Friday 10 February 2012

Skills test day.

I woke up nice and early, feeling oddly refreshed, had a little breakfast and got the bus to what would be the last day of the course, I've enjoyed the 2 days a week, mainly as the course has been pretty interesting but also that it has been a god laugh and not too serious.

So I arrived at the skills academy and headed to the workshop, to sit around and wait to do the skills test, when it was our turn a group of nine of us headed over and stood in the foyer until it was our turn to do the tests, as we'd practised with the air tools and were told about what to expect, I wasn't too concerned about what was coming, the tests were broken down as placing 10 bolts with washers and spring washer into a v shaped metal plate under the test bench, to test us on fitting bolts into an awkward space. Next came the wheel fitting test, where we lifted a wheel and bolted it onto a test axle. Then came fitting grometts into holes though there were more than on the practise that we'd done, the next test was fitting clips together, though there were extra clips so to see if people read the instructions and fitted them together correctly and lastly fitting pipes onto a jig and using pliers to move the pipe clips, this one was extra tricky as the instructions meant you had to fit the pipes in a certain order.

I asked how I'd done, they only thing I was told was that, I'd done alright but not what time I'd managed each part in. Still I walked out feeling that I'd done quite well, though others had mentioned that they had done the first part slightly differently than I had, still it was all good. We then went back over to the academy to await the functional maths test and the personality Health & safety questionnaire. We went to the canteen and stayed there for a while, which meant we missed our chance of getting our maths tests done early, so we sat around in the workshop for about 2 and a half hours, chatting and wishing we'd gone back to the workshop sooner.

As we'd spent the last few course days practicing taking maths tests, to make sure we could answer the questions in the allotted time and answer them correctly, the practice sessions had been pretty easy though I managed to miss the occasional question, on the first few practice tests, by the end, I was answering all questions and getting 20/20, on the actual test, it was much more difficult and I felt under quite a lot of pressure but I paused after each 4 question block, to calm myself and continue answering, I did manage to answer all of them and I'm pretty sure they were all right, though when they contact me in the next few days, I'll have either passed or failed though not where I went wrong.

On the Wednesday it was suggested that after we finished, that the group could go to the pub that was literally just over the road from the academy, I seem to remember that quite a few people said, that sounded like a good idea, so as I was part of the last bit of our group to take the maths test, the three of us popped over to the pub, where there was a total of six from a group of 17, one person had an interview, another said they were a recovering alcoholic, though it was a little sad that the others weren't there. As I'm still choosing to not drink, I enjoyed tonic water and some canny company, after a couple of tonics and some pleasant smoke, I bid farewell to the rest of the group and headed for the bus home, which smelled of wet farts.

I now sit and wait for the letter which either thanks me for attending or invites me for a line trial at Nissan, either way, it's been a good last few weeks, where I've enjoyed the company of some decent blokes and I've been getting back into routine of early starts, which kind of stops now I've no Wednesday or Thursday course to go to.

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