100,000 new sparkies

[ricardo123]

I was reading somewhere a month or so ago that currently this year alone 100,000 new sparkies will be trained up. 95% of those will be trained on the short courses , i.e. the 4-8 week courses, the other 5% being apprentices or those completing NVQ's etc. Does this spell the end for Domestic Installers, same thing has been happening with Driving Instructing, .i.e. its become very hard to make a living from it(I mean purely Domestic Installers here). Any comments anyone?

 

[ed-ectrician]

Dont know about your punters but i think why i can charge more than a Electrical Trainee is because, as well as doing a good job, i'm flipping good at customer services/relations and people trust me. I also have a little thing on my website about being a proper spark. Not sure if it makes a difference.

What i'm saying is that people dont ALWAYS go for cheapest price. Personal recommendation means i can get away with charging considerably more than a kitchen fitter with a testing screwdriver who will make a mess!

What do others think?

Ed

 

[Engineer54]

i'm flipping good at customer services/relations

I don't think so, ... Not if you go round calling them Punters!! lol!! :lipsrsealed2:

 

[Jonny66]

Cant see it being a problem, 100 000 short course DIs will just make me look even cleverer init...

 

[Knobhead]

What happened to the days of going on a job without a phone or the internet to help out.
Ah, I remember now, we went on a job with the knowledge and skill to do the job.
But that knowledge and skill had a price, 4 to 5 years of bloody hard work. 17 days, don’t make me laugh!

 

[guest119]

If you didnt get into an apprenticeship before you were 20 years old then as far as Im concerned you missed the boat, it sailed without you. .:boat:


No ammount of courses, fluffing or bluffing or 1000 word posts will make you an equal in my eyes.

Boydy :shocked3:

 

[rmc86uk]

On these 4 week course do they teach you how to do pyro?Do you master how to do 3 bubble sets in a single piece of 25mm tube?Do they show you how to programme simmtronic lighting making sure the binary address at the LCM is the same as the Hexidecimal equivalent at the panel?You aint gonna learn that stuff doing a bit of DIY electrics and reading books.It only comes through proper training and years and years of experience.I am all for people bettering themselves but this is a skilled trade we are talking about

Three bubble sets in one piece of 25mm? Only ever had to do one bubble sets never had to do three! Wouldn't mind a go though!

 

[electromotive]

yes i am, cannot wait to get out this industry is been destroyed by goverment interference and big business.

 

[flyingsausage]

When I sat my apprenticeship in the first year I did 22 weeks at college and was day release in my second year,with the AM2 to do at the end of my apprenticeship to get my time out.
I then had to work for a few years to get my approved card.
It seems now that you can to a months course and walk out with a grade card.

 

[Adam W]

If you didnt get into an apprenticeship before you were 20 years old then as far as Im concerned you missed the boat, it sailed without you. .:boat:


No ammount of courses, fluffing or bluffing or 1000 word posts will make you an equal in my eyes.

Boydy :shocked3:

Well that's your opinion and you're entitled to it, but I don't see how a 25 year old electrician with 5 years' experience can be so much better than a 30 year old electrician with 5 years experience and similar qualifications and experience but who actually chose the trade and demonstrated commitment by paying his way through college instead of having been pushed into it against his will by his parents.
People are talking about getting extra work as taxi drivers or getting out of the trade altogether - how do you think taxi drivers who have been cabbying all their lives feel about some chancer who has been an electrician all his life buying a liveried car and calling them self a cabby and getting the same money?

I started training when I was 25; previously I had done these 'menial' jobs in pubs, shops, call centres etc, which is fine when you're young, don't have a mortgage to pay and can cope with living in a student house and driving a clapped out old banger, but as you get older you need more money to sustain a better quality of life. If there aren't any kids working in pubs, restaurants, shops etc then who will? Would you be prepared to pay even more for a pint so the 50 year old barman who's been working behind a bar since his apprenticeship in barkeeping can pay his mortgage and feed his kids? Or do we have to keep shipping in migrant workers to do these jobs?

Not everyone who trained 'later in life' is a 5 week fast track chancer - some of us took the 'slow track', gained experience working as a mate, and wouldn't dream of buying a van and unleashing them self on the unsuspecting general public without a few more years experience.

 

[imago]

If you didnt get into an apprenticeship before you were 20 years old then as far as Im concerned you missed the boat, it sailed without you. .:boat:


No ammount of courses, fluffing or bluffing or 1000 word posts will make you an equal in my eyes.

Boydy :shocked3:

I see your point, but don't entirely agree.

Not everyone who served an apprenticeship was good. So I'd prefer to work with someone who is good at their job and cares about their work, no matter how or when they trained. Rather than someone who served an apprenticeship, thinks they're god's gift, but actually their rough as a badger's waste pipe.

 

[oldtimer]

With the loss of apprentices this was inevitable now this does not mean that it is bad to learn when you are older I used to stay one step ahead by progressing and building on my skills base so time served industrial and commercial a further 2 years gain approved then moved into intruder/fire alarms then HVAC/BMS controls then Facilities maintenance/management working in a major high street store a electronics plant a chemical plant and a data centre now running a small business of property repairs.

So what am I saying well till the day I die I will always be learning thats goes hand in hand with the job but at the same time lets clarify a couple of things I am not against the Electrical Trainee or the 17 day guy per say i am against the clowns who created this situation and approved these ok you say but what else can you do well I would have made the base learning for a year with a strict mandate to to course work then say another 2 years on site experience as a semi skilled operitive being supervised not because I want to look down on anybody or even cos I did 6 years so I want everybody else to do it Hell if there is one thing that was pounded into me was that electricity is dangerous in the wrong hands plus no ifs no buts I assumed responsability that has stuck with me

 

[ipf]

Well that's your opinion and you're entitled to it, but I don't see how a 25 year old electrician with 5 years' experience can be so much better than a 30 year old electrician with 5 years experience and similar qualifications and experience but who actually chose the trade and demonstrated commitment by paying his way through college instead of having been pushed into it against his will by his parents.
People are talking about getting extra work as taxi drivers or getting out of the trade altogether - how do you think taxi drivers who have been cabbying all their lives feel about some chancer who has been an electrician all his life buying a liveried car and calling them self a cabby and getting the same money?


What sort of an apprenticeship have cabbies done? Obviously, experience is a must, but what courses and exams do they have to do compared with us? If you can afford a vehicle and insurance, etc.

I started training when I was 25; previously I had done these 'menial' jobs in pubs, shops, call centres etc, which is fine when you're young, don't have a mortgage to pay and can cope with living in a student house and driving a clapped out old banger, but as you get older you need more money to sustain a better quality of life. If there aren't any kids working in pubs, restaurants, shops etc then who will? Would you be prepared to pay even more for a pint so the 50 year old barman who's been working behind a bar since his apprenticeship in barkeeping can pay his mortgage and feed his kids? Or do we have to keep shipping in migrant workers to do these jobs?

Bartending is more suited to a 5 week training course than sparking, I feel. How many barmen have even done 5 weeks before starting behind a bar.
If kids aren't prepared to do the training who should guarantee them a job of any substance.

Not everyone who trained 'later in life' is a 5 week fast track chancer - some of us took the 'slow track', gained experience working as a mate, and wouldn't dream of buying a van and unleashing them self on the unsuspecting general public without a few more years experience.

No problem there.

 

[topcat]

spoke to a guy at the local college said only about 5% of students stay as sparks most go on to do other thngs cctv alarms ect

 

[gigawatt]

there's no money in electrical work. I don't know why anyone who isn't stuck down this crappy path would want to do it.

 

[Adam W]

No problem there.

So what's the difference between doing an electrical apprenticeship when you're 25 instead of 20? And who is going to work behind the bars if all the 20 year olds are busy training for "jobs with substance"?