Bit of a random one but I've been very depressed with my job for a long time now, I'm a live-in care worker, I work week on week off. Brilliant! You say a whole week off every other week?! No...it's depressing, boring, moral degrading and has brought me to my knees, I've been doing it 5 nearly 6 years now and enough is enough. What's really pushed me is wanting to finally get a place with the Mrs, but being reluctant to as she doesn't want to live with someone thats only their 50% of the year. Not to mention not having a good night's sleep for the weeks I work is getting to me( I'm awake for most of the night and get maybe 2-3 hours sleep and night if I'm lucky) Currently I earn around 27k a year self employed. Now I decided I would like to learn a trade, I'm a hands on kind of guy, seems like a trade is a good way to secure a job for life.I have a couple sparky mates that seem to earn pretty damm well. But the thought I would get an idea from people on here that may have done a career change at 25+ Basically my options are a city and guilds qualifications, most courses are either 17 weeks full time, or 35 weeks part time. Costing around 8k. They give c&g 2 and 3 and relevant paperwork to do an nvq 3 once working. The 2 main jobs I'm looking at are either heating and plumbing, or electrician. I'm open to other ideas, just brain storming really. Would be nice to hear what people really earn in these jobs, and how they find it day to day. Also anyone that's done these courses, is it worth the sacrifice for full time? As that would leave me with no income for several months I would have to save the extra and try and manage, where as part time seems a better option financially as I can still earn some money on the side. Apologies for the long winded write up!
Big decision. Just make sure what you do choose is Definately what you want,and not just based on a few mates making good money. I'm a mechanic,absolutely dispise it and fully regret becoming one,I've spent the past year maybe year and a half wanting out but can't decide on something I want to do for the rest of my life! The problem is if you make the change,it's probably your last shot at a career. And you'll be living off apprentice wages for the first 3 years,that's if you can get an apprenticeship sorted... Edit: just re-read that,different type of course your doing. Not sure how that would work if it's just an in house course without an apprenticeship. Didn't know you could do a full trade qualification like that.
https://www.ableskills.co.uk/electrical-courses/jib-gold-card-electrical-training-course This is the kind of courses I'm looking at, speaking to a spark friend, he said that those will be enough to work unsupervised but require work signing off. And looking on job websites you get around £15 an hour, until you finish practical nvq3 with am2 then about £25 an hour. Similar for plumbers in believe
I'm fully qualified sparky, I'm 23 been doing it since I was 16, went self employed last year and it was the best thing i ever did, now have a lad working for me, yes there is lots of money to be made, but that's only of you can get your name out there and have a good reputation. As for the qualifications, do which ever you think is suitable to you (course length) as long as you come out with your am2 certificate, the other thing is once you've done the exams in college framework you then have to do you regs course, 2391 test and inspection (I think the code numbers changed now but the same thing) then in order to sign your work off you have to become registered with a governing body I.e nic eic, eca, elecsa, napit etc but there is a fair annual fee I'm nic eic approved contractor and I think it Costs me £1200 a year, they come and inspect 5 jobs you have completed, check all your paperwork, fault finding skills etc etc. Basically it's not quite as easy as finishing college, go self employed, make loads of money, as with most things experience the key thing, I would personally recommend doing the part time course as you pick up experience whilst doing the college work as the college framework doesn't cover heating controls, fire alarm, emergency lighting etc it's just the basic house bashing.
Righto, I was hoping to be more employed than self employed at least for a couple years regardless of trade. Just for the simplicity of it and hopefully being part of a team or such so I could learn more practical work. Obviously I don't expect a course to teach me everything and experience is the key. Just hoping that something along the lines of that course would be enough to get my foot in the door at a company and progress from there.
Lorry Driver. Best thing i ever did. Initial outlay is about the same as most 'decent' courses but you can be 'qualified' in a matter of weeks, and as long as your over 25 you wont have young driver problems.... something to consider.
Self employed definately has benefits, but its also alot more hassle and alot more stressful. If you want alot more money go self employed, if you want an easier life go full time permanent
Get on the similar gas course that I'm doing mate. It's 3k, but then your a qualified gas safe engineer, and the rest is up to u ie get the business in, self employed, earn lots. I'm already self employed atm, have been doing mobile phone sales for the last year (telesales).
I'd never go and work for a shit head company again, did that for 12 years and never again! I'm 31 now so not too late luckily
Gas fitter, 100%, Im shit at stuff like that but its what Id do if my situation changed. There arent enough of them and even fewer reliable ones, you couldnt fail to do alright in it.
12 week course mate through a gas training centre. It's actually 6 weeks on 6 off.so it's 2 on, 2 off , etc, then u fill out your portfolio of jobs you've been involved with fitting gas with a trained engineer, take photos etc, then that's it, your qualified and ready to go. My bro in law did the course so I'm going round with him atm, free labour of course, but he struggled because the people already in the trade didn't wanna know. They didn't want the competition, so it took him a while to do the portfolio. Mine however will prob be finished before I even start the course
Sounds good, these courses good? I've obviously heard people saying that apprenticeships are the only way but that's not a viable option for me. Obviously I understand I'll need to work under a proper tradesman for a while a least after finishing but I'm happy with that to gain the practical experience.
This is the fastest way into the trade. Forget apprenticeship. My bro in law has been up and running for 9 months and I've been with him all last week, watching him pull in a lot of money. Before this course he couldn't even lift a screwdriver. Other week I was doing a front ball joint, which took 2 hours to split, and I thought, gas fitting cannot be harder than this. The guy who runs the course agreed, as did the bro in law. The on the job training is literally, iirc, 4 boiler installs, 4 boiler services, 4 fires, 4 gas hobs, that's it. I've done 3/4 already. What I will say is tho, he keeps showing me the manometer, and saying, this is what u paying 3k for. So what he means is, they teach u how to be gas safe, di the checks, turn shit off etc, turn back on correctly, but all the stuff in the middle is your own business. Boiler fitting, flu fitting, pipe bending etc. It's not hard tho, I don't think. Except some of those older heating tank setups where u gotta trace pipes etc
Money is pretty good to be fair, A bit more than you as an employee... self employed is more again. Hi-Ab (Crane) And ADR (Hazardous goods) are worth a bit more. but the cost about £1000 for both. Im working for a kitchen company at the moment. its alot of handballing but thats fine for me. Easy life if you want it to be. Its worth looking into tbh. Gonna do my hi-ab next year for extra easy monies.
cant offer much on the career advice on trades but I can relate to your situation. I worked in document control for years while I was doing part time education (and still am in education) and I hated it . I changed careers and haven't looked back. If your doing something day in day out that you really cant stand then change it. simple. just don't get stuck in the 'oh I don't have this or I couldn't do that' attitude or you will never move on
I've been in this job for about 6 years now, it's didn't actually apply for it lol, simply the agency that cares for my mum offered me it when I left a previous job that had ended the contract. But now I feel stuck in a rut so to speak, every day I'm at work I wake up thinking what am I doing with myself, and every day I'm off Im grateful I'm not there!
