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[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.

 

[reduitman]

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

Do you need any electrical qualifications to get in as labourer, would people consider someone my age, though still in good shape.

 

[Penance]

Carers allowance is a joke isnt it!

I would look at what courses are available at a local college and also contact local firms to enquire about a labouring or mates position, also ask them what they would expect from you in way of studies.
Unfortunately there isnt really a quick way in to the trade.
Did your IT work cover network design/setup? It could be useful.

Good luck with it, i hope you manage to find a way in to the trade.

 

[High Tower]

Reduit, i am in my early 30's.......well 30 to be exact, there is never a right time to retrain, the thing to remember is, that you maybe in your 40's but do you want to work out the last 20 or so years of your working life as a proper, experienced, qualified spark. If you do then its a 2-3 year affair at college and learn the trade from the ground up, i have had to do this, and its tough........but its really worth it!

 

[reduitman]

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.

High topquark, contracts in my field are very hard to come by. a lot of work has been outsourced abroad, that is why I want to have a skill they cannot outsource. They started outsourcing stuff years ago. The few positions that are left they give to uni graduates because there are so many graduates out of work now. I have also been out of it for 5 years so i woulld have to retrain there too. Ultimately I would like to move to a warm climate where I think air conditionong and refrigeration will be in big demand.
I just do not want another 5 years to go by and I am still in the same position.

 

[reduitman]

Carers allowance is a joke isnt it!

I would look at what courses are available at a local college and also contact local firms to enquire about a labouring or mates position, also ask them what they would expect from you in way of studies.
Unfortunately there isnt really a quick way in to the trade.
Did your IT work cover network design/setup? It could be useful.

Good luck with it, i hope you manage to find a way in to the trade.

Great I will make some enquiries about the mates position. My city and guilds qualification was in network design and installation. Mind you 15 years old now so I am not sure if this would carry any weight.

 

[reduitman]

Reduit, i am in my early 30's.......well 30 to be exact, there is never a right time to retrain, the thing to remember is, that you maybe in your 40's but do you want to work out the last 20 or so years of your working life as a proper, experienced, qualified spark. If you do then its a 2-3 year affair at college and learn the trade from the ground up, i have had to do this, and its tough........but its really worth it!

I agree High Tower, if only I could be 30 again !!! Can I ask how much does it cost to do the course at college and are there any older students like me ?

 

[Penance]

I think it would carry enough weight to be useful, if on a site where sparks are asked to pull network cabling in you can do a bit more than that.

 

[RWJ]

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 ?

I would put money on there not being many jobs at the job centre £7.5 PH!! was the last one.
Even if there were they'll (probably) be asking for a JIB Gold card, which you can't get by doing a 7 week course....

 

[IQ Electrical]

The labourer advice is good, get an ECS labourers card and that will allow you to work on some of the larger sites and pick up some good experience while earning a crust too!

When you're talking to the training companies, the picture thay paint of our industry is not the picture that most of us here recognise, then again, they're selling training!

 

[Paul.M]

I agree High Tower, if only I could be 30 again !!! Can I ask how much does it cost to do the course at college and are there any older students like me ?

There is an age group of 20-50 on the mature courses so don't worry about that. It will be a lot less than £6k in total and in my opinion you receive a mush better education.

 

[malcolmsanford]

There is an age group of 20-50 on the mature courses so don't worry about that. It will be a lot less than £6k in total and in my opinion you receive a mush better education.

Well that's me out of applying for one ........................I think I'll sue for ageism

 

[reduitman]

I would put money on there not being many jobs at the job centre £7.5 PH!! was the last one.
Even if there were they'll (probably) be asking for a JIB Gold card, which you can't get by doing a 7 week course....

But £7.50 for a trainee position is not bad, beats the carers allowance rate of less than £1 per hour !!!

 

[RWJ]

But £7.50 for a trainee position is not bad, beats the carers allowance rate of less than £1 per hour !!!

No... That was for 2360, 2832 & 2391 Fully qualified


I'm looking for the post... but can't find it.... Think Phil posted it???

 

[brucelee]

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.

Hi mate welcome to the forum

I am in the same position as yourself mate as i am a full time carer for my partner who was left disabled after a Private operation

I approached the jobcentre for advise as i have been involved in electrical installation for 25 yrs on and off
basically they told me there was no funding or help and I didnt need to work as I am exempt from working due to being a carer
Which would be ok if i never wanted to work and live of peanuts that they pay you in benefits and never wanted a better future

So after much deliberation and thought as weel as researching every private training provider
I went with RF training in 2009 to learn more about the theory side and the inspection and testing
the course should have cost £5020 but i waited ad they were doing a special reduction so I could get it for £4020 for
C&G 2382-10
2377-200
2393- 100
and Logic full scope electrical lv A and defined scopes LV B,C which is a competence achievment in theory and practical tests
also got
Megger 1552
Bs 7671
OSG
CK toolkit
they have changed it ow and replaced the 2393-100 building regs with the 2392 inspection and testing which is half way to the 2391-10
I passed these quals some 100%
the course is very rushed and probably misses out a lot of the Knowledge you would get from doing a apprenticeship or similar
the practical work you will do is mainly domestic installation so wont cover 3 phase theory or practical
I enjoyed the course met some good people but for £4k i dont think the qualifications you get from it are that valuable
as most employers ask for 2391-10, 2330 l2 and 3 or apprentice trained

since doing the private course I enrolled for a 2391-10 inspection and testing course course at Bury college last march after 6 months of trying as this ualificatio is regarded highly
so i studdied every day at home for 4 months did the 8 week 3 hr evening course and took the written exam june 10th last yr and the practical on the 15th at a cost of £540 some of which i managed to get funding for from the college and local skills shop so I only had to pay £140 RESULT

10 of us took the exam 4 passed I was the only one in the class not in the industry and only 39% of the country passed so I a regard this as a achievment in it self

I have now just enrolled for a LV3 2330 at warrington college evenings after i had tried countless colleges and C&G who told me it was ending 31.3.11 on the 31st warrington collegiate rang me at 3.30pm and asked me to get there as soon as possible to enrol as it was the last day so i did
the course was going to cost another £800+ so i went to enrol when i was there he asked me about the 2391 etc and about me being a carer
he realised i was on certain benefits and said i would probably only pay £120 instead again a result

i got home and found out they had extended the deadline until next july as the C&G 2357 was still not ready
I should have started my course 21st april and when i went the tutor told me because C&G have extended all the students had started the LV3 course had gone back to LV2 as they were being fast tracked to entrol for lv3 in time. Now they have gone back to finish lv2 properly so this left me with no course now until September

So as you can see mate it isnt easy and no quick fixes yes on the private course you will just about learn enough theory wise and practical wise to do the job but on the course its all done in bays or boards
whereas wiring someones home is different from a bay were everything is in front of you
I had loads of practical experience on domestic and some commercial as i worked for a electrical contractors doing new build and i was wiring houses day after day upto 5 a day for 4 yrs so the practical work for the course was easy to me
A few of the candidates struggled mate they tell you you will be a a qualified electrician in 6 or 7 weeks not so mate yes you can apply to one of the govering bodies as a domestic installer as you will have the very basic quals you eed to meet the criteria which at the moment is just competence and getting the 17th edition 2382-10 in the first yr of your registration

Think long and hard mate its what you want to do and dont think it will be a easy answer to getting the large amounts of money these courses say you ca earn yes you can if experienced and the current economic climate improves
If you only want to do domestic the yes the private course may teach you this
but these qualifications they are offering are available at colleges for a great deal less
but the private training course will give you some practical experience

good luck mate dont want to put you off but I spent a large amout of our savings and still doing and not earned a penny back mate

My next step is to register with Elecsa and complete the necessary jobs very soon the i can then set up self employed and work from home ad I have also enrolled for a NVQ which is costing me another £780 hopefully the work will start to pick up soon for everyone as there are loads of fully qualified sparks with no work mate or new apprentices who cant get ay work to finish what they started

these courses make out there is a shortage there isnt as there is not enough work for the existing electricians and some people who do these courses never go onto to work in the industry out of the 8 i did the private course with 1 set up and folded 6 months later
one returned to his former employer which is working on panels and control sytems for reserviors and sewarage etc he has a NVQ already and done the 2391 i done but he is always asking me for advise on wiring and testing lol which I always help if I can
the others never went on to do aything with electrics

I wanted to do this job since 13 at 16 i got a apprenticeship at 17 i gave it up at 18 i returned to the installation game at 22 i lost job due to the recession in the 90s then i did maintainance for 12 or so yrs including there electrics
then for last 6 yrs i have been a carer and studying to finally be a fully qualified elecy after 25yrs of doing th job in some fashion or other only job i ever wanted to do matey

the plumbers and joiners , plasterers are probably earning as much or more than elecys at the minute
the hourly wage has dropped greatly over last few yrs

good luck matey in your endeavour and whatever you chose to do to give you a future and a income

 

[reduitman]

The labourer advice is good, get an ECS labourers card and that will allow you to work on some of the larger sites and pick up some good experience while earning a crust too!

When you're talking to the training companies, the picture thay paint of our industry is not the picture that most of us here recognise, then again, they're selling training!

Hi IQ, do you need any qualifications to get the ECS labourers card ? You are right I have recieved so many glossy brochures and everyone seems to be smiling and happy. The guy even said I could be writing my own pay cheque in a couple of years which seemed very dubious. An ECS labourer and a college course would be brilliant, mind you I suppose competion will be pretty stiff to get in this way. I will give it a shot.