Hey Darren,
A tradesman is defined as a craftsman or artisan. That is such a generalization that anyone could fall into that classification, although it is mostly applied to the blue-collar worker today. I can only surmise by your post you are in your early years of career and worklife and have encountered those who have lousy work ethics, low esteem, and only "put-in-time". It is everywhere. You will never work anywhere that you will not come across these individuals. I find those who were brought up by parents who instilled values, ethics, honor and respect are those who are truly tradesmen. We 'old-schoolers" were taught by those kind of parents who were hard workers, family-oriented, disciplined, and never gave up or quit on life.

I will pass on the method that has never failed me regarding the work environment. No matter where you go, if you travel, change work areas, or different companies, for the first couple months you are there, always simply just "watch and listen". Say as little as possible, keep personal life very personal, and you will see the nature of all those around you. It has never failed me. It won't take long to see those who are lazy, non-productive, careless, ignorant, loud-mouth braggarts who have no honor. You will also find those just the opposite and those are the ones who will enhance your knowledge and wisdom base.

Throughout my working career, I moved on so much to new companies because of the work environment, company policies, and just a plain old curiosity of "what's around-the-bend". Each place benefited my knowledge of manufacturing and production and made me better and better. Each person has to find their love of a career that they look forward to doing each day. My career in welding has been totally in the manufacturing environment because I chose that arena. Loved every minute of it and still do even though I now only work part-time. I put in my time, gave my pound of flesh, and now can enjoy my time pursuing my "hobby" welding.

Those who succeed and are profitable and want the good life, are those who always have the "hunger" to learn, earn, and burn.

Yup, at the end of the day....you deserve that cold beer....Denny

You may have a point that a piece of paper does not make the tradesmen, but it does infact level the feild I beleave it says to your pers that at least you have tryed to attain a level of experience that qualifies you as an expert and not just a novice and you can demand to be compensated accordinly. Of course if you have no pride in your work and no work ethic to start with all the paper in the world is not going to help you. A tradesmen or journeymen is ofcourse responsible for training his apprentice, if he himself does not have the knowledge that is aquired by those pieces of paper what kind of tradesmen does he turn out and what does that say about our profession if we are not at least willing to try and reach those goals. Well that's my two bits .

My nutshell explaination to students is that craftsmanship is demonstrated by tradesmen who can make a finished product look and perform perfectly in a reasonable amount of time.  This does not mean making each weld or fitup perfect the first time every time. But it does mean a craftsman can finish the job as advertised to the standard demanded and deal with just about anything that might come along, from rusty metal to arc blow.

It may be difficult or impossibleto instill this kind of paradigm. Making the students interpret the drawings and WPS before the job and self evaluation to code before turning a project in is a good way to start.

Cheers to all the folks at the forum who have helped me along the way.

Iron sharpens Iron eh?