Thread: TradeSkills4U Feedback

I have just completed my Part P, Inspections and Testing and 17th Ed at Tradeskills4U and having initially had my doubts, these guys are definitely worth every single penny. they are not just there to get their rates up, but to ensure you are well and truly competent. To Steve - thanks for everything.

Do it mate you won't regret it, i didn't. Started in January this year finished in August. Although i had a long old trek everyday 120 miles there and back loved every minute. I did 2330 Lv2 & 3, 17th and building regs.

All the tutors are extremely knowledgeable and really help you to understand things you get stuck on.

Definetley gets a thumbs up from me, is a pukka facility, friendly atmosphere, great tutors and was worth every penny!!

Do it mate..

Hi,

I spent 7 months from Jan to Aug 2009 at Tradeskills in Crawley doing 2330 Level 2 followed by Level 3. Along the way they threw in the C&G 17th Edition and the C&G version of the Building Regs (the C&G version of the EAL VRQ).

I just sat my 2391 - results out mid December 09 and I think it went OK. The 2391 is aimed at people with testing experience but I found that straight after the 2330 Level 3 it was not much harder than a level 3 exam.

In total it cost me about 7K GBP but well worth it in my view. The tutors and teaching facilities are excellent - the coffee machine sucks but there is a great cafe-deli around the corner. Several of the staff came from Crawley College - including the ex head of Electrical and it would be hard to find someone better at teaching the regs and electrical science than him.

If you are serious about electrical work then don't do the 10-day course. After 7 months on 2330 I feel competent to tackle installation and inspection & testing, but you could not possibly learn what you need to know in a 10-day course.

Regards,
Fin

I've been doing my 2330 levels 2 and 3 at OLCI (I would have done it at TS4U as I live in Sussex, but the course timings didn't work for me: 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off etc). So I did it at OLCI in London.

However, now that's over and I'm about to embark on the 2356 (NVQ 3) section of the course, I think I will also do my 17th Edition, Part P and eventually 2391 at TS4U as they are much shorter and I would be able to manage them a lot more easily!

Crawley's only about 35 / 40 mins drive from my house.

From what has been said here, I have no doubts that the courses will be good and have good teaching.

Hmm. An observation, if I may....
Quite a few people seem to have taken these courses and rate them highly. But look at the number of posts from each of them on these forums. For most of them, no posts at all since completing the course, and some date back to 2008. Now I know there are lots of electricians who don't post on these forums, but all the same, there must be some sort of connection here. In other words...
Other career --> TS4U (or similar) --> pass exams --> ??????????

Maybe they're too busy?

But it's a fair point.

Originally Posted by ringer

Hmm. An observation, if I may....
Quite a few people seem to have taken these courses and rate them highly. <snip> In other words...
Other career --> TS4U (or similar) --> pass exams --> ??????????

Sorry to say but your being overly optimistic. From my own experience I can tell you what happens.
Person posts on these forums either saying how great the course is or asking for help with a module or electric question in general.
Person then passes course (hopefully).
Person then feels they have no need for these forums and don't bother posting again.
It's not restricted to these forums, visit any help style forum by doing a search like "Help my Win 7 won't boot" and you'll find that as soon as the person has found a solution, they never even so much as post a thank you, so people who come along later, don't know if that solution worked or not and end up asking the same question. The ratio of people who follow through with a thank you or whatever is very low indeed.

Also most do not go on to become electricians and again this forum is proof of that. You will find many, many lads are offering to work for free because they hear the same thing over and over, "do you have any experience?" Of which most of them don't and thus hit a brick wall. And let's not forget 1 thing, alot of sparkies end up self employed. That means thier are insurance ramifications to consider as well, no one wants to take an inexperienced lad on site and risk them botching up, thats expensive! And with so much competition, profit margins are slim, at best, as is. Think about this, take any yellow pages or do a google search on electricians. Then do the same for plumbers. No shortage, at all.

I finished my electricans course end of last year, and I just got a job...As a customer service rep. After being jobless for a year looking for sparkie jobs I gave up. Ringing around offering to "work for free" isn't even a novel idea because loads of lads are offering to do the same thing too, and small firms are scared to admit they probably can't afford to take you on after awhile anyway.
If you haven't taken this course yet by now, do yourself a favor, lie and say you've got all these qualifications, and try to get to interview stage with an employee. Big name players like E-on will have hoops for you to jump through and small time players just want a CV to use as bog paper.

The jobs are out there, but the competiton is tough as well, and I imagine most lads who finish a course are too ashamed to come back to the forums and admit they failed to get employment despite thier qualifications.

I did the 13 day course a while ago now (seee earlier in this thread) and tried to work on a self employed basis. I found the burden of a regular mortgage payment and advertising costs too much so have had to make some changes. First I now do electrics part time aiming at the domestic market. I can work evenings and weekends which is generally liked. I have had to get another full time job which is in lecturing mechanics as it happens. On top of all this I also do some sports coaching. All these together keep my head above water financially but really don't leave me much in the way of free time.
I don't contribute to the forums as much as I would like to but it is difficult. Hopefully I can move my full time job nearer to home which would help but 3 jobs is a handful for most. Add in time for the kids etc.
Suffice to say I am a member of ELECSA and am currently working part time doing domestic electrics. I have not dropped off the face of the earth and hope to contribute more in the future when life calms down a bit.
Thanks

Good for you, Ian, you obviously have a strong work ethic! You may feel knackered most of the time, but be proud of your achievements. I hope things improve for you - I'm sure they will given time. Just keep sight of your ultimate aim, which presumably is to be a full time electrician with a good reputation (and not having to work all hours).