Training for a trade later in life...

JennyP

My boyfriend is an engineer and has a good job but he hates it. The hours for one thing are dreadful.
He's much more of a practical bod and fits kitchens, does bathrooms, can plaster like a pro and so on.
He'd really like to retrain for a new career as a plumber, electrician, builder or plasterer (he likes doing all four!) but the problem is that all the courses require you to do an apprenticeship working for virtually no money. Even if he did persuade a local plumber to take him on, I'm not sure how we'd manage without the money coming in whilst he trained.
People do manage it though as I've heard of people retraining after a career doing something else.
Does anyone please know how?
Thanks!

shameless-about-money

I would like to know the answer to this one too - going into a profession where it is better to be self-employed but I would get no pay for 12 weeks or so - have no idea how I could do this without any income for that length of time!
The Job Centre just shrug their shoulders at me and say "tough"

Lifeisbutadream

This is a really hard one, because I can see it from the other side!

We have a small business and would love to take on an apprentice, but unfortunately we cant even afford to pay them the minimum by law!

When we looked into it, we would not only have to pay all the costs for the employee, such as NI and tax, but also our insurance would go up and we would have to take out time to train to be able to train them correctly and then fill out all the appropriate forms every few weeks.

We wouldnt have any problems doing all that, but we simply dont have the time or the funds..

A lot of small businesses are in this position and the larger ones just want to make money so arent interested in taking someone on who wont make them money immediately...

I feel really sorry for your OH, because there is a lack of trades people and it wont change unless people like him start to get financial help with this!

BallerinaGirl

Same here!!!

My DH is in a very shakey factory at the mo, they really are in dire straits, and he is really good with this type of stuff too, he would like to do plumbing.

He has looked into doing courses etc etc but they are in the thousands and the ones at college are full-time and of course we need the money.

And I would love to go back and do an access to medicine course, but the same thing too, we need to work.

Its a shame, amongst us few here what we could offer, plumber, decorater, nurse.....yet these oppertunites are out of our reach.

peter999

JennyP wrote:

He'd really like to retrain for a new career as a plumber, electrician, builder or plasterer (he likes doing all four!) but the problem is that all the courses require you to do an apprenticeship working for virtually no money.

People do manage it though as I've heard of people retraining after a career doing something else.
Does anyone please know how?

Have a look at this thread:

Fast-track Plumbing Training
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=109362

peter999

ictmad

not the same but similar,i was in catering for 20 years as a chef,got feed up with the hrs and crap money,so got a job working at a builders merchants,an awful lot to learn but iam loving it,also paying to train as a hgv driver myself to have another option

JennyP

Glad to know he's not the only one fed up anyway.
The problem with the Fast Track course is that you still need to do the practical stuff to get properly qualified.
I don't really understand the male psyche! He hates his job but he trotted off to work at 6 a.m. this morning and isn't planning to be back until 9 p.m. I'm in a temp position at the moment which I also hate but I tip up five minutes before I have to and leave as soon as possible!

bargain_carly

Hi there

I have taken one of these intensive plumbing courses (10 weeks in total and had to stay in a hotel the entire time). There is a career development loan available from the government up to £8k which I found enough to fund the course and live on, although I am in the very lucky position of having a working partner. My main problem now is that although I have finished training and am very qualified on paper it is nigh on impossible to find a position with a company to gain some experience/work towards my NVQ2. I am not confident enough to set up on my own at the moment so stuck in limbo. I'm even considering going back to temp office work again. So much for skills shortage.

Lifeisbutadream

bargain_carly wrote:

Hi there

I have taken one of these intensive plumbing courses (10 weeks in total and had to stay in a hotel the entire time). There is a career development loan available from the government up to £8k which I found enough to fund the course and live on, although I am in the very lucky position of having a working partner. My main problem now is that although I have finished training and am very qualified on paper it is nigh on impossible to find a position with a company to gain some experience/work towards my NVQ2. I am not confident enough to set up on my own at the moment so stuck in limbo. I'm even considering going back to temp office work again. So much for skills shortage.

Try doing work for people you know for free/cost of materials - you will soon get some confidence. My next door neighbour left the army 7 years ago and did an intense course, did a few jobs 'free' (including our bathroom :T and boiler :T ) then set up on his own. He went on to get corgi registered after a few years and he is absolutely rolling in it now (well im presuming it is the plumbing - he might have won the lottery for all I know!!) he has a new car every year and holidays 2 or 3 times a year! I was thinking of doing it myself!

dosh

This may be slightly off subject:

When you're trained/qualified, you may find this a useful site for job finding.

http://www.thebigproject.co.uk/jobs.htm

bargain_carly

thanks. That list will come in handy! Its too bad that I dont know anyone whos in the trades - I hardly know anyone as we're still new to the area. I have offerd myself free but employers still arent interested probably due to 1) them still having to insure you and 2) they are effectively training a future competitior. I dont think it helps being female either as a lot of employers will think I cant do the job as well as a man.