How to become an Electrician in the London area?

[claydon1]

Hi to all,
Firstly thanks in advance to anyone that can offer some advice, I'll try keep this as brief as possible.

In short I need to know the quickest way to get a job as a qualified electrician, ideally skipping the apprentice wage if that's possible?

The background to my story is that I'm currently living up in north wales and I work as a sales administrator for a Toyota dealership and to be honest it doesn't give me a great deal of job satisfaction. Me and my girlfriend are moving down to South London in May 2015 and I'm looking at it as an opportunity to change careers to something I'll enjoy. Becoming either an electrician or a plumber is what I'm looking at but to be honest electrician is what appeals the most. We're going to be moving in with girlfriends parents initially and given that I'm now 26 and haven't lived with my parents since I was 17 I'm going to be looking to get out of that place and into our own house ASAP hence the urgency to get on a reasonable wadge as quickly as I can.

I've seen these 25 day courses in domestic electrical installation such as this one: Domestic Electrical Installer TS4U-25: Silver
and all though the £3000 fee seems steep if it means getting into a £20K + a year job straight away then so be it.
What sort of wage could I expect to start on having the qualification from doing the course above?

Am I looking at this in the right way? Is it even possible to do what I'm trying to do? Am I being completely naive and stupid in my approach to this? Is anyone in the London area working as an electrician? Is there even any work about?

Feel free to rip my plan apart or tell me I'm living in a dream world, I'm pretty thick skinned.

 

[Johnuk]

there is no quick way

 

[Guest77]

Gasp and double gasp

 

[uksparks]

Feel free to rip my plan apart or tell me I'm living in a dream world, I'm pretty thick skinned.

Yes, you are living in a dream world.

How do you plan on carrying out electrical tasks and jobs for people with zero experience? My neighbor over the road from me asked me the very same thing, whats the quickest way, he says he will be fine, he knows how to change a plug he said...

 

[cprfenom]

Gasp and double gasp

Bloody hell! Are you saying that all I had to do to become and electrician was Gasp twice!! All these Electrical Trainee will feel conned!:6:

 

[uksparks]

£3000 fee seems steep if it means getting into a £20K + a year job straight away then so be it.

What about your experience and all the tools you need? You can easily spend £7k to £10k on tools for the job very easily.

You will also need a van in reality, and insurance and everything else.

 

[cprfenom]

he knows how to change a plug he said...

More than some people on here can do it seems

 

[uksparks]

Am I being completely naive and stupid in my approach to this?

Yes and yes

 

[7029 dave]

The weather has been quite nice today, very mild for this time of year.

 

[Guest77]

Gasp again

 

[cprfenom]

Gasp again

Steady!! You will start feeling faint!

 

[ferg]

Gasp again

You really ought to look in to some sort of inhaler or quit the smokes.

 

[Ste69]

Do you honestly think you will be competent to carry out electrical work after a few weeks of training in a classroom?

If you are serious about becoming an electrician, you need to complete a 4 year apprenticeship....either by the apprenticeship route or by mature student learning route evening classes 2 nights a week for 3 years AND work based study at weekends/spare time then take your AM2 exam...all this is included in the apprenticeship....and you know what it will be at least £1500 quid cheaper!

 

[VoltzElectrical]

Do the ECS test and get your site card, then register with agencies as a mate, and enrol in evening class studying the city and guilds 2357.

That way you will gain experience working alongside electricians and acquire the underpinning knowledge to become fully qualified.

That is the only route that will enable you to bypass apprentice wages, and mates are always in demand.

Good luck.

 

[guest119]

Hi Glenn, long time no see.

 

[tazz]

OP please watch this young apprentice .....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIr-onMPkao

 

[amlu]

study 17th edition to know the basic rules, and go work as a mate to get experience.
no way you can go on your own right after any training.

 

[Pete999]

Just got up, I know I'll go on the forum, feel slightly nauseated by the OP's cheek, give me a warm glow inside knowing that those 6 years I spent as an Apprentice were wasted, as I could have gone and taken a course and become qualified without any experience, is the OP an living in some sort of utopia where you can change careers just like that?:6::mad2::rant:

 

[claydon1]

Firstly thanks for all the put downs and reassurances that I was way off in my thought process, very entertaining. I especially liked "feel slightly nauseated by the OP's cheek" hope I didn't make you throw up your weetabix.

Anyway, I may not have been clear in what I was trying to achieve. I wasn't looking to do a 25day course and then buy a van and tools and start handing our business cards, I was just wondering if I could get a good level of ground knowledge by doing some sort of intensive course and then try to get a job with an all ready qualified/experienced/practicing electrician as a trainee but on a better starting wadge than £8k a year as an apprentice (which I'm told is reasonable starting wadge for an apprentice, true?).

Thank you Ste69 for your advice of doing an evening course, I'll certainly look at that at least then I could get a job in a car dealership to be able to earn a living and then earn the qualification in my spare time. Does anyone know of anywhere in particular for doing such a course in the south london area? and what qualification would I be looking to achieve doing such a course? any links to college course pages etc would be appreciated here.

Also thank you VoltzElectrical for your advice, to do the ECS Health & Safety test how much electrical knowledge do I need? or is it more of a common sense sort of accreditation?. Also I take as an electricians "mate" that's an unpaid role is it and something you just do in your spare time to gain on site experience along side doing an evening course?

Genuinely thanks to everyone for giving there advice even if was just to shoot me down it all helps steer me in the right direction, plus I don't mean to offend anyone that has spent years learning there craft and takes tremendous pride in what they've taken the time to achieve. I totally admire your commitment and time it's taken to get to where your at. I'm just coming from this with a background in office work and a bit of sales work where you don't have to have any qualifications so this is all alien to me.

 

[guest119]

Just got up, I know I'll go on the forum, feel slightly nauseated by the OP's cheek, give me a warm glow inside knowing that those 6 years I spent as an Apprentice were wasted, as I could have gone and taken a course and become qualified without any experience, is the OP an living in some sort of utopia where you can change careers just like that?:6::mad2::rant:

Yep I found it a bit offensive too Pete.
Whats next then, Joe 90 style change the disc to be whatever you want?
Or, as the smoke clears you hear, today Mathew Im going to be a ??????