Joules,
(A) I am "across the pond." And, (B) I "support" quite a few "newbies" out of my own "collection." [Excuses, excuses, excuses!]
One of the things that I do (having started with my daughters and their boyfriends) is run 2-3 "kids"/decade through the "old exercises" such as: making a 1.000 inch cube with hacksaw, file, square, and micrometer (usually out of scrap HRS bits); filing a piece of CRS round bar into a .750 hex with file, protractor, and micrometer; making the mating "slip fit" .750 hex hole in a piece of HRS plate; and the like. Such "old exercises" certainly develop not only hand-eye coordination, but an appreciation for "modern tools" that is often "missing" in today's trades.
I kid you not, I teach about a dozen "machinists" about Tooling Balls pretty much every year. [That was something I learned about month 6 of my apprenticeship.]