Qualifications, but no experience.

[thorpy]

Hello everyone, im 32 years old and I have very recently got my 17th edition, full scope part p and my pat testing qualifications. Im now studying for my inspection and testing and so on. My problem now is I need experience in the trade and cant seem to find anyone to give me a chance. Does anybody have any advice.

 

[Phil]

welcome to the forum. if your working full time try to offer yourself to a local electrician on weekend to gain experience. or if not have a ring round and see if you can get a start as a mate.
btw Falcon just off regent street is a really busy wholesalers and may well be worth asking if you can pop your details on the coffee machine

 

[Jez Wilkins]

Hi thorpy. There is no doubt that it is very difficult. I was (still am) in the same boat as you. I've found that the larger companies in my neck of the woods do not seem keen to provide anybody with work experience and, with the smaller/one person companies, there is the added (and very understandable) issue of not wanting to end up 'cutting their own throat', by helping to train up somebody who could later end up competing with them for relatively scarce work.

Probably not my place to say, but Phil's suggestions are good ones. yell.com (the internet version of 'Yellow Pages') is a good place to get contact details for Electricians in your area, if you have not already tried this source. My local County Council has a 'Trusted Trader' scheme and their website has a list for Electricians. Maybe your local council/County Council has something similar, if you have not already tried this?

Good luck in your search.

Cheers,

Jez Wilkins

 

[Engineer54]

Sorry, but you don't really have any meaningful qualifications to your name, so you can't actually call yourself qualified by any stretch of the imagination.

Again, i'm sorry, but i don't have any sympathies for those that choose to enter this industry via the backdoor, then get upset that no-one want's to give them experience. Perhaps now you realise that spending 17 to 30+ days at a training centre, hasn't in fact come close to turning you into anything approaching a qualified electrician!!

 

[robbalaar86]

Same old same old basically you cut corners to be an electrician. Think I may do a 5 week course and become a surgeon.

Sigh

 

[Octopus]

Beware of offering yourself to local chaps - they are likely to see you as a competitor!

 

[TheDJ]

Good luck to you mate hope you get the experience your looking for , unfortunately you will find out that probably more than 50% of sparks are Aholes with a delusional sense of self importance as demonstrated in a couple of your replies.

 

[snowhead]

Good luck to you mate hope you get the experience your looking for , unfortunately you will find out that probably more than 50% of sparks are Aholes with a delusional sense of self importance as demonstrated in a couple of your replies.

I take it you'd approve of all 17year olds having to write an essay on how good a driver they are and automatically get a full U.K driving licence.

 

[TheDJ]

I approve of anybody putting in hard work and doing there best at anything. This only comes with experience and trying to gain it , which he is obviously trying to do , so what part of that is it that you are so obviously annoyed about?

 

[chrish_1977]

Good luck to you, it is hard I had the same when I retrained, I was lucky though that someone was willing to give me a chance, best thing is just keep trying and someone may give you a chance, just keep reading as much as you can, and keep trying

 

[snowhead]

so what part of that is it that you are so obviously annoyed about?

Just because people have suggested the O.P may not be taking the best route into the trade, which I agree with, doesn't deserve a comment such as yours;

unfortunately you will find out that probably more than 50% of sparks are Aholes with a delusional sense of self importance as demonstrated in a couple of your replies.

 

[7029 dave]

The trouble is you here this a lot in this industry,qual first then learn later.What the hell is all that about?!!,when I started in this industry,you learnt at 16 went to college on day release or block,then hands on for the rest . Now good luck to the op if he can get his foot in the door,low wages etc!! .

 

[Engineer54]

Good luck to you mate hope you get the experience your looking for , unfortunately you will find out that probably more than 50% of sparks are Aholes with a delusional sense of self importance as demonstrated in a couple of your replies.

Spoken by yet another of the now many thousands of wannabe electricians that are too inexperienced and totally under qualified to be so idiots, that thinks this industry now owes them a living, after spending a few thousand on a 17 day bronze DI course!! Fortunately you're the only delusional Ahole around here!!

 

[TheDJ]

Wannabe electrician ?? I've been a spark since I left school at 16 and I am now 31 , work offshore and have been lucky enough to work all over the world , you do realise your reply does nothing to dispell my original reply and only confirms it. It's just seems to me that this is may be an English problem with you guys having things like Part P ?? I have no idea what Part P is btw. I shall reiterate for the sake of confusion , if someone wants to become a spark at 16,26,36,46 whatever as long as they are willing to learn , graft etc etc then good luck to them and all the best I have no problem with that , I learn every day myself and have been doing this since I was 16 and know nothing else , everydays a school
Day as they say , . .

 

[TheDJ]

I'm a just giving my honest opinion as I see it , that is all , we all have different experiences in the trade , and although you do not agree with my opinion I respect that you have given yours. I just think there is an overwhelming sense of arrogance in the sparky trade and I just don't get it that's all

 

[davethsparky]

In this country we have somehow created the new trade of 'Domestic electrician' for which the only qualification you need is to be able to install things on a wooden wall and then pass a multiple guess exam. I have had two of these qualified domestic electricians ask to come out to work with me, and I said yes as I have no problem with people wanting to learn.

They do seem to have a good knowledge of the regulations, good enough to be able to point out how wrong I am in all those situations where the physical restrictions of the real world prevent absolute unthinking compliance with the regulations.

But sadly they can't strip cable for toffee, have no idea how to fault find, get totally confused when presented with a 2 way wired in conduit, don't do terminal screws up tight enough, don't know how to drill through a wall without creating a massive crater the other side, can't clip a cable straight, don't know which way round to put the blade in a hacksaw, don't understand the basics of operating a tester, can't identify anything that needs main bonding unless its a water or gas pipe.

But it's ok, they're qualified domestic electricians, why would they need to know this stuff?

 

[xavierpj]

A good way in for me, was to do agency work. Register with all agencies and get a cscs card. Mate work is available which is invaluable experience. You have to wing it. 2394/2395 is now essential to gain. Its tough out there. Plenty of people I completed city and guilds with struggling to get a footing.

 

[TheDJ]

I agree 100% , but again these things will come with experience , which we all started without but gained over time , and still continue to do , day in day out.

 

[Jez Wilkins]

xavierpj said

A good way in for me, was to do agency work. Register with all agencies and get a cscs card. Mate work is available which is invaluable experience. You have to wing it. 2394/2395 is now essential to gain. Its tough out there. Plenty of people I completed city and guilds with struggling to get a footing.

I'm pleased that this worked for you. Based on my own recent experience, it's not a road that I can recommend to the Original Poster. All the agencies that I've tried, are looking for experienced people. This is because their clients are looking for experienced people. I'm guessing that the clients know that there are sufficient experienced people out there, that they don't need to take on somebody who has no relevant experience. The agencies always ask for at least one (possibly two) relevant work references.

Cheers,

Jez Wilkins

 

[plugpass]

Hi thorpy
I was made redundant in 2005 as an Electrician in a factory have had no experiance in the Domestic side which is very differant to what i was used to so did exactly what you have done and went and worked for a fairly large company for 2 months at my own cost they payed me no wages but the experiance was next to non great guy I worked with. I was 61yrs when I was made redundant and I managed to live on my redundacy pay for 2 months. Now if you can do the same and your finances can manage it,, have a look round your local area someone I am sure will take you on. Buy the way we have been in business for 7 yrs now and doing ok Try and get your PAT Testing off the ground in the mean time go round and talk to people they appreciate that more than sending text or e-mails they just go in the bin.
So go for it and all the best
Regards Pete

 

[RPS]

Have you thought of joining a electrical body and going it alone? Small steps small jobs and build up from there.

 

[Engineer54]

Wannabe electrician ?? I've been a spark since I left school at 16 and I am now 31 , work offshore and have been lucky enough to work all over the world , you do realise your reply does nothing to dispell my original reply and only confirms it. It's just seems to me that this is may be an English problem with you guys having things like Part P ?? I have no idea what Part P is btw. I shall reiterate for the sake of confusion , if someone wants to become a spark at 16,26,36,46 whatever as long as they are willing to learn , graft etc etc then good luck to them and all the best I have no problem with that , I learn every day myself and have been doing this since I was 16 and know nothing else , everydays a school
Day as they say , . .

Glad to hear it, but whether you're a time served Spark or not, how the hell can you condone anyone having the absolute minimum of training, with totally inadequate experience, being able to legally go into unsuspecting people's homes to carry out electrical work is totally beyond me. The main reason these wannabe's have gone down the fast track course (back door) route is because they do NOT want to, or CAN'T put in the required time and/or effort into becoming a qualified electrician. As far as i'm concerned, they and certainly any potential customers are far better off if they choose another trade or profession, one that doesn't put life and/or property at risk.

Few to none of these guy's can actually get an electrician's job out there in the real world, as they just don't possess the required qualifications and in all too many cases, have zero work experience either, having spent the majority of their life in an office or stacking shelves at Tesco's and the like. After 17 days/30 days at a training centre they virtually all go and get Part Pee registration from these parasitic organisations that were actually put in place to ''STOP'' incompetence in the domestic sector and become self employed DI sole traders.

For anyone to see that fully qualified and experienced electricians have a problem coming to terms with these wannabe's flooding the self employed workplace and then being labelled as ''Arrogant'' and ''Delusional Aholes'' has to be the real Ahole's here!! Probably why the UK's electrical industry has been dragged down to the level it's at now...

Anyone that wants to be an electrician needs (like yourself and every other qualified electrician) to obtain a core electrical qualification in your case it was probably C&G 2330 2/3, ...in mine and many other cases of older electrician C&G 2360 B/C, (among many others) Along with the experience of working alongside fully qualified and able mentors. If these wannabe's are prepared to gain the correct qualifications and experience then fine, if they are not, they need to be kicked into touch, they are no good to man nor beast in this industry!!

 

[HandyPat]

Go to the NIC website and search on your postcode for the contact details of local registered electricians/companies. I am sure that you will find somebody who could do with an extra pair of hands! It was a few years ago but I retrained and went down the same route - all qualification and no site experience. I was lucky to land a permanent job quickly despite my lack of work experience but things are different now so I would accept any offer of unpaid work just to build up the scope of your abilities. Best wishes for the future.

 

[TheDJ]

I agree with you totally, and again if they're willing to put in the graft and get the experience then good on them , if not then so be it. I have (thankfully) never worked domestically but my own experience of being a spark , is that I have found about 50% of them to be arrogant , that's all ! If that offends you because your a fellow spark then that's your problem , I,m just giving my opinion same as you

 

[applemac]

Get some work in the general building trade, see how buildings are cobbled together this will give you some idea whilst your looking for spark work. Pat testing is for girls forget it