Being 25, I'm pretty much too old for any type of apprenticeship I know of and I've completely lost faith in the whole college/uni song and dance. A bloke came to see me at home yesterday who works for T4TS and he told me all about the plumbing courses they do. It's part home-based learning via theory and virtual 3D software and part-practical work at one of their facilities where you put all your skills into practice fitting bathrooms and whatnot and you also get your NVQ level 2 I think it is by working for an actual company, with an assesor visiting you periodically.. whether that company will choose to keep you on at the end is down to them though. It's expensive, but much cheaper than one years worth of uni loans. You get all the relevant plumbing qualifications to be able to work for yourself, or to be employed by a company. That said, I'm not a twat so I understand that this bloke's job is to make sales as he works on comissions only. Looking onling online I've read mixed results. Some old timers claim no plumbing company would touch anyone who's qualified through this route, others have said they did find work after the course and others said it's really only a sensible route to go down if you're in it with the intent of going self employed straight away. In today's economy it's difficult to predict what will happen. Does anyone have any input or alternative solutions to get into this type of trade? I'd consider other things, not just plumbing. I feel cheated out of life by believing all the bullshit we were taught in school about having to stick in and goto uni. What a fucking waste of time it has been, I wish I'd done an apprenticeship straight from school. I'm going to check out british gas etc and see what they offer too. Cheers!
i hold a nvq level 3 in joinery and it took me 3 years of classroom and site based learning. and even after i did my time i found it hard to get someone to take me on as its not what qualifications you have its time served and experiance. personally from my knowledge of this t4ts is its crap. you cant honestly learn things like that, you may learn the theory side of things but actully doing it is totally diffrent. lucky enough for me, i got took on by a small family company who took a chance on me, only paid me 200 a week for the first 2 month to see if i actully knew what i was doing then took me on, on a higher rate of pay but as with any job in the trade you are always learning, i mean i was an expert at hanging doors but every single one i hung was diffrent and unless youve done the job for many many years some problems that you cant solve yourself are easy for someone else. but even now if i left my current job and went back into joinery after i havnt touched a bit of wood in years i wouldnt get taken on anywhere even tho i have amazing refrences and all the quals and even extra ones. my personal view is dont do it mate, dont waste your time on this. or if you are going to do it, ring or talk to people you would work for tell them what your are intending to and see if they would take you on, on a low rate of pay while you are still learning and that gets reveiwed on a regular basis
I've been on the phone to various plumbing companies all day today and it seems like it's an even split down the middle so far with some only interested in time served applicants, but others saying they'll consider anyone with sufficient qualifications with the intent to grow within their business. I was actually surprised to hear the latter as I was pretty sure the majority of them would say they weren't going to be interested. I hate to think I've missed my chance to learn a trade, and with apprenticeships being primarily for youngsters between 16-18, I can't really see many other ways to get into the industry. Of all the people I know who've gone to uni.. some even with 1:1 results, only one of my friends has been able to get a relevant job out of it and she's with the NHS so go figure.. I know a fair few who are now managers in a supermarket that they first started working in when they were in college through to uni. One of my mates went straight into an apprenticeship at 18 and has been doing great ever since.. no debts, no wasted years of studying for nothing... You do practical work on this course once the theory and computer based learning is done. Their nearest centre is in Yorkshire and you do residentials there. You then move onto working for an actual company with an assessor coming out to oversee you which goes towards earning the NVQ. Whether the company then keeps you on afterwards is up to them and how good at the job you are, but it still counts towards some experience at least. That, along with what I've been told on the phone by various companies today sounds pretty promising to me. Beats the shit out of getting into 20-30k debt through uni with absolutely zero promise of a job afterwards. I'm still going to need to look into this a lot more before deciding on anything though.
Dear Mr B. Train4TradeSkills News have released a new blog – T4TS How to Guides, the place for all the latest stories about Train4TradeSkills students with work placements, apprenticeships or getting plumbing or electrical experience outside of their course. The T4TS How to Guides Blog can be seen at http://t4tshowtoguides.wordpress.com It features: The latest interviews from Train4TradeSkills students on our weekly podcast – T4TS Radio Advice from T4TS Students on how to get work placements in plumbing or electrics. Stories from Train4TradeSkills students about their course and the practical work they are getting outside their course. The Plumbline App – the perfect iPhone app for trainee plumbers. You can listen to students via our online audio service at http://audioboo.fm/Train4tradeskills or should you prefer you can read transcipts via http://www.scribd.com/Train4TradeSkills . Plus hear what happened when the BBC arrived http://bit.ly/lXAHXJ Regards T4TS
All well and good but it's not really going to provide any stories on the people who didn't get jobs out of it is it?
Thats ever so slightly fucking disturbing. What next, if I sign up as Ryan Gigg's wife will he register and start going off it?
No shit! The fact that it started with Mr B too, so not even an automatic bot. Sort of reminds me of the time share episode of South Park!
