Advice re car mechanics course

[jimbobs]

Hi all

So first the bad news – I was made redundant back in March.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining. As part of my redundancy package, I get 3 grand to spend on retraining. I have to use the money within a year, and I need to get some kind of qualification or certificate out of it from some kind of recognised body in order to qualify for the funding.

The training can be in pretty much anything provided you can spin a reasonably convincing story that it might help you get a job. For instance, despite the jobs we were made redundant from being in financial services, one of my former colleagues is currently training to be a pastry chef.

So, I fancy doing something car-related. I’m reasonably muppet-like when it comes to wielding a spanner so it would be great to do some sort of car mechanic course. But I don’t really know where to start looking.

I’ve got an interim job until approximately mid-July and I quite fancy a few months off after that. Can the collective wisdom of Pistonheads help me out by suggesting what sort of course might be suitable? Something that was full time & lasted about three months would be great. I don’t know what’ll happen re my next full-time job so I may not get time to do anything that’s evening or weekend based, but if that’s the only option, then so be it. The money’s there so I’d like to spend it if possible.

I’m 42, so I’d rather not end up in some kind of remedial class for teenage joyriders as well!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Jim

[Parrot of Doom]

Do you have a drive? My advice would be to buy a classic car in need of restoration. An old Mini, perhaps, for a few hundred quid. You can use the experience gained on the course to fix it up.

[jimbobs]

Cheers Parrot - that is absolutely my plan. I'm currently looking for a tidy Mk1 MX5 or Eunos to turn into a track / race car...