Nourishing the Scene Through the Apprenticeship Program

if the subject header got your attention...
i want to add to the fray this data point: framebuilders, craftsmen
if you will, are a solitary lot - generally speaking. regardless of the
medium, people that do this "type of thing" are a different breed and
have chosen to eschew the conventional commerce route. by the time
one of these guys is rooted, he is likely to have gone through his chosen
industry and made the conscious decision to live outside the lines. all
the fulltime builders that i know started at bicyclemaking companies -
they did not get where they are by being apprentices. it is their, er, contempt
for the marketdriven-ess of it all that drives the spike in the ground that
divides the "us-s" from the "thems". i think it's not logical to hope or assume
that a framebuilder will hire an apprentice. all it will do is put the hirerer on
a path towards what he left in the first place. i once had a helper. in 1982 a
man with complete framebuilding experience worked with me. at the time, i
thought it was a righteous decision. he worked on my frames; his labor did
not resemble mine. he helped me towards filling more orders; and this
reduced my backlog. he needed my direction in order to function on a
prescribed schedule. all-in-all, all that it did for me was make me anxious
and kept me from my own work. he was a sweet guy and, after only three
months, seemed to understand that i - my business - was not the right
environment for a "staff" of people. the others can address this issue
personally. i think the list that josh has - and the website that neil
has - these are your best resources for learning UNLESS,
like most of us did, you take a mundane job in the industry, find out what
makes you wet and sticky, and then leave to get it on your own. again - it's
not reality to think a framebuilder is also a teacher. this list and the
website are the surrogates for that task.
e-RICHIE