Old guys willing to help pass on knowledge or training

There’s a lot less of those than I had wanted to believe. We’ve had generations now of old salts who wouldn’t or couldn’t teach, and find every reason under the sun to tell anyone who wants to learn to go pound sand. They’ll use you as a first year apprentice as glorified labour, and refuse to take you on once you’re worth more. There’s a million suckers behind you desperate for a job, so you have hundreds of first year apprentices who will never finish training because they can’t get someone to take them on once their work is worth real wages.