New here

[reduitman]

Hi all, This is my first post here. I am trying to make up my mind about which course to do to get ivolved with domestic electrical installations. I have heard that there are college courses but because of my age, in my 40's now I think this will be to long winded. I did a City and Guilds in computer engineering about 15 years ago and passed the level 3 in about 3 months crash course, which would have taken 2 years at college. I worked in IT for about 10 years but had to stop to become the full time carer for a family member.
Anyway jump forward 5 years and I want to retrain as an electrician because I think I will have an aptitude for it and need to be earning soon again. I also think it is a skill I can take abroad with me and is not just for the younger people as is the case with a lot of IT. Believe me once you have reached 40 in IT you are considered old.

Anyway I have contacted Trade Qualified £5995 and RF Training £5995, both say I will be a qualified domestic installer in about 8 weeks to 3 months if I do it full time intensive with them.

Bare in mind I have been a carer for the last 5 years and this is a lot of money to me, do you think this will be money well spent or a pipe dream ? Trade Qualified is part correspondence and 4 weeks at their centre. RF is 7 weeks full time with them.

Both give you a tool kit and help you through the exams, however Trade qualified says they offer CG 2391 which they say is highly prized.

Any help will be much appreciated because I have only one shot at making the right decision and will most probably will have to take a loan for this.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Paul.M]

Welcome to the forum where you you find loads of conversations on this topic.

Before you get a loan and pay out £6k for a 7 week course to learn 2 years of education, which you may be able to do. Have a look at all the job web sites for electricians jobs in your area first, you will be surprised. The claims of some companies saying that the UK has a skills shortage is incorrect, you will find it hard to get work. You may end up with the qualifications, a £6k debt and no income to pay for it, that's risky. Do a bit more research first.

 

[malcolmsanford]

Hi and welcome

There is a lovely chap on here call brucelee who is nearly in the same situation as you who is a carer for his lovely lady wife, I'm sure he would be more than happy to give you advice and more importantly support.

As a very lucky time served Electrician I have to agree with Paul's post above, the 7 week course is not highly regarded in our industry basically becasue it is felt very very few will be competant once they have qualified. Though you rightly say that you will become not an electrciian but a domestic installer, I can only reiterate what Paul advises, check your local area and see how many DI are working the market and I think you maybe suprised.

I wish you well in whatever you decide.

 

[Penance]

You wont get any recognised qual for working overseas in 8 weeks.

If you are serious about getting in to electrical work i would suggest forgetting the fast track route and contacting a local college.

 

[reduitman]

Thanks Guys for the responses, I was hoping to do the fast track course, get the qualifications and then offer to work for a qualified electrician for a few months as his helper whilst gaining on the job experience. The courses say you can start your own business straight away, but I did not take this serously because after the last city & guilds I did I was in a kond of trainee role for the first 2 years. I feel I have to do something because the years are not on my side, and U can't really see myself in a plumbing role and wabr to do something I thinh I will be suited to. Ironically my local college was doing the course but has stopped it this year !!! I thought there was a need in my area because I have had 2 homeseve electricians and another private electricians who have not been able to fix a problem with my electric cooker circuit, and I wondered weather they were porperly qualified. I can see this is a tough one but I definately want to take some sort of action and do not mind starting from the bottom.

 

[reduitman]

Penance I am already in my 40's, thats why I am looking at a quicker way to get qualifications and get into a trainee position. I feel I have already lost 5-6 years because of domestic situation. 2-3 years at college is not an option for me as I am not able to finance it.

 

[Paul.M]

"I thought there was a need in my area because I have had 2 homeseve electricians and another private electricians who have not been able to fix a problem with my electric cooker circuit, and I wondered weather they were porperly qualified."

These are the type of problems that you will be faced with after only 7 weeks training and you are expected to fix it. It doesn't prove that there is work in your area, it shows that 3 electricians are available to at shirt notice to do the work. Again have a look at domestic installer work on your local job sites.

 

[reduitman]

"I thought there was a need in my area because I have had 2 homeseve electricians and another private electricians who have not been able to fix a problem with my electric cooker circuit, and I wondered weather they were porperly qualified."

These are the type of problems that you will be faced with after only 7 weeks training and you are expected to fix it. It doesn't prove that there is work in your area, it shows that 3 electricians are available to at shirt notice to do the work. Again have a look at domestic installer work on your local job sites.

Thanks Paul,

If there is a need on local job sites do you think it would be worth going for these qualifications on one of these courses ? Bear in mind I still have to work for over 20 years, so would this pay off over the longer term ?

 

[reduitman]

I also want to get into refrigeration and air conditioning at a later date so I was hoping a good grounding in electrics would help me.

 

[Penance]

reduitman, im also in my 40's but no where near end of working life.
I do understand that time is precious, i also lost a few year caring for a family member and can understand the urgency you feel to get moving again.

At the end of the day it is your call but as said above the quick course dont carry much weight in the industry. To be honest i cant see a quick way to become a spark so if you are really set on it then you may have to accept a longer training period.

 

[Paul.M]

Thanks Paul,

If there is a need on local job sites do you think it would be worth going for these qualifications on one of these courses ? Bear in mind I still have to work for over 20 years, so would this pay off over the longer term ?

Look at what qualifications the employers are asking for and compare them with what you are going for. You may find loads of electrician maintenance jobs that your quals and experience can't even touch. Below is a link to a post on this forum giving a little advise for people like yourself. http://www.electriciansforums.net/e...vqs/396-becoming-electrician-information.html.

We don't know where you live but I can assume that if you spend an hour or so trolling the web for a job and come back here you will say that there's not a lot you could apply for. The amount of qualified and experienced sparkys on this forum throughout the day telly you that there is a reason why we are not at work, the lack of jobs and work out there. It's a difficult time to be coming into this industry but you may make it if your lucky. Good luck.

 

[reduitman]

reduitman, im also in my 40's but no where near end of working life.
I do understand that time is precious, i also lost a few year caring for a family member and can understand the urgency you feel to get moving again.

At the end of the day it is your call but as said above the quick course dont carry much weight in the industry. To be honest i cant see a quick way to become a spark so if you are really set on it then you may have to accept a longer training period.

Penance could you suggest some alternative ways to me, as you can see I am very green here and I think the fast track course providers can sense this and smell blood. To be honest I would rather do it over a longer period, but as you know when you become a carer and recieve carers allowance over a period of time your savings dry up. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

 

[Paul.M]

Try and get a labours job and go to college on day release or night school.

 

[topquark]

There's nothing like a bit of market research, you could try a "door to door" canvas and see realistically how much work there may be in your area. If you are/were in IT software then there are probably contract jobs that you could do in your area whilst you take the time to do a longer period of study.

 

[reduitman]

Look at what qualifications the employers are asking for and compare them with what you are going for. You may find loads of electrician maintenance jobs that your quals and experience can't even touch. Below is a link to a post on this forum giving a little advise for people like yourself. http://www.electriciansforums.net/e...vqs/396-becoming-electrician-information.html.

We don't know where you live but I can assume that if you spend an hour or so trolling the web for a job and come back here you will say that there's not a lot you could apply for. The amount of qualified and experienced sparkys on this forum throughout the day telly you that there is a reason why we are not at work, the lack of jobs and work out there. It's a difficult time to be coming into this industry but you may make it if your lucky. Good luck.

Wow thanks Paul, The advisors ar Trade Qualified and RF training said there was loads of work and not enough elecrictians because for every three electricians who leave and retire from the industry only one joins. They said there was going to be a boom in new builds to meet the governments housing goals and electricians and domestic installers were highly sought after now. Ah well, I suppose desperate times calls for desperate measures and obviously it was going to be at my expense. I was considering a career development loan, but I may not have qualified anyway. I feel I am in no mans land at the moment