. Unlike the majority of grooming
jobs in independents, they offer wages while you learn.
Clearly the corporate stores offer some of
the best employee benefits
in the pet grooming industry. In fact, you
should know one sad fact about benefits and
the grooming industry. There are thousands of pet groomer
jobs in independents that offer little or no
benefits. If you are counting on benefits such
as healthcare your employment choices will
narrow quickly when working for
independents.
We are pleased PETCO and PetSmart introduced new career training
opportunities on such a large scale. They
changed the industry. Where there are no
schools, and some states have no schools,
they probably have some stores with training
arrangements.
Continue to next page. |
