Time for a new career

[BikealarmBlair]

But which one???

Anybody know of any decent temp job sites to keep me busy while I find what I want to do?

Ideally I'd like to be an electrician but am finding it hard to find real info on how to go about it I keep finding lots of these become a sparky in a week for £1k courses but doubt they are worth the paper they are written on!

or an ambulance driver or a in a body shop as a stripper/fitter

any real advise is welcome

Blair

[caterhamboy]

A minimum you need to become an electrician is the city and guilds 2330 level 2 and 3. This is run at most colleges and takes 2yrs part time for level 2 and a further 1 yr part time for level 3. You will find that gives you a great base to gain further qualifications on and will make you very employable. The fast track courses only give you EAL domestic installers (which is worthless) and city and guilds 2382(17th edition regs) and maybe city and guilds 2392 (testing). If you go the fast track route the only way to get employment is by going self employed, you can never become JIB rated or work on commercial or industrial and you will be an domestic installer not an electrician. Save your money do it part time over the next yr or two then hopefully things will have picked up(it's very quiet for everyone at the moment) and you shouldn't find it to hard to get work. Hope this clarifys it a little as it can be very confusing on what quals you need.

[BikealarmBlair]

caterhamboy said:

Hope this clarifys it a little as it can be very confusing on what quals you need.

It does thanks, can I do a full time course?

[caterhamboy]

I work with a guy that did full time last yr (level 2) think he said it's 3 days a week. He's doing level 3 at the moment that is 1 day a week. Also you do your portfolio in the 3rd yr to enable you to become JIB rated. It's probably worth getting your 17th edition regs(2382) when you do level 3 and maybe try for city and guilds 2392 when you have a bit of experience and after a few yrs try for the city and guilds 2391 which is more for industrial.

[Rusty Arches]

caterhamboy said:

A minimum you need to become an electrician is the city and guilds 2330 level 2 and 3. This is run at most colleges and takes 2yrs part time for level 2 and a further 1 yr part time for level 3. You will find that gives you a great base to gain further qualifications on and will make you very employable. The fast track courses only give you EAL domestic installers (which is worthless) and city and guilds 2382(17th edition regs) and maybe city and guilds 2392 (testing). If you go the fast track route the only way to get employment is by going self employed, you can never become JIB rated or work on commercial or industrial and you will be an domestic installer not an electrician. Save your money do it part time over the next yr or two then hopefully things will have picked up(it's very quiet for everyone at the moment) and you shouldn't find it to hard to get work. Hope this clarifys it a little as it can be very confusing on what quals you need.

Thanks very much for this post, just checked my local college and they do those C&G as evening courses. I've been interested in getting qualified for something that will actually give me a career for a while now, was going to go down the fast track route with ableskills since I've heard good things about them.

Will be registering at college for the start of the next term.

[Rusty Arches]

Just come back from college, been accepted and start in September.

Sadly C&G are no longer offered (2330 LVL2 is being phased out), their new courses are PEO NVQ LVL2 (Performing Engineering Operations).

I'm hoping these still hold some weight, or will allow me to take the C&G Exams later.

[AJS-]

Sorry if you've done this already, but I would be contacting local electricians to see if you get some work labouring or better still as an apprentice. The qualifications are useful I'm sure, and necessary but nothing beats having done the job with an experienced hand for a few years.

[Rusty Arches]

AJS- said:

Sorry if you've done this already, but I would be contacting local electricians to see if you get some work labouring or better still as an apprentice. The qualifications are useful I'm sure, and necessary but nothing beats having done the job with an experienced hand for a few years.

It's an evening course 1 night a week, so I plan on contacting some local electricians to see if I can get some experience with them.

I'm not working at the moment, so I can work 16 hours without pay before the Job Centre start cutting me off (ideally, I'll be able to get a job, do the course and still find an electrician that will take me on some jobs with them through the weekend. . . I'll see how it goes)

I'm just hoping someone that's already in the field will know better than I do about this course they've had to replace the C&G with. They mentioned after doing this course I could sit the C&G Lvl 3. . . it's just timing because the 2330 has been phased out, could be another year / 18 months before they know what's happening with it.