Pros
- Teaches you the basics before starting work - Provides you with tools to start off with - Guarantees a weekly pay, but…
Cons
- The 2 week Elite Course is a pretty miserable experience that doesn’t mirror the reality of working at all. You aren’t allowed to leave the premises for the entire time essentially cutting you off from the outside world besides over social media and phone calls. - They claim said tools cost around 3k which is definitely not right. - Despite this they still charge you an exorbitant fee if you want to leave in your first year. I believe it’s been increased even more since I left. This kinda feels like a debt trap considering the wages their employees earn. - Wages are pathetic, starting at $16 an hour (The bare minimum training wage) and just over minimum for apprentices in their final year. - Experience with my coordinator was pretty pathetic, had no concern for my experience at host companies (which were very poor) and spent more time getting berated for things I didn’t do, and working at electrical wholesalers for etco’s wage of $16 an hour, which I’m pretty sure is illegal. - Staff encourage you to fake your answers with On- job assessments, discouraging real learning. -Staff treat etco HQ like a schoolyard. When not on site (which was most of my employment with them) you are forced to (as in threatened with non payment or dismissal) sit around or do meaningless chores from 8-4 which is a pretty degrading experience considering most people they employ have left school years ago. - When on site, being employed with etco means if you have a bad host company, you are basically disposable to them and will be sent back for making simple mistakes, if not nothing at all as per experiences from friends and myself.
