I need some input

[Steve@Reliance]

I have been approached by a local school for hearing imparied about taking on a young hearing imparied person in a co-op position. He is 18 years old and has little work exp. but has done some welding. I have met this young man and he seems to have a good attitude. Our shop is very small(three people) and I have serious reservations about signing him up. I am not worried about the communication barrier, but the ability of a small shop to support a person who comes in cold-machining wise, and give them the amount of supervision they need to get going. Without trying to sound like a jerk, I have enough trouble with my guys who can hear whats going on with the tooling and machining conditions. If I had 10 guys in the shop I could take the time to support this one. our shop needs people to cover all the bases as far as work in the shop goes, manual,CNC,weld, etc. This guy has spent a couple of weeks in another shop already and now they are "slow" and don't need his help anymore. I don't want to write this guy off strictly because of my own uninformed ideas. I need experience on both sides to give me some input.

[big_mak]

Are you able to take him on as simply a clean up guy to start? This may give you an idea on how keen he is in regards to the trade. You'll obviously get an idea, by the questions he asks and such.

I've worked with these coop kids before, and judging by their listening skills, you may be better off with someone who will no doubt be paying more attention to what's going on, to make up for his short comings.

If he doesn't show any interest after a few weeks, then you can speak to his teacher, and let'em know that if he's gonna send someone out, they better have a genuine interest in the trade.

[dertsap]

if you need help and the kid has it in him , i say give him a break , the rewards could be both of yours in the future