For me I had experience of pipes & fittings from my original trade(Scientific Instrument Maker) and hobby. (Model Engineering - Live Steam and Steam Locomotive Preservation - full size)
To get into the gas side involved getting a job with my builder mate who was just recovering from bankruptcy and couldn't afford the initial cost until we found out that there was at that time a national shortage of dumper truck drivers and people were being paid to train to be dumper truck drivers.
And so it came to pass I spent a week driving a Thwaites dumper truck around a clarty field, got a certificate and a plastic card and builder mate got money which we split between us and I was in - but NOT as a dumper truck driver!
The builder had a number of Tyneside style flats to renovate and had a very good spark and heating engineer who were both self-employed and I worked alongside them looking & learning and studying at home.
We blagged a grant from the Local authority (don't ask!) that financed my gas training at Gateshead Assessment Services
http://www.gastrainingnow.com which from memory was about ÂŁ1k at that time.
The first part is a module that's mandatory and it relates to Gas Safety & Testing, pipework sizing and erection methods - just like leccy really. The name is "Domestic Natural Gas Safety"
After that, it's users' choice as to what other modules you want or need. I chose "Gas Cookers" and Central Heating Boilers <70kW which covers just about everything you need in the domestic environment.
The assessment is in two parts - written & practical.
The written part is (was?) open book and involves answering some 300 questions.
The practical involves looking for faults deliberately put on pipework, flues and gas appliances and writing down what they are and how to fix them.
Some blokes (B.G as it happens in for their re-assessments) set about fixing them which peed the instructors off a bit cos they then had to go around putting the faults back on!!
Get through that lot and you're rewarded with a placcy card with your picci on it and the type of work which you're allowed to do. you get a nicely printed certificate to stick on your wall too.
The name for this rigmarole is "ACS-GAS Accredited Certification Scheme" and it has to be renewed every five years.
Now you take your card / certificate to the robbing Gas Safe man who will charge you an arm & half a leg to look at your nice new card and write your name in a book and give you one of his placcy cards and he'll be wanting the same from you every ONE year!!
I fell for that scam the first year and quickly realised that nobody ever asked to see my (then) CORGI card so from then on I never bothered with it!
