Retraining Ideas

scaredofdebt

Hi,


Just after some general advice, comments etc.


I am in my late forties, have spent the last 20 odd years working in offices, IT and Business Analysis type roles.


I am very likely to be made redundant in the next few months and I will get enough of a payout to take 9 months or so off to retrain.


I am sick of working in offices and really want to try something different.


One thing I am looking at is retraining to be a gas engineer, ie fitting /repairing/servicing boilers.


I quite like getting my hands dirty and am versatile and not scared of hard work. The courses are not cheap, best I've found so far is £7k and it takes about a year, so even with my payout this will be a struggle financially.


But I am open to other ideas, if you could retrain what would you do?


Another idea I have is to open a shop in the local town, it's quite touristy but I suspect my finances won't stretch to that, I have retail management experience and I did enjoy doing that type of work.


Anyway, feel free to comment, ideally constructively!


Thanks.

motorguy

scaredofdebt wrote: »

Hi,


Just after some general advice, comments etc.


I am in my late forties, have spent the last 20 odd years working in offices, IT and Business Analysis type roles.


I am very likely to be made redundant in the next few months and I will get enough of a payout to take 9 months or so off to retrain.


I am sick of working in offices and really want to try something different.


One thing I am looking at is retraining to be a gas engineer, ie fitting /repairing/servicing boilers.


I quite like getting my hands dirty and am versatile and not scared of hard work. The courses are not cheap, best I've found so far is £7k and it takes about a year, so even with my payout this will be a struggle financially.


But I am open to other ideas, if you could retrain what would you do?


Another idea I have is to open a shop in the local town, it's quite touristy but I suspect my finances won't stretch to that, I have retail management experience and I did enjoy doing that type of work.


Anyway, feel free to comment, ideally constructively!


Thanks.

I think your idea to retrain with a specific skill is along the right track.

Your idea to open a bricks and mortar shop is a bad one. They cost a fortune to run and the odds of starting one, getting it up and running and making a success of it are practically nil - thats nothing against you by the way, its a reflection of the high street these days.

Do continue to do what you're doing though - think carefully before jumping in to anything. You have what sounds like a very useful amount of money coming to you which would make an excellent nest egg / house deposit / chunk off the mortgage for down the line.

Mrs_Soup

Any chance of starting the training now on a part time evening class type basis?

eamon

I would suggest that you don't do any of those courses unless you are supported practically by an employer. You just won't get the neccesary field/site experience to reinforce all the theory that you paying a lot of money for. In other words if you are serious about retraining then consider being an an adult apprentice. They do exist and admittedly the numbers are tiny. There must be resources on the internet that you can use as well as any contacts that you/your friends/family have. That will be a much better investment than spending a chunk of your redundancy on a worthless course.

Les79

motorguy wrote: »

Your idea to open a bricks and mortar shop is a bad one. They cost a fortune to run and the odds of starting one, getting it up and running and making a success of it are practically nil - thats nothing against you by the way, its a reflection of the high street these days.

Not necessarily, there's still some money in bricks and mortar if you get the industry/location/costs etc right.

There's also the possibility of a start up loan, which appears to help in the writing of a business plan and some free mentoring (if successful).

scaredofdebt

Thanks so far all.


The course is 8 weeks in a "classroom" type environment then you get a 10 month "on the job" placement with a qualified heating engineer, so I guess that'll be me doing all the hard work.


I was wondering if the course could be done more quickly, still looking around for other providers.


Yeah, good point about shops, they are expensive to set up, it is risky.


Anyway, thanks again, keep up the ideas.

Savvy_Sue

scaredofdebt wrote: »

The course is 8 weeks in a "classroom" type environment then you get a 10 month "on the job" placement with a qualified heating engineer, so I guess that'll be me doing all the hard work.

Good. Read the small print carefully, if you can get onto a formal apprentice scheme that is better than anything less formal (because the employer is making more of a commitment).

scaredofdebt wrote: »

I was wondering if the course could be done more quickly, still looking around for other providers.

To be honest, I'd like to think that anyone playing around with my gas appliances had spent at least a year in training, with supervision throughout that time. There are reasons why only CORGI registered engineers can legally tackle gas appliances ...

lincroft1710

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

To be honest, I'd like to think that anyone playing around with my gas appliances had spent at least a year in training, with supervision throughout that time. There are reasons why only CORGI registered engineers can legally tackle gas appliances ...

CORGI no longer exists in this form, it is now Gas Safe. So beware of anyone who is CORGI registered but not Gas Safe

Pennywise

Have you thought about railway work, i.e. train driver or guard, signalling/control, or even getting into railway engineering. There's so much work being done at the moment, new lines, improvement works, electrification programs, etc., which will continue with the need for better public transport, reduced car use etc. Lots of railway jobs are pretty well paid and training is usually provided by the employer.

Blatchford

Pennywise wrote: »

Have you thought about railway work, i.e. train driver or guard, signalling/control, or even getting into railway engineering. There's so much work being done at the moment, new lines, improvement works, electrification programs, etc., which will continue with the need for better public transport, reduced car use etc. Lots of railway jobs are pretty well paid and training is usually provided by the employer.

Unless you are a labourer, railway engineering requires degrees and years of experience. Labouring is well paid, but almost impossible to get into. The railways are phasing out guards and "passenger safety" plus it takes a couple of years to get a job. Train driver - no chance. Guards can spend years trying to get a place. And actually, lots are no longer well paid or even secure. Don't believe the guff about better public transport. It makes nice headlines. Nobody means it.

Blatchford

Plumbing. If you are willing to work hard, and take household jobs, there aren't enough of them anywhere in the country.