As a Canadian apprenticing in Germany, the more I learn about trades in Canada the happier I am doing it here. Y'all have to buy your own tools!? Take unpaid leave from work to go to school?! Things are chaotic and frustrating in Germany as well, but at least it's a fully organized and coherent system.

Yes, I know this pain too as I work on construction projects and my brother is a tradesperson.

I've had to stop work way too often as a result of people doing dangerous things because they don't know better. Not like questionable but low risk short cuts when the safety rep isn't around. I always try and explain why I stopped something and more often than not they stop whining once they realize they had no idea what they were risking.

We do a lot of mentoring on our personal time, or work later to catch up because we are trying to bring the juniors along with us as much as possible. Same thing for helping people with international training get their licences so they can practice fully and not be exploited with shitty (insecure/low paying) contracts. It's a lot.

Not only are the trades here no longer the golden ticket they were cracked up to be, that goes for basically every fucking job lol. If you aren’t a time traveller who somehow has 5+ years of experience despite just getting into whatever field we’re talking about, you can basically just kys or move to an impossibly expensive city (good luck without that job).
If I could trade my credentials back for a refund I would do it in a heartbeat.

I'm probably taking this too literally but they kinda do, in canada at least. You can't get a licence without meeting the experience requirements. When I did mine it was 4 years. It's reduced now with more of a focus demonstrating competencies. And just like residency, a placement isn't guaranteed. I think it's slightly less sadistic and exploitative than a medical residency tho.