Were at a crossroads re change of career

Bella79

Hi all

My hubby was has been self employed for some time 5/6 years however the work as dried up and has been struggling for over a year now, He doenst have any formal qualifcations or a trade (plumbing/sparky etc).

We really are at our wits ends thinking of a way to improve his future job prospects as the thought of spending the rest of his working life on a production line etc isnt that appealing to him.

One line of work he is intrested in is reatraining to become a electrican (not a short course but the proper city&guilds). however this is proving a difficult decision to make as there seems to be loads of them looking for work and even if you do train the jobs want ppl with experience !.

We just really do not know what to do, hes pretty open minded and hes only 37 so got plently of life in him yet

ANy help from anyone who has retrained in something would be great or any sparkys lol

Thankyou in advance

DCFC79

Could he not offer to work voluntary for a few days, he might be able to get an apprenticeship but it depends on the amount of funding available, would you be able to survive whilst he retrains ?

Bella79

Hi

Yes we could survive (just), i would do as much as i could to cut down etc and help him to get through the training. We have looked on job center sites etc for jobs but the ones for electricans are wanting experiance, And ive read a few forums and they seem to be all saying threres no work ?, so really dont know if we should invest in this or not as it would be tough for us.

MrsManda

It may be worth him having an appointment with a careers advisor to help him decide what he really wants to do and how to get there. There are ways to contact a careers advisor and other advice about choosing a new path at direct.gov

Oldernotwiser

Most people would start by doing an evening course at the local college and if he doesn't have any qualifications, a level 2 course would be free.