[Closed] electrician training

Before you spend a load of cash/time, how much are you expecting to earn?

We've just had work done and the Electrician costs £21 ph (no vat, self-employed).

Most guys who contract to companies are on £13-16 per hour house bashers a bit less.

We have a contract sparky who is on £25 per hour but he is excellent. He specializes in control and heavy industrial.

Time served sparks here. The thing with the fast track courses is that you'll struggle a bit with experience and getting decent employment for quite a while afterwards unless you know people now.
our firm won't employ agency unless we're absolutely desperate and the blokes we do use pretty much work their arses off to stay on the books.
I reckon maybe getting into maintenance or fm to start with to get the experience and speed before hitting sites etc.

no point you need to be employed to do your level 3 so unless you have employment you wont get a job as you are neither fully qualified nor do you have any actual experience. You would be competing against folk with years of experience in a fairly dormant/tough employment sector

Hundreds if not thousands of level 2 qualified folk who have never worked a day as an electrician despite doing training
If you have a mate who will effectively sponsor you then fine otherwise you are quie likely to spunk a chunk of money up the wall with no end result

As for fast track courses their job is to get you to enrol as they are sales pitch persons and I would generally avoid them like the plague - quite a few fold without the customers getting anything

Careers adviser and e-mail in profile if you want more advice.

Junkyard - I did my level 3 without being employed. Some colleges offer it - I did my level 2 and then level 3 at Kendal.

The fast track courses tend not to offer any great employment opportunities as you can't really gain any practical ability over a matter of a few days.

Its relatively easy to buy a few screwdivers, and a multi meter, etc, and spend a load on a sparky course, problem is finding the work youre capable of doing, and most importantly doing safely, dont kill the customer, or electrocute yourself.
Then there is the experience you need by working with a qualified sparky, learning how to run cabnles, and fix wiring faults.
At the end of the day,ask yourself who you employ somebody who has done a few weeks course or a 4 year apprenticeship.

i dont know when you did it but you cannot do it without working- sometimes the colleges pretend you work [ say their own hairdressing salon] but this has largely been stamped out
You can do many of the technical aspects as well at college but you cannot do an electrical one anymore without employment. If you know somewhere that does this NOW let me know.

Its a qualification that says you can do a job so you need to be assessed on the job

Wow, electricians around me get more than that! I live in an area full of v old houses and rich people, I was chatting to a tradesman who said Ludlow does nit have enough sparks to go around. We have to wait weeks to get someone.

My plan was to get trained and set up as a domestic electrician. I'm a sat comms systems engineer now, I install big sat comms systems, so wiring, chasing wiring faults is my bread and butter. It would be the home aspects I may need experience in, I've never run wiring in a house!

I know it may be unrealistic to get a job with a company with no experience , but how about becoming a domestic electrician? Is that feasible ?

Thanks for the input all.

Domestic sparkying is a miserable job. I'm a sparky but work on the highways and motorways. I'd much rather spend a miserable winter on a cold wet muddy site than chasing out walls or crawling through dirty itchy lofts.

£330 per shift self employed but have considerable costs too eg £200+ in diesel pw, plus lodge etc

Cheers, how would you recommend I get into it?

Echoing similar comments as above - I've been in the game 25 years man and boy (only worked for myself 3 years - but have experience as a Contract Manager also). It's a relatively small incestuous industry so a lot of it is who you know! I have a decent reputation and despite it being very basic electrical work technically, it seems very hard for some to get to grips with - and a lot hate it.

Most of the other self employed guys I come across work through agencies at a considerably lower rate, but don't run their own business as such. They are usually crap too! I work mostly on major projects, but there is a lot of work with councils and on PFI's in various areas. You can generally get a foot in the door with just your part 1 too.

Cheers

Hi Geologist,
I work as a college tutor at MK college, teaching on the electrical courses, so can answer this with some authority.
The current situation is fairly complicated, but here goes...
If you are able to work full time with an electrical contractor you study day-release for the C&G 2357 qualification. You study at college for the knowledge units and complete a series of performance units on site, usually via a portfolio of evidence of work done. This is usually referred to as the NVQ part. This however is not suited to most mature learners looking to change career, as they can't necessarily get the suitable job, or work full time. My college requires that you work greater then 30 hours per week in the electrical industry doing maintenance work, others may have different rules.
Th other option is the C&G 2365. This can be studied for during the evenings, usually two evenings per week for 36 weeks per year for 3-4 years to complete the L2 and L3. Once these are completed you then get the required job (always a stumbling block) and complete the performance units of the 2357. At the end of the process you need to take the AM2, although this is listed as performance unit 399.
There is talk of Guilds producing a route enabling you to qualify in residential work but as yet this has not been released. As it stands then the only route to being a qualified electrician is to gain the 2357 qual, and you need the suitable job to do so. It has made it harder to qualify, but ensured that the standards of those that do are consistently high.
Any further queries, let me know.

CD

Hi CD, thanks for the advice, but...... these things are never easy are they!

My problem is I work away 5 days a week, I repair ships and am never in the same place, this means I cant do evening classes. I have seen that Hereford college (my local college) run the level 2 and 3 , 1 year full time each. Is this my best option? I didnt want to take a year off work though, as i have a mortgage, family etc etc,, which is why I considered one of the fast track courses.

If a local buisness agreed to give me an apprenticeship, how much would I earn ish. And how long do they last. I just cant see them giving one to a 38 year old already in a good job!

Im in a quandry.

Cheers all

Hi G,
Sorry for the delay in replying.
Most colleges will run the 2365 fulltime for a year each. This demands usually 2.5 days per week study, plus revision time over and above. It's not really suitable to someone trying to hold down a job and IME tends to be full of 16-17 year olds who 'lack focus'.
Don't forget though that the only course to be qualified is the C&G 2357!
Earnings are completely arbitrary, it all depends how quickly you can be useful and earn your keep.
The apprenticeship would probably last 4 years as you'd have all the mandatory parts of the framework to complete - the knowledge units & functional skills (3 years college) and the performance units (NVQ) plus the AM2 (Unit 399) which is probably a further year.
It's tough out there trying to get an opportunity to prove your worth as you're up against 16 year olds who can work for next to nothing as they've no financial commitments. That said I'd rather employ an older person, but it's all down to cash flow.

Good luck and remember, you only have to be lucky once.
CDoor

Geologist? Is there not enough work in sat comms or are you not enjoying the travelling? I work in a similar sector and know a lot of guys in your game and they seem to have a great job although the travel would be an issue if you have a family.

Thanks CD, food for thought!

Luffy - I actually quite enjoy my current job in sat comms, the trouble is that I live in Ludlow, and there is no work of this type here or within a 80 mile radius. Bristol is where it starts. How I ended up here is a long story, but I'm not moving to the SE where the sat comms work is. I work away mon to fri every week now, and with a young family it's hard. Hence why I'm looking at retraining So I can gain work and a normal 9 to 5 job based in south Shropshire ish.