After years in IT I changed from IT to be an electrician, as well as IT I also bought, refurbed and rented properties and was very hands on so had a lot of experience of doing some interior construction projects.. I know you probably want to dive in but to be honest you need both the theory and the practical, a lot of the practical skills has often very little to do with electrics..
As a now one man band I try to help people where I can and I recently helped a lad out doing the level 2, a 21yr old, he learned very quickly and I was getting him to do various jobs, but and here is the kicker I needed to supervise him, so I could do the job quicker, after a while I could get him to do some stuff on his own and in return I spent time explaining things to him.. So it was work experience rather than hiring him..
With no practical knowledge and no theory knowledge explain to me as an employer what you bring to the table compared to a 17yr old that I could pay like £90 a week on an apprenticeship and get paid by the government? I would have to pay you minimum wage and it would take me months and cost me thousands to even start to break even with you... I don't want to sound harsh, but if you had some theory you at least would not need talking through everything and could use some initiative, if you just want to know if its right for you ask for a day or so of work experience but even that is hard to come by as if your self employed if it slows you down it costs you money..
I often get emails asking me to take people on, for some reason IT guys seem to want to change to be electricians, I don't really ever want to take anyone on but if I did then it would be more likely a 17yr old.. I am almost 40 and the one thing I have learnt is being an electrician is a young mans game, you can do it as you get older but you definitely hear a lot more groans, personally I wouldn't want to be doing it much beyond 50.