Apprentice painter Gabby Woodcock reckons it is easier to just let it dry and then “scrape it off” with her fingernails.
“Paint dries so fast — it’s usually dry before you even know it’s on you.”
The 19-year-old hopes she will get less and less paint on her as her apprenticeship progresses and her brush technique improves.
She is the 99th painting apprentice to have been taken on by Sims & Blue, and now the Dunedin family-owned painters and decorators are preparing to take on their 100th apprentice.
Miss Woodcock recommended the apprenticeship because it would not leave her with a massive student loan at the end of it.
“You earn as you learn, which gives you a skill to put behind you, and the money gives you a lot more freedom in life.”
The business was established by school mates John Sims (85) and the late Gilbert Blue in 1962, and these days, it is run by Mr Sims’ sons, Nathan and Glenn.
“We’re always keen to train someone who needs a chance rather than someone with a lot of experience,” Nathan said.
“Sometimes we take a couple a year. At the moment, we’ve got three in training.
“I guess it sort of started from Dad.
“He liked training up young people with the right attitude and teaching them the skills and the way that he wanted things done.
“We’re pretty passionate about it too, because it helps maintain our high quality — we’re training them the way that we’d like them to do things, as opposed to taking people from other companies that have already been trained, maybe in different ways.”
He said they had some apprentices who had stayed on for more than 30 years, but there were many others who had gone on to become very successful in other careers.
“Many of our apprentices go on to run their own companies around Dunedin, Central Otago and the North Island; there’s a couple in Australia; and there’s one in Northern Ireland.
“And we’ve had other people go on to become nurses, police officers, and one is an international airline pilot.
“It’s quite cool because they still credit a lot of their early growing up and learnings back to doing their apprenticeship with us.”
Mr Sims said he and his brother were proud of the business, its history and the contributions it was making to the trades industry.
“And hopefully one of our children will continue the family business into its third generation.”
Applications for the 100th apprenticeship open on Monday and close on February 28.
