Well that's great, thanks. He is now starting to serve and I introduce him as a kid who worked for the dole for three months so that's why I gave him the job. I've trained over 20 apprentices thus far and I can tell you this young fellow has the goods to be top of the class, although his math is appalling...par for the course now days I'm afraid. Sadly our industry has lost it colleges so it's now all 'on the job' training, so this will result in a further lowering of the standard. At least I can proudly say that of the few that have completed, they are all good butchers now

Nice to care for young unemployed people - but why should innocent animals pay for it with their lives?

What is more bothering here, is that government could stop the pension to conscientious/religious people who refuse to slaughter or otherwise participate in the killing-industry for a living.

On apprenticeships, Australia had a boom period post WWII where there was a strong focus on trade based training, ie apprenticeships, and traineeships. I personally started my career in engineering as a trade apprentice, doing time at tech one day a week. Fortunately I was with a very large company and after my second year, being seen as a bright lad I was offered a transfer to the Engineering Office. I spent the next 6 years, four mechanical, one structural and one production engineering, doing as much as one afternoon (paid) and four nights (unpaid) at the School of Engineering as it was then at Ultimo in Sydney. I found the blokes who had done a period of on the job training, like myself which continued long after I left the factory floor, were better equipped and had a better understanding of the practical aspects of the job, than those who had simply studied it all at university.

Yuyutsu,

Who are the “conscientious/religious people who refuse to slaughter or otherwise participate in the killing-industry for a living” who have had the pensions stopped by government?

Dear Ttbn,

I don't know any (in fact I don't know anyone in person who is currently on unemployment benefits): I just pointed out that this possibility legally exists.

However, I stand corrected: on a second thought, the chance of a conscientious/religious person being on the dole to begin with, are similar to the chances of one's clothes remaining clean after falling from the chimney.

Come, come, Yuyutsu, in the good old days before killings and carnage on television, was seen as good wholesome family entertainment, even before McDonald's were providing us with all our healthy eats. I'm talking in the BC times, when the good conscientious/religious folk were not killing each other, or dying from the pestilence at age 25, they were offering sacrifice to Jehovah in the form of lambs, goats, cows, and children if necessary, to ensure the good times kept rolling in.