Some advice please

[itsonelouder]

I’m looking for a career change, I’m 39 and I’m in London.

Realistically, how easy is it going to be for me to get a job having completed either the Electrical or Gas Engineers course here?:

Plumbing Courses, Electrical Courses, Gas Engineer Training Course

I don’t want to spend money on this and not be able to find a job because I lack the experience.

Which one, if any, do I stand the best chance with? Or am I wasting my time and money? Is the talk about a shortage of Electrician and tradesmen a fabrication?

Thanks for your advice.

 

[ricardo123]

On the idea of becoming a domestic gas engineer, from what I have heard they are hoping to phase out gas from 2015 onwards at the latest, obviously there will still be gas central heating systems in houses but as these are replaced the pool of work will get smaller.

And under no circumstances whatsoever re-train as a driving instructor, the market is totally flooded.

 

[Adam W]

Those figures and references come from training providers who want to sell you an expensive course. It's in their interest to lead people to believe there are skills shortages because it helps them to sell their product.
Same with driving instructor franchises. I read on a different forum that gas fitters are experiencing the same.

IMO best to decide what you want to do and pursue that - at least if you don't get rich quick you'll have a reason to stick at it, then maybe you could 'get rich eventually'.

 

[SPARTYKUS]

I’m looking for a career change, I’m 39 and I’m in London.

Realistically, how easy is it going to be for me to get a job having completed either the Electrical or Gas Engineers course here?:

Plumbing Courses, Electrical Courses, Gas Engineer Training Course

I don’t want to spend money on this and not be able to find a job because I lack the experience.

Which one, if any, do I stand the best chance with? Or am I wasting my time and money? Is the talk about a shortage of Electrician and tradesmen a fabrication?

Thanks for your advice.

Hi

the only one making anything from those courses are a couple of directors at the top driving range rovers.

There is no shortage of electricians, go out and drive for an hour and count how many you see.

It's a big wind up, there is not enough work to go around for all of these electrical contractors to remain viable businesses. There is and will continue to be, a wax, then a bigger wane of numbers of firms in my opinion.

Please note I am a VERY positive person, glass always half full. So given that read the above with context !

The ONLY reason I still trade is because I have a partner with a posh job. And am part time. If I knew it would be like this I would never have stuck at it.

I feel for all the main bread winners doing electrical work.


I have fingers in many pies, work for many different people, do not advertise as my work has spoken for itself and no longer need to, but I never know what I am doing in two weeks.

If I was you, look elsewhere, unless you are minted and REALLY want to do it.

I know sparkies in London that are chockka. There is work out there. But not in alot of places.

Good luck!

 

[itsonelouder]

Thank you very much for the advice about being a driving instructor because that was an idea of mine and we all know how the training companies love to harp on about how there's a shortage of instructors. The office of fair trading need to get to grips with this bullsh1t they're peddling.

A quick look at Red's website:

Become a Driving Instructor with RED Instructor Training

"The demand for driving instructor jobs is as high as ever, so now is the time to become a driving instructor with RED and make an impact."

Regarding the phasing out of gas, is that because of low supplies?

 

[Adam W]

I hadn't even looked into becoming a driving instructor, but the fact that they're regularly advertising on the telly for instructors set alarm bells ringing for me. I learned with BSM and seldom saw any other BSM cars around; my instructor had about half an hours drive from where he lived to get to me.
Given the price of car insurance nowadays I would have thought less people were learning to drive.... And why aren't people becoming driving instructors in the same way they used to?

 

[itsonelouder]

It's also a skill the vast majority of us have and we think we're good at..........well the men do anyway ;-)

Being your own boss is the big advantage but the hours are crap - evenings and weekends. But still, I can't imagine there would ever be a shortage of driving instructors to be honest. If there was, it wouldn't last.

 

[ricardo123]

Like I say get your JIB Labourer's card and pester the agency's, get some experience and then work as a mate for a company direct and earn around £20k pa if you really fancy it. You might even get some price work if you are lucky. Save yourself the time and bother of becoming a spark. Just do as your told and be reliable and work fairly hard and you'll be alright. Cost around £40 and you can earn around £20k.

Cost to train as a driving instructor or Part P 4 week spark, several thousand, you might earn around £10k net if you are lucky.

 

[Engineer54]

Is there any truth in these statements?:

"Industry reports and research shows that there is a shortage of 37,000 Electricians over the next five years. This has been backed up on the BBC2 program The Working Lunch."

"The CITB estimates that 37,000 new electricians are needed now."

"The average age of electricians is quite high and this means that more are leaving the industry than joining it. Colleges are estimated to only have about 3,000 trainee vacancies per annum of which it is estimated only 50% actually go on to work as electricians."

One of the reasons why i have never taken much notice, or give given any credence to Reports, surveys, etc etc!!! All reports whether made by governments, official bodies, companies, or anyone else,.... all are usually steered towards what the author or there employer wants them to say. Figures can be made to say anything you want them to say without actually telling any porky pies, it's called creative accounting!!! And here you have a perfect example of what i'm talking about. lol!!!

 

[itsonelouder]

This is such an eye-opener. Life is tough, there's no easy buck unless you're born rich, marry rich, inherit or win the lottery.

It seems changing a career is such a fraught business. I can see why people just veg in the tedium of an unsatisfactory job and not venture out.

 

[VoltzElectrical]

Society keeps pedaling the lie that we can be whatever we want, do whatever we want, if we only try hard enough, etc..

Not true.

Life ain't fair

Deal with it.

Pay the bills.

 

[ricardo123]

Yes lol very true

 

[VoltzElectrical]

Yes, this is WHY we have suffered at the hands of our economic policy in regards to our European neighbours coming here to WORK in sometimes the most horrible and mundane jobs. They have experienced the REALITY of having to put food on the plates for their families and will come here and work their nuts off picking vegetables, cleaning hotel rooms, etc.. doing all the ESSENTIAL ECONOMIC work that lazy butt brits won't do, cos both hands are held out to the state.

 

[Electricalserv]

Yes, this is WHY we have suffered at the hands of our economic policy in regards to our European neighbours coming here to WORK in sometimes the most horrible and mundane jobs. They have experienced the REALITY of having to put food on the plates for their families and will come here and work their nuts off picking vegetables, cleaning hotel rooms, etc.. doing all the ESSENTIAL ECONOMIC work that lazy butt brits won't do, cos both hands are held out to the state.

Would you do the mundane jobs though voltz? There's lots of brits who would do these jobs but aren't getting employed by the employers. There's 2.8 million out of work. Not including students. A good proportion of them want to work.

 

[VoltzElectrical]

I worked cleaning hotel rooms as a university graduate, and then on a production line in a factory before becoming a farm labourer. So yes. First, you pay the bills.

 

[itsonelouder]

I always thought the liberal immigration policies were such a cop-out for the Government. Let everyone in to fill the job vacancies and neglect the poor who rely on benefits, so saving money and effort in retraining them. Now London (I can't speak for other areas) has commuting up by 40% in the last 10 years, public services and roads congested to crazy levels, benefit and public-sector expenditure out of control.

And who's benefiting from all this, ask yourselves. The rich. The big corporations which have our politicians by the balls! They're getting richer whilst the poor get poorer.

What a silly messed up world we live in!