2 Years Experience; No Qualifications - I want to be a spark, where do I start?

[Tilko Misiek]

Long story short;

I dropped sixth form 2 years ago, started working for an electrical firm with my dad
Began studying from sep2010, AAT Accounting Level 2, Halfway through 3 now....

However sitting behind a desk is not my preffered way to spend my working hours,
Ive got these 2 years of experience where I actually enjoyed working.


I want to become qualified
and I want to do it as fast and as soon as possible.
What are the courses I enroll onto?
When Where how?
Can I still work as an electrical labourer/ along them lines?

I have my JIB ECS card


I need to keep working .. I really cannot afford to be an apprentice.
The company I have been working for has gone bust,
And the people that took us over practically sacked the lot of us; I was earning very good money for my inexperienced position...
Im having problems at home, and was going to move out in the next month/2 but everythings gone down hill...


please guys help me out.
I just want a straightforward path to get qualified asap

 

[swparksey]

I agree that are here to stay. I would be every worried if somebody came out of college or off a Electrical Trainee with no experience and started pulling my house apart.

This seems to have become another Electrical Trainee bashing thread

 

[alarm man]

That's funny

I employ a number of sparks nationwide for industrial. Chap one 15 experience no quals did a Electrical Trainee to get his quals and a site diary. I would trust his work with my life. Second example came to me as an apprentice did the 3 years college route passed all his exams and still Lacks basic numeracy and literacy skills I am sure all he did was turn up. So frankly I am talking from experience of running a business that turns over in excess of 14 million pounds a year. Stupid I think not !

Mind you my field is very specialised and we share £135 per hour

what fields that then?

 

[Adam W]

Sorry forgot to add the apprentice now has 6 or 7 years experience he came when he was 16 he is now 26 I think. It's generally the level of apprentices we receive is very poor.

Don't get me wrong I'm not mocking people who went to college. I did it and went to Uni after that long hall to get where I am today. But well worth the effort. I was trying to point out that the quality of college leavers can be very poor. And there are a lot to be said for people who say leave the forces and do a Electrical Trainee to get the certificates in some cases they are extremely skilled people. So it's time we stopped mocking the Electrical Trainee courses they have a place IMHO

Are you saying you would employ someone who had previously worked in IT and never picked up a screwdriver until 5 weeks ago, rather than someone who started a college course 3 years ago?
As mentioned these 'express' courses are meant for the people with the prior experience but not the bits of paper, not to propel people into an industry in 5 weeks when they have neither knowledge or experience.
The 'full course' (eg 2330) could be for people from the same background who wish to start a career with the relevant knowledge.

You'd have a job to work for 15 years doing anything without picking up a bit of the theory as well as the practical - it comes with doing something for a long time rather than trying to cram it all into 5 weeks...

 

[swparksey]

That's what i was thinking. You should not be allowed in someone's house with no experience. It's criminal to think of the damage you could do.

I think qualified can sometimes be different from competent.

 

[swparksey]

Are you saying you would employ someone who had previously worked in IT and never picked up a screwdriver until 5 weeks ago, rather than someone who started a college course 3 years ago?

No not at all, I would simply employ based on the interview, qualifications and experience. TBH I normally look for 2391 and 2382 then either experience or an NVQ or better still both, secondly they must be able to Program a PLC usually from scratch, and have experience in industrial control / automation, with panel building skills.

You'd have a job to work for 15 years doing anything without picking up a bit of the theory as well as the practical - it comes with doing something for a long time rather than trying to cram it all into 5 weeks...

Yes you would but you only tend to remember what you use, after 15 years I bet that lots of what you learnt in college is lost. Unless you are doing it all the time in your employement. If you have a fundamental understanding then their aint much you can't learn from a book. After all "those who can do, and those who can't teach" - George Bernard Shaw

 

[alarm man]

No not at all, I would simply employ based on the interview, qualifications and experience. TBH I normally look for 2391

well you only passed yours 18 month ago..and many a spark has expirenece of controls and panel building,something a Electrical Trainee will never see..

 

[swparksey]

Thats right I did mine 2391 18 months ago, as part of our continual improvement plan we are required to continually update our qualifications, plus the cost is offset against tax, but I fail to see what relevance that has?

I have a Electrical Trainee working for me and he has experience in panel building, mind you he also has a degree in electrical engineering, and served in the merchant navy for a number of years still a Electrical Trainee in your eyes!

 

[alarm man]

Thats right I did mine 2391 18 months ago, as part of our continual improvement plan we are required to continually update our qualifications, plus the cost is offset against tax, but I fail to see what relevance that has?

because you seem to want sparks with all the expierence but seem to think a Electrical Trainee will do the job...and whats the tax offset got to do with anything for a couple of employees courses to a multi million pound company..

 

[swparksey]

Thats my personal tax liability,

you seem to want sparks with all the expierence but seem to think a Electrical Trainee will do the job

Exactly the point I am making Experience is Key not the 3 years in the local Tec or the 5 days on the Electrical Trainee its all about the experience, great if you have the knowledge as well Electrical Trainee or 3 years, you should not simply assume that as somebody has done a 3 year tec course they are any better than the Electrical Trainee

 

[alarm man]

Thats my personal tax liability,



Exactly the point I am making Experience is Key

its called an apprenticeship...where an employer takes you on and here a strange one..pays you while you learn from the older lads who were by some strange sort of quirk,apprentices too...it'll never catch on.one day i predict there will be no apprentices and everyone will have to pay themselves to learn and the companies will employ sparks on really poor wages....good job i'll be long gone by then...:dead:

 

[swparksey]

Exactly, but back to my OP, we did not mention apprenticeships we were simply talking about 3 years or 5 days.
An apprenticeship is the best route IMHO, but not always available.

I take it from your patronising tone you have run out of things to bash Electrical Trainee with ?:laugh3:

 

[alarm man]

I take it from your patronising tone you have run out of things to bash Electrical Trainee with ?:laugh3:

not quite,got some 25mm galv left over from the weekend...
:smilewinkgrin:
:smilewinkgrin:

 

[Guest55]

...... i predict there will be no apprentices and everyone will have to pay themselves to learn and the companies will employ sparks on really poor wages....good job i'll be long gone by then...:dead:

That era has already started sadly.

 

[swparksey]

Sad and very true,

 

[Adam W]

I don't see how this guy is a 'Electrical Trainee' if he's got 15 years' experience in the trade, which I strongly suspect is what makes him good at his job rather than the 5 weeks ticking boxes in a training centre.

As I say on most of the 'Electrical Trainee' threads which I can be bothered with, this is what the Electrical Trainee course should be for and not for someone who wants to change career in 5 weeks, who you seem to be grouping together, ie if this guy with a degree in electrical engineering and 15 years experience can be a good electrician when he's done a 5 week course then surely someone who has done 10 years flipping burgers must also be a good electrician after doing the same 5 week course. I and by the sound of it most others would doubt this to be the case. In fact after doing an electrical engineering degree and clocking up 15 years of experience he's not even a 'Electrical Trainee' at all and should be disqualified as such, therefore blowing swparksey's argument out of the water.