Plenty of jobs out there?

[TaffyDuck]

Sounds like I`m lucky then, its not easy but I guess I made good contacts when times were good. Refused to work for dodgy builders etc and cherry picked the quality tradesmen. they are still working and therefore so am I. The difference I see is I`m no longer doing many big jobs just a few days here, a few days there but the Insp/Testing is busy and fire alarm maintanance is steady. Not turning down work anymore but I can keep busy for 5 days a week.

 

[Octopus]

"agencies are asking for qualified sparks with 2330, 2382 and 2391 , paying £7 - £9 /hour."

At that sort of money it would be cheaper to stay at home!

Or working at a Supermarket.

Maybe you should ask the training company "selling" you the course how they substantiate their earnings "claims"??


PLUS when you do your sums allow £5K on top of the fees to start up if you plan to go self employed

 

[n180]

Thanks for the info guys.

Wow, this does not sound pretty at all.

I did a search on google for electrician. There are literally hundreds of little orange dots all around Birmingham. Seems like there's loads of electricians around.

Also did a search for some jobs on jobcentre site as well as other sites. on the jobcentre site there are only 153 jobs available withing 30 miles of my house (look how many electricians there are!) The average pay for a qualified electrician with experience is about £12/13 per hour.

I was thinking of doing it with OLCI because I would get the 2357, after about 12-18 months (with work based experience) which would mean I am a fully qualified (NVQ level 3), but looking at the prospects after qualification (6 grand down and 12 months later) is off putting.

any further advice? I'm really confused as to whether I should go ahead with the course now or not?

 

[oldtimer]

well look at it this way would you let a doctor operate on you if you found that he did a crash course instead of the usuall 7 years of training so yes you can take the courses and yes get the qualifications but you are not going to get the £12-13 per hour if you are lucky a company may take you under their wing and take you on as a sparks mate to get you up to speed or worse an agency will get you and we all know where that goes again I am not putting you off its your shout so make sure this is what you want to do and stick to it but if it is a fad then it is going to cost you a pretty penny so make sure you have the money and DONT borrow the cash or stick it on a credit card for your own peace of mind

 

[OllieNotts]

If you really want to do it then go to college, it has been made clear enough on here the training centres a waste of time and will get you nowhere. Less money and more time at college to let the knowledge you are taught sink in and while you are on the course you can be trying to get work as a mate/trainee/apprentice whatever during the course you'd look a lot more attractive to an employer having got off your arse and gone about the training the right way then doing a teach yourself course from home.
If you don't take the advice offered in this thread then you're 99% certain to fail, if that isn't clear enough for you then good luck but seriously take it and let it sink in.
And that is coming from someone at college doing it the long/right way while I attempt to get work and I am 29. If you want it enough, and are wiling to work hard enough you'll succeed.

 

[Adam W]

How many people do you know who have swanned out of training and been snapped up by a company for a cushy job? Nowadays a lot of companies offer unpaid internships where you basically work yourself half to death to try to impress the company into giving you a full time job, then they can turn round and tell you they don't need you anymore and you're back to square one. When it happens with high profile jobs in broadcasting, politics or the legal profession there is an outcry in the media, while it happens all the time in the electrical game, but nobody really cares about the plight of the 'thickie who can't even get a proper job in an office'.

The alternative is you could do what a lot of people seem to have done and leave college with no experience to set up your own business in competition with all those other dots on the map. You could probably blag your way through a couple of jobs by making stuff up as you go along or even asking on internet forums, work at cost to try to build up a customer base but when you try to raise your prices to a level where you're not losing money hand over fist suddenly all your customers have found a 'better' (cheaper) electrician who will cut more corners to pinch pennies or who has had a bigger redundancy payout so can effectively pay for his experience and to build up his customer base.
After a couple of years when your savings have run out and you realise that competing against all these guys with shiny new vans and redundancy payouts won't pay you a living wage you can jump on the next bandwaon or go back to doing a 'safe' 9 - 5, having left the electrical trade in a worse state than you found it.

.... Or maybe you're better than everyone else and can make a lucrative career out of this unlike the thousands of idiots who tried and failed; after all, the salesman said there was a "massive shortage" and you could "earn up to £50,747", which is a lot of money.

I'm not trying to put anyone off, just a few points to consider.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Or working at a Supermarket.

Maybe you should ask the training company "selling" you the course how they substantiate their earnings "claims"??


PLUS when you do your sums allow £5K on top of the fees to start up if you plan to go self employed

yes well i think its high time that these training centres claiming that earnings of 50k plus are made to explain/substantiate how they arrive at those figures.....and also how they
claim that theres a shortage of electricians in a depressed market......i suppose this is `buyer beware`...but these are clearly false claims and they should either have to prove how they arrived at these figures......or be made to stop this.........

 

[ipf]

This shortage of electricians baffles me. Contractors and companies are laying people off, wholesalers are dwindling, local government and private budgets for building work have disappeared and as for heavy and light engineering...well we all know about that one.
As a result we have duping d*******s, offering 'hit or miss' qualifications to the clueless, most of whom haven't the slightest chance of landing lucky. At least some have the common sense to ask about the situation before jumping. To those, I will say 'goodluck and make sure you know the facts before you make the decision'.........to the rest........ignorance is bliss but on your head be it. For god sake, this is a trade, leave us be.

 

[piratebillybob]

what you do need to accept before continuing is that you could work very hard for 2-3 years put your heart and soul into it, spend a lot of money on college courses and tools and still not make it. And those 2-3 years and the money will be wasted.

as long as you acknowledge this risk then please carry on.

It isnt too bad when youre in your twenties or late teens because youve still got time to find something else, but for me im in my early thirties the stakes get higher.

I got very close to not getting an apprenticeship. If i didnt get one that would have been 2-3 years and a lot of hard work wasted. And when youre 30+ you cant afford to be wasting years trying career changes that dont work out.

Have you thought about doing a degree in electrical engineering? At least at the end of the 3 years and you find you cant get a job then you at least have an engineering degree which could be used for something else.

If you spend 2-3 years doing the 2330 then you find you cant get an apprenticeship then the 2330 really is useless. And you time is wasted

 

[VoltzElectrical]

yes well i think its high time that these training centres claiming that earnings of 50k plus are made to explain/substantiate how they arrive at those figures.....and also how they
claim that theres a shortage of electricians in a depressed market......i suppose this is `buyer beware`...but these are clearly false claims and they should either have to prove how they arrived at these figures......or be made to stop this.........

They don't have to glen. they add the caveat 'potentially'. This covers their rearhind. Some sparks are on a grand a week so it's fair enough. I've known some mates on that, working on price, but the bubble has burst and companies don't want/ won't allow people to earn that anymore.

 

[VoltzElectrical]

what you do need to accept before continuing is that you could work very hard for 2-3 years put your heart and soul into it, spend a lot of money on college courses and tools and still not make it. And those 2-3 years and the money will be wasted.

as long as you acknowledge this risk then please carry on.

It isnt too bad when youre in your twenties or late teens because youve still got time to find something else, but for me im in my early thirties the stakes get higher.

I got very close to not getting an apprenticeship. If i didnt get one that would have been 2-3 years and a lot of hard work wasted. And when youre 30+ you cant afford to be wasting years trying career changes that dont work out.

Have you thought about doing a degree in electrical engineering? At least at the end of the 3 years and you find you cant get a job then you at least have an engineering degree which could be used for something else.

If you spend 2-3 years doing the 2330 then you find you cant get an apprenticeship then the 2330 really is useless. And you time is wasted

I don't think spending a couple of years at night school doing the 2330 will ever be wasted, as long as you can find a course at the right price. Mine cost approx £400 a year, which I found acceptable. With the underpinning knowledge, one can then find work as a 'mate' (more needed than sparks) and eventually secure the NVQ side of things. At the end, you will have qualifications AND experience. The thing NOT to do is give up a secure job right now, and try to dive headlong into a struggling and recession prone industry.

Why oh why do we have people posting on here day after day with the same questions? These short courses will NOT result in you becoming a qualified electrician. They will clean you out, and leave you high and dry. You don't need any qualifications to work in the industry as s 'mate', often paying just a couple of quid shy of what the sparks are getting.

There is less and less incentive to get the quals, when you can get almost the rate anyway.

Get a CSCS CARD, GET ON SITE, GET STUCK IN.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

what you do need to accept before continuing is that you could work very hard for 2-3 years put your heart and soul into it, spend a lot of money on college courses and tools and still not make it. And those 2-3 years and the money will be wasted.

as long as you acknowledge this risk then please carry on.

It isnt too bad when youre in your twenties or late teens because youve still got time to find something else, but for me im in my early thirties the stakes get higher.

I got very close to not getting an apprenticeship. If i didnt get one that would have been 2-3 years and a lot of hard work wasted. And when youre 30+ you cant afford to be wasting years trying career changes that dont work out.

Have you thought about doing a degree in electrical engineering? At least at the end of the 3 years and you find you cant get a job then you at least have an engineering degree which could be used for something else.

If you spend 2-3 years doing the 2330 then you find you cant get an apprenticeship then the 2330 really is useless. And you time is wasted

well i`m in my late thirties (38)...and came from a heavy industries (plater welder) background......i dont regret the choices i have made.......i still have a year and a bit to go at college....but i wouldn`t go back into fabrications.......

 

[GLENNSPARK]

I don't think spending a couple of years at night school doing the 2330 will ever be wasted, as long as you can find a course at the right price. Mine cost approx £400 a year, which I found acceptable. With the underpinning knowledge, one can then find work as a 'mate' (more needed than sparks) and eventually secure the NVQ side of things. At the end, you will have qualifications AND experience. The thing NOT to do is give up a secure job right now, and try to dive headlong into a struggling and recession prone industry.

Why oh why do we have people posting on here day after day with the same questions? These short courses will NOT result in you becoming a qualified electrician. They will clean you out, and leave you high and dry. You don't need any qualifications to work in the industry as s 'mate', often paying just a couple of quid shy of what the sparks are getting.

There is less and less incentive to get the quals, when you can get almost the rate anyway.

Get a CSCS CARD, GET ON SITE, GET STUCK IN.

well this is all about steering your ship carefully isn`t it.....

 

[VoltzElectrical]

I suppose so, if ship steering means researching the job beforehand. I maintain the best approach is to get on site as a mate, getting £9- £10 per hour, give it a year then think about doing night school so you can go back on site and earn £11 - £13 per hour.

There is not enough difference in wage between unqualified mate and spark to incentivize trainees.

There is more available work as a mate.

You don't need to be qualified to work as a domestic spark.

Only assessed as competent.

await your response!!

 

[Adam W]

yes well i think its high time that these training centres claiming that earnings of 50k plus are made to explain/substantiate how they arrive at those figures.....and also how they
claim that theres a shortage of electricians in a depressed market......i suppose this is `buyer beware`...but these are clearly false claims and they should either have to prove how they arrived at these figures......or be made to stop this.........

It stemmed from when the media decided there were too many kids doing media studies degrees and going into media instead of other things like apprenticeships, then they pointed out that if not enough kids do apprenticeships there could be a shortage of skilled, time served tradesmen. This snowballed into a 'massive skills crisis' which training providers jumped on and cashed in on by telling people looking for an easy shortcut that being an electrician is a lucrative, in-demand career, then selling them a domestic installer course, which would do nothing to alleviate any shortage of skilled time served tradesmen even if it did exist.

As for the 'potential £50,747' I'll wager that figure was simply plucked from the sky - google it and you'll see the same potential earnings being quoted for plumbers, green energy installers and any other job which you 'need' one of their courses to do.

I expect you could potentially earn up to £50,747 stacking shelves in asda, in a similar fashion to how you could potentially earn up to £42 million by winning the lottery.

 

[oldtimer]

One thing I would highlight is the term electrician can relate to
1. Domestic Electrician
2. Commercial & Industrial Electrician (this is where I served my time)
3. Maintenance Electrician (facilities) (Iworked in this feild)
4. Maintenannce Electrician (Industrial)

Then you can move on to (which I did)
Intruder alarm technician
Fire alarm technician
HVAC BMS technician

So yes the oportunity is there but you have to go get it as it will not land on your lap.

I will also mention the It is who you know and not what you know at times and I would say that this is the only thing that gets my goat yes I know it goes on but it does not mean that I have to accept it and would say that it is this mentality that contributes to the undermining of our trade with some of these clowns who technically could not put a nut in a monkeys mouth as far as I am concerned.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

It stemmed from when the media decided there were too many kids doing media studies degrees and going into media instead of other things like apprenticeships, then they pointed out that if not enough kids do apprenticeships there could be a shortage of skilled, time served tradesmen. This snowballed into a 'massive skills crisis' which training providers jumped on and cashed in on by telling people looking for an easy shortcut that being an electrician is a lucrative, in-demand career, then selling them a domestic installer course, which would do nothing to alleviate any shortage of skilled time served tradesmen even if it did exist.

As for the 'potential £50,747' I'll wager that figure was simply plucked from the sky - google it and you'll see the same potential earnings being quoted for plumbers, green energy installers and any other job which you 'need' one of their courses to do.

I expect you could potentially earn up to £50,747 stacking shelves in asda, in a similar fashion to how you could potentially earn up to £42 million by winning the lottery.

well..it does sound like the result of some sort of formula doesn`t it Adam......but clearly no real foundation to it....and so it should come with a warning..as apposed to a disclaimer.....also seems like some sort of juggling act as well.......is this the fallout of tony blairs degrees program?......

 

[VoltzElectrical]

Let's get the issue into focus for the OP and other's sake.

Are there jobs out there? Yes there are.

Should I spend thousands getting a qualification to get these jobs? No you don't need to.

Should I get some training that I can afford to supplement my on site experience? yes you should. Try your local college for day release or night school.

But I thought that I would need to have a qualification to start? NO. You will start as a helper, or mate. You don't need a qualification. You will need a card that says you can work safely on site, a CSCS card. You can get this by doing a simple multiple choice test.

Does anyone want to add anything constructive to this post to help the OP?

 

[wellshocked]

Let's get the issue into focus for the OP and other's sake.

Are there jobs out there? Yes there are.

Should I spend thousands getting a qualification to get these jobs? No you don't need to.

Should I get some training that I can afford to supplement my on site experience? yes you should. Try your local college for day release or night school.

But I thought that I would need to have a qualification to start? NO. You will start as a helper, or mate. You don't need a qualification. You will need a card that says you can work safely on site, a CSCS card. You can get this by doing a simple multiple choice test.

Does anyone want to add anything constructive to this post to help the OP?

you aint got no chance of getting on site as a mate with just a cscs card though

 

[VoltzElectrical]

how so?