No industry experience...will these qualifications help me??

[snentz]

Got a budget of £ a few thousand and 31 years old with no previous training or experience in electrics aside from basic personal domestic stuff and general knowledge but would like to have a trade and am willing to study and PAY to gain it.

There seems to be no clear route to becoming a qualified electrician and a confusing myriad of courses and qualifications.

Most people on these forums seem to warn against the short intensive courses with private training companies, but they seem like the only option for someone in my position. Also a lot of people saying the qualifications aren't worth anything without experience...which seems quite negative as you have to get both whatever order you do it in. So I intend to go ahead and obtain whatever quals I can and then look for employment in the industry, and then perhaps further my studies.

After several days of research into the various qualifications, training providers, reading forums and searching through electrician jobs it is not clear what the best qualifications to hold are to be a basic sparky, maintenance engineer etc. The most common requirements for jobs listed as 'electrician' or similar seem to be 2391 (now changed to 2394/95? but most employers haven't updated to this...) and 2382 17th edition.

So...if someone like me without experience went to a training centre and obtained the following:

4141-01
4141-02
2377-22
2382-12
2392-10
2393
2394
2395

all of which you can theoretically do without working or having worked in the trade, would be around 35 days training and approx £4400 (going on average prices). Would you be a qualified, employable electrician (i know, i know experience helps employability) if holding all these quals or would you need to have additionally done the 2365 (old 2330 from what I gather??) or 2357 to consider yourself qualified??

So if you have all of the above but not the 2365 or 2357 can you work as an electrician? Also if I got all of the above plus 2399-01, 11 & 12 (Solar PV Installation and Maintenance) would it be worth it??? Or do you really just have to be a daddys boy with mates in the trade to even get in on any side of it?

I'm not really looking to spend 3 years going to night school once a week, or spending 2 years working for free or as someone's little apprentice for £2.50 an hour. I would just like to have a skill and qualification to my name that will enable me to apply for jobs...as it seems silly and backwards to have to be an apprentice before you start studying.

Can people help confirm and clarify this for me??

Many thanks.

 

[rmc86uk]

Im willing to work in those types of jobs for up to 3 years whilst gaining all the qualifications, licenses, badges etc that I can

The problem is even to get a mates job they want site experience as it states in the job you posted. Also for having IPAF £6.50 for a mate is low pay.

 

[Jdsparky]

Get a mates job as you can't have it all right now, as with anything you need experience, even getting used to using side cutters for example will be awkward at first so even if you had all the knowledge in the world about sparking and couldn't strip a cable, pretty useless tbh. Best route for u if your serious is go to college a couple of nights a week along with working as a mate (if u can get in with someone) this will most probably be sub contracting, and find out if it really is the job for you before investing too much money into a job that isn't paid the best.
if all fails, put £4400 on red and keep going till this time next year we'll be millionaires.