XR-RS

Anyone done it ? im 31, dont have a trade, well did an apprenticeship in fly tying, rod building and reel repair which isnt much use to me now.

I despise my current job and realise if i dont do summat now im gonna go from one minge job to another. i dont have any real financial responsibilities so packing in work to train is ok.

I always wish id got a trade, joiner, plumber, sparky something along those lines. I dont really know where to start, lately ive done a bit of reading and stuff, but its a big thing to enter into and finding out from someone thats done it is always a bonus. rather than doing it and then finding out there was a better/easier way.

So any advice

Daveysaff

iTrader: (9)

This is something i'm looking into at the mo, as I want to retrain as a spark.
Try phoning learndirect ( 08080100333 ) They're the first people I spoke to and they were really postitiv and eager to help, I was advised to try to work with a tradesman at least 1 day a week and go to college at night or 1 day, you can get an NVQ that way. Or if you know anyone who does the job you're looking to get into, ask the=m if they want some free labour 1 day when you need assessing by the NVQ folk.
Prepare to be skint for about 3 years, but it'll be well worth it
http://www.armchairadvice.co.uk/change/retraining.asp
there's a bit of useful info on there.
Hope it helps!

PS If anyone wants a 27 year old apprentice sparkie giz a shout!

XR-RS

Cheers for the reply Davey. I dont mind doing the training/being skint for a while, the only thing i was thinking would be is it harder to get a start once its completed with being older, cos they can pay 16 year olds peanuts.

Got quite a bit to look into then, got to be worth it though

S1

Mate, im in the same boat. In IT at the mo but not really my thing. Rather be doing something hands on.I want something that will lead to a company with a few spods working for me. No mortgage so couold probably train fro a couple of years.

cjwood555

I'm also looking into this. Have been working as a theatre sound engineer for four years and am jsut fed up with the life style (i.e. not having a social life) so I'm interested in becoming a sparky or something mechanical, or maybe getting back into electronics.....

Chris

phil4x4saph

Hey look on the bright side - i'm 33 and I dont have a trade.


But I DO have financial commitments!

XR-RS

I think the nervous side of me was hoping a few people would reply saying 'i did it and its the best thing i ever done !!!!' Lol.

Id put money below being happy doing something id enjoy on the list for me. i just want something i can learn and hopefully do for the rest of my life. plus if you have a trade theres surely always work one way or another. And as S1 says itd be nice to think one day you could have your own small business.

I did a bit of work on renovating a flat, did some electrics, putting up partition walls and boarding them etc and i loved it, just like working with my hands really.

Shings

I quit my job in august and started uni- doing quantity surveying.
Luckily work offered me part time work so I am ok. I am quite likely to get a job as a QS this year as I am part way through my degree and hence more attractive to Building/QS firms. At 24/25/26 which is how long I have been applying to be a QS I got NO WHERE without qualifications or experience.

After finally getting some results back a few weeks ago I have DEFINATLY done the right thing and chuffed to bits.

Theres a bloke on my course doing QS as well- he's 34- 2 kids and recently devorced- His bird bought him out of the marriage so his plan is to live off the settlement while he gets his degree.

If you can do somet like this I would.. and wish I had years ago.

Jake

xr-stu

i know im only 20 bri, but im in a similar situation when it comes to financial commitments etc. just packed in my £300+ a week piss easy doss job to train to be a tiler. spent a month working with sean aka k5ssy off here and hes taught be more than just a thing or two about the trade, im confident now i can go out and undertake work myself and complete it to a decent standard, already got a bathroom floor, a full house in holland!! and my parents house to do and ive done zero advertising!

think going self employed is the way forward if you can. see if you cant do what i did and just work for someone for a few weeks for peanuts. its shit being skint for a couple of months but should be worth it in the end mate.

S1

Mate, Thats what I'd love to do, refurbish houses and flog em.

POPEYE

fook me, you must know everything after working with someone for a WHOLE month

im a painter and decorator by trade and even that took 4 years training, onsite is where you learn though, and now after 20 years doing i surpose im ok at it

POPEYE

and also to do something every now and then, ie putting up a few walls and doing some other building work is completey different to doing something day in day out

dojj

iTrader: (3)

what you've got to ask yourself is this:

are you prepared to be skint for ages while you learn a trade or do you want to earn money before you are too old to carry on doing the job you are training for

i love my job, but i don't get anywhere near what i think i shold be earning but i'm not going to make a fuss because i can afford to live my life on what i earn
if you can make the sacrifice to get the job you want, knowing that it's going to tkae a efw yeasr worth of hard sloggery to get to that level where you can earn what you want to earn then do it

COSSIE 1

at the mo im 30yrs old im a print finisher by trade when i was 15 i asked myself what do i want to do?? graphic design was my decision but when i looked into it and spoke to people i realised the competion for every job is unreal and the average earnings werent very good so when i went to college @17 i was offered an apprentaship for print finishing through a company was bloody hard work and i was being paid £2 an hour(£71 take home!!!) i worked hard got pay rises did overtime then 6 years later had a big bike crash left home left the area and worked for EMI records in swindon the money was loads better £350+ a week basic + overtime was there for 2 years when EMI announced serious finanicial losses and even axed mariah carey so i was unemployed so of i went to london every job i went for i got and now work in enfield north london im at the pinical of my job and can earn upto £60k with o/t............all i can say is go for it mate it will be hard work and u might be skint but stick at it and all will be ...good luck it takes guts to do it later in life

Shings

OH yeh.. this is the biggie.

Only YOU can make the desicion- you need your friends and family to back you and support you though unless you just happen to have a lot of money floating around.


I also think its important to echo Popeye really.. I get loads of people telling me fitting car handsfrees/trackers/etc is easy because they've fitted one in their car- once - even friends do it- as if my job is some sort of piss easy thing to do, because they've done it once and found it resonably easy.

Do it day in day out on different cars - expensive cars, shitty cars, rare cars, sports cars- classic cars- trucks blah blah blah.

Its like saying because I fitted a few washers once I am a plumber-

Not trying to be little your achievements mate but seriously think.

I reckon if I was really serious and prooved it a good friend of mine would of hooked me up as an apprentice plumber- but when I honestly thought about it... I'd rather not.

Seriously think about what you want to do-
can it support you and your family in the long run?
Will you have time to earn money while re training?
Is it a long term prospect?

I also think its important to point out that for the last 4 months if I wasn't at Uni or at Home/library doing uni course work I have been at work and if I wasn't their I was in bed recovering.

Even at 26 I NEED to finish my degree at 1st class honours level or I am just another student and the younger people are more attractive (generally) to employers.


Jake

Kop2381

Just make sure what ever trade you choose your 100% commited as once youve finished your training you dont want to relise that its not for you Good luck

dojj

iTrader: (3)

when i was a school i was the brainy one who didn't need to try to be top at everything, so i went and chose to be a strucural engineer and did all the stuff relating to that
when i got my gcse ersluts they were terrible, so bad in fact that i wouln't have even been able to apply for a job on a paperround
so i went to college and did the exams that you get to take in january
passed them with flying colours but was also kicked out because i'd been a naughty boy
so, i had the resluts i needed but couldn't get ont the course i'd been wanting to get on
in the meantime i'd been dabling with cars and stuff for a while (since i was 6 actually ) so i went and sought an appreticeship
this went great as i trwaled the land and applied for abotu 40 of the fookers before getting offered 3
i chose the one with bmw
but 4 months in i had a major major car accident which left me unable to finish the thing (you've got to be finished by the time you are 21 and i'd already started when i was 17 so i was cutting it fine, and with another 18 months missing i would have been nearly 23 before i'd been able to finish it so that was another career route sullied
then i went to an agency stacking shelves while i carried on at college
and then i got my hgv class 2 and i could drive lorries
and then i got my psv so i could drive coaches
and then i got sacked from that as i hadn't told them about my medical condition (broken back that had healed but made it impossible to drive ne particular type of bus)
and then i had to make the BIG desicion, di di want to go back and get oily or did i want to get a job that had prospects
so i joined the company i'm with now as a lowly driver and now i'm looking to go up in the world

i'm happy doing what i'm doing at aged 33 and 3/5ths as i earn enough to support my family and i've had to work hard all my ilfe doing what i thought i wanted to do and then not being able to do it

if you have no responsibililties then yes, find something that you WANT to do, but before you make any rash desicions, find somethng that you are ABLE to do that you woldn't MIND doing as a job, but don't pack your current job in because you think the grass is greener on teh other side, they are probably feeding it much better fertiliser

RobL

i was thinking about the same thing last year, my dad and my uncle are both sparkies both with their own business, i was also training be an electrician but quit after my first year to go work on a factory because the money was a lot better , big mistake
i was talking to my uncle last year about giving it another try but he told me they get blokes all the time willing to work for free to get some experience, he also pays his fully qualified sparkies the same as what im earning now so im fucked basically

mentalasanything

One of the guys I work with had been an upholsterer all his life (He's about 40) He'd been doing a Comptia A+ (I think) in the evenings. Then last year he quit his job to pursue a new career in IT. He's been with us as a PC support guy for a year now and he loves it, he said that it's the best thing he ever did.

Can't say it'd be the same for everyone as it's gotta be something ur interested in I suppose.

Hope this helps!

Lee

col cos1

iTrader: (5)

couple of adult trainees at my working training to be a spark,£285 a week,

EssexMikeSi

iTrader: (3)

i always did well at school, got good gcse's but wen i went to college i kinda threw it all away. managed to get a national diploma in art and desgin but then got thrown off the degree course after the first yr coz my work wasnt up to the grade. But i was lucky and jammily got a job in a printers and was on good money but then i got made redundant and so am back to nothing. All graphics jobs require you to have a god degree pass. Im now a lowly van driver for a car parts firm earning bout £200 take home a week. its awful but i just dont know what i wana do. Im goin to be 24 in may and lots of places think im too old to be a trainee already so im gonna have to have a long hard think over the next couple months.

XR-RS

Some good replies and advice, thanks folks

What i mentioned about helping renovate the flat was really just to explain that i realised i like working with my hands, whether it was making a wall from scratch or working on my car. Ive got no trade so theres not much choice but to go from one shit job to another, which is no ones fault but my own i know that. ive worked in factories, warehouses then became a warehouse manager. it was a good job but only really because my boss was a sound bloke and rallied a mk2 escort so we got on really well, he moved onto property thing though so i have a new (shite) job now


I see what youre saying, but im 31 and have another 34 years to work before i can retire anyway, thats a long time if i ever see that age,lol. Its either be skint for a while to make a bit more in the future, or stay as i am

its not just a passing thought, ive been thinking about doing something for a while now,and im under no illusions i dont think im gonna do some training, walk out of that and open my own business. Im happy to be skint for a while, learn the theory and then properly learn the job working for someone, starting at the bottom the same as you would anywhere. I dont mind the work, just as long as itd be worth it. Its a big decision really.

I dont owe anyone any money, have no credit cards, no kids that kind of thing so the timing is right, its a kind of now or never situation.

Thanks again, any more advice is welcome.[/quote]

leecavturbo

as a trainee sparky you could expect £10/hr if you was paying for the college course yourself , i think you can now get your papers in 2 years flat.
i'm in the trade so know how it works / what pay you'd get. london rates are more.

COMEDY DAN

One of my friends is 32 and he has just completed a training course for plumbing.

cost him £800 and he already has work lined up.

Go for it mate.

Life is all about creating opportunity rather than waiting for opportunity to come to you.

Say it "yes i can"........ "yes i can".......

-script took from The Nutty Proffesor...