What to do??

[CWalling]

Hello everyone,

Just a bit of background info on me before my question.

I'm a timed served Marine/Industrial electrician with 10+ years experience. Ive been building and testing nuclear submarines for my whole career with only slightly touching domestic in my first year at college for my PEO. I install and test a variety of different systems from 24v monitoring equipment to 440v 900A switch gear with some 240v DC 1000A batteries thrown in.

I want to get into the domestic side of things. Ive looked into doing one of these intense courses where you become a domestic installer, do your part P stuff and testing and inspection, both intial and periodic. So my question is does anybody have any experience with these courses and are they worth it, and if not is there any other route i can take? I have a family so dont really want to go and do an apprenticeship again, which seems like a waste of time as i have an elecrical apprenticeship and experience.

Thanks alot

 

[telectrix]

you may consider looking for work in the industrial sector, your experience is more suited there, i would think. the domestic sector has become a dog eat dog scrabble with too many sparks chasing too little work, hence a race to the bottom.

 

[James]

Although I agree with @telectrix
you have the knowledge and skills to make a successful living from domestic work, do a fast course and get your hands on the tools.
with good customer service skills you should be able to make a go of it.

even if it doesn’t work out, going to an interview with honesty about your previous experience and not getting on with domestic work, will still give you a good chance of landing an industrial job later on.

 

[CWalling]

Thanks for the replies,
Im not allowed too go into too much detail about what i do so cant really put across what experience i have, just that it lacks in domestic installation.
The good thing is that my area has a lack of electricans as alot of them are drawn to the shipyard that i work in as they get a paycheck every week.

I suppose i was worried that the short courses were frowned upon by 'proper electricians' for lack of another term.

@James yea, coming from a place where all my tools are provided MFT's are quite expensive ?

 

[telectrix]

the short courses will ( if a reputable provider such as forum sponsors trade skills 4u & XS) will give you classroom theory and some practical. end of course you'll get a bit of paper which will enable you to join the masons niceic whatever (£500 a year) to enable you to go self-employed in the domestic sector. as you go along you'll learn other practical skills like lifting floors so they go back in 1 piece. avoiding drilling the wet-pants' new pipes, deling with other trades that delight in cutting/hiding, nailing your cables etc. etc, . then there's hmrc and the vatman both want your pants down, i been at it 50 years, prematurely fooked, and i'm only 34.

 

[FatAlan]

Loads of info and similar posts on here. Shop around to find what fits for you. Check with the comp schemes re the qualifications that are required. Check out local colleges as you may save some pennies. Good luck. Any jobs going with Rolls Royce? Thought they were looking at rolling out mini nuclear power plants for electricity supply?

 

[telectrix]

personally. I'd look back into the skills that you already have, see where they may relate to the industrial sector. maybe some courses on specific things, like plc's , automation, etc. far better than wrecking your back, knees, brain, dealing with slippery customers in the domestic.

 

[DPG]

Just imagine that every house you work on is a submarine with floorboards and furniture in it. Be easy then ?

 

[JBW175]

First up, welcome to the forum.


As said above, your skills may be more suited to Industrial; however, I come from a marine background and now work domestic, so it's not impossible and once you get your head round the regs, you'll be fine. if you've done an apprenticeship and worked supply and distribution onboard for that amount of time, then you shouldn't have a problem.

Electrical science is electrical science at the end of the day, it doesn't discriminate between which field you're working in, the principles are still the same. i feel the problems that arise from people doing the short courses, is when they don't have the underpinning knowledge and struggle to grasp the fundamental electrical principles, before setting up on their own and going straight out into the wild west...

i'll concede that you do need a to different approach when working in domestic premises, as they can throw up all sorts of problems and some people can be precious about banging holes in their walls, but it's a learning curve and part of the fun. it could also be worth trying to get work as an Electrical labourer so you can learn some of the tricks and how to get round stuff from a pro. This forum's also a great tool as there's a wealth of experience on here.

If you want to know any more about the route i took, then fell free to PM me.