Becoming an Electrician?

theblessedone

Hi all,

I am 20 years of age, and I currently work as a Payroll Administrator.

I am looking into becoming an Electrician, but I really don't know the best way to go about it. Obviously my main concern is my salary. I have lived comfortably on about £18,000 PA for the last 3 years, and more than likely will have to take a dramatic drop in salary to train and become an Electrician. I don't know if I have to stop my income altogether and train as if I were a school leaver, or are there some sort of "learn while you earn" courses available.

I have 6 GCSE's all Grade C and 2 GNVQ's; A Merit and a Pass

I really am aspiring to becoming an Electrician, but I am sort of in the dark about the whole situation and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Proppo

I was looking into this recently, theres places like train4tradeskills.com which have a upto a 20day course, which will get you upto Part P and have the ability to test your work. But it is around £2000 for the course.

On the other hand, my girlfriends brother was put into an electricians course (Stevenage area), because he's in his 30's and has no "skill" as such. So for about £200 he had to pay, he is now training to be an electrician, I also think it was an evening course, so it lets him continue with his current job.

POPPYOSCAR

My son is training to be an electrician,he has a part time job as well.His is a three year course.At his college they do a one day a week course on a saturday which, in this area, at your age you would have to pay for and it currently costs £1700.

You may be very lucky and find someone to take you on and train you or even pay for you to attend the course but that is very doubtful in this day and age.We have found that most electricians now are hired on a self employed basis.

Oldernotwiser

Your local college will probably offer the initial course by evening study which you could do whilst working. You would then be in a better position to apply for apprenticeships and to look for the practical placement you will need to obtain your NVQs.

I would avoid organisations that suggest you can train as an electrician in 3/4 weeks and charge you thousands.

Hammyman

Firstly and most importantly, are you colour blind - even just one colour?

As Oldernotwiser said, avoid the "rapid" courses. An employer will be wanting someone with an apprenticeship, not just a bit of paper.

jimbms

First of all the minimum training you can do before a company will even consider taking you on and you are able to get a trade card will take you 2 years full time, forget all these quick courses, no decent company will touch you with those cowboy qualifications. forget that 20day course to part p that is testing only and means nothing. You need to contact the JIB or the CITB to get information because unless your qualification come to their standards you may as well forget it. Now the good bit, if you do the first year of the course you may find companies will take you on for the rest, also contact N.G. Baileys as they have a very good training scheme, when qualified stay away from house bashing and go into industrial or petrochemical and you can expect to earn very good wages, also if your intrest is in electronics consider going for instrument technician, there is serious money in that, as a mere instrument tech in the 80's I was refusing jobs at less than £10/hr in petrochemiocal sites, I wont even scare you by saying what you can ask if you carry on to degree level, . But my advice is go for it, you will make your loss up in a couple of years and you will realise what a boring job being a desk jockey is.

viktory

My son (19) has just been offered two places at two separate colleges to train as an electrician. The course he is doing is two years as he already has the basic key skills and an NVQ at Level 2 in something else. Unfortunately, due to his age and the fact that he had a Level 2 NVQ it is looking like it is going to cost us £1,200 a year, plus exams and all the equipment. My son is going to have to look for part time work to pay his travel costs etc and his father and I will meet the course costs. We consider it in investment in his future.

Thanks for the information jimbms, we will look further into this.

addiis

Hi

Ive just completed the 2 year electrician course city & guilds 2330 (level 2 & 3)

As far as i know this course is being phased out and is being replaced by the City & Guilds 2357 and to do this you must be taking an apprenticeship, really unfair as im having major difficulty in finding one (would have thought it would be easier after getting level 3)

My advice:

you should only do it if your really determined to become an electrician as the work in college can have its good days and bad days and quite a bit of revision for level 3 is required

if you can find a college doing the 2330 then I would reccomend it

All thats needed then is the 17th edition regs, building regs (part p ect) and the 2391 test + inspection and experience

Any more questions just ask

Oldernotwiser

jimbms wrote: »

First of all the minimum training you can do before a company will even consider taking you on and you are able to get a trade card will take you 2 years full time, forget all these quick courses, no decent company will touch you with those cowboy qualifications. forget that 20day course to part p that is testing only and means nothing. You need to contact the JIB or the CITB to get information because unless your qualification come to their standards you may as well forget it. Now the good bit, if you do the first year of the course you may find companies will take you on for the rest, also contact N.G. Baileys as they have a very good training scheme, when qualified stay away from house bashing and go into industrial or petrochemical and you can expect to earn very good wages, also if your intrest is in electronics consider going for instrument technician, there is serious money in that, as a mere instrument tech in the 80's I was refusing jobs at less than £10/hr in petrochemiocal sites, I wont even scare you by saying what you can ask if you carry on to degree level, . But my advice is go for it, you will make your loss up in a couple of years and you will realise what a boring job being a desk jockey is.

Whilst agreeing with you about short courses, full time study really isn't essential for mature students. Many full time college courses are only 3 1/2 days per week with added padding like key skills that many adults don't require. Motivated, mature students can cover as much ground in 2 evenings a week as teenagers manage on a full time course, which is why both groups are often working towards the same qualification.

DCFC79

Proppo wrote: »

I was looking into this recently, theres places like train4tradeskills.com which have a upto a 20day course, which will get you upto Part P and have the ability to test your work. But it is around £2000 for the course.

On the other hand, my girlfriends brother was put into an electricians course (Stevenage area), because he's in his 30's and has no "skill" as such. So for about £200 he had to pay, he is now training to be an electrician, I also think it was an evening course, so it lets him continue with his current job.

are these train4tradeskills.com any good though

viktory

addiis wrote: »

Hi

Ive just completed the 2 year electrician course city & guilds 2330 (level 2 & 3)

As far as i know this course is being phased out and is being replaced by the City & Guilds 2357 and to do this you must be taking an apprenticeship, really unfair as im having major difficulty in finding one (would have thought it would be easier after getting level 3)

This is the course my son will be starting in September,