Gas courses????

[Toolbox]

Hi folks looking for advice on the course to become Plumber/gas eng.Do they have the right qualifications to be corgi reg.Being made redundant at the end of the year and thinking of career change.Presently working as a tech fault finding on m/c,s and do DIY as hobby eg tiling,bathroom installs.
Thanks in advance.

 

[WDIK]

pardon me for asking but what is a

m/c,s

is that some kind of text talk?

 

[gas4you]

Watc out for the 4 week courses. They are carp. You will also need a placement to gain your 70 hours work portfolio. Plenty of cowboy trainers out there who will take your money but won't tell you that CORGI will not accept you on the register unless you have the 70 hours proof.

Personally although I feel for you getting made redundant, there are too many gas installers out there already and things are only getting worse as this year passes by.

These training centres won't tell you that either. They will make out we are all rushed off our feet and earning loads.

 

[totalshell]

left my job of 20 years 18 months ago to retrain on a ' multiskilled gas engineer' course paid 8k for 16 weeks class room and 16 weeks work experience. went with probably the countrys biggest training provider.

i finished top of my intake by a mile i passed all my acs and am now corgi reg.


what you will not be told by any of these courses is..

passing is not easy , if you come with no previous experience.
no matter how good the classroom stuff is without the work experince you will not even get to take the exams.
working for a plumber 3 days a week will not get you the experince, you need to work for a council or housing authority and just do pure gas work.

passing your acs which only 8 of the 15 in my group did is only the start of your journey.. ( only two passed them all..central heating, fires cookers, pipework and meters...)

you have to wait for your certificates before you can apply to be corgi reg.. from passing my exams to being legal took over 3 months..

be prepared to pay out a lot of money ( thats a lot of money)

insurance 336, corgi reg 511( 1st year and three months), van, tools, advertising (my local paper is 80 a week for 4 lines..)

There are literally hundreds of guys out there chasing work and it is quiet,,,

for me though the 50k in lost wages and the outlay have been worth it for the change in lifestyle.. i have been VERY lucky though as my mrs pulls 50k a year and she has and still is subsidising me..

MOST IMPORTANTLEY .. WHAN YOU HAVE YOUR CORGI CARD YOU KNOW HOW TO WORK SAFELY AND NOTHING ELSE, NOTHING ELSE.
WORKING FROM THE OFF ON YOUR JACK IS ROCK HARD WITHOUT SUPPORT..

 

[assured heating]

dont bother mate

 

[WDIK]

and at the end of it, you are trying to mount a fair ground myth.

there is no road paved with gold.

yeah if you were quick with the mind and sharp you may con a few people into thinking you know what your doing.

its a very sad state of affair's this country has gone to the dogs.

it started near thirty years ago thanks to the iron bitch

she decimated this countries infra stucture in respect to training.
there never has been IMHO any substitute for a proper apprenticeship old skool.

since then all we have been given to train have been below the mark Im afraid, and it still persists,

when i took up my apprenticeship I was 1 of 200 after 20 jobs.
it mattered about qualifications only those with glowing quals were wanted.

now we see

oh this person wont be achedemic so he is better off being a plumber

what a load of carp

 

[sooey]

when i took up my apprenticeship I was 1 of 200 after 20 jobs.
it mattered about qualifications only those with glowing quals were wanted.

now we see

oh this person wont be achedemic so he is better off being a plumber

I'm not laughing, honest.

 

[WDIK]

ok i missed the A

academic

and threw an H in for good measure

 

[manortim]

and at the end of it, you are trying to mount a fair ground myth.


oh this person wont be achedemic so he is better off being a plumber

what a load of carp

totally agree, when i was at school i was bright enough to pass all my gcse's with good results, but i'd come from a farming back ground, i could strip and rebuild an engine with my eyes close. so what did they say was my best route........COMPUTERS, it was the mid 90's!!

i managed 2 months of that course at college before dropping out and walkin onto a building site to see 'what suited' me, took another 5 years of larking about on the scaffold before i litterly fell (broke leg) into a full time plumbing course.


why are people not reading the news, plumbing and trades in general are drying up, there is not enough work out there for the decent firms let alone the cowboy site slingers who are now doing private jobs.

Mr 'i wanna re-train' you should do a Mr 'i need to re-think'!!!

 

[gas4you]

why are people not reading the news, plumbing and trades in general are drying up

Because all these get trained fast company's are pushing it so much to rip people off that the unfortunate ones such as the OP who are facing redundancy are led into a false sense of security an hope

 

[gasacs]

Before spending any of your redundancy money on a gas course get a work placement lined up. You will need to compile a portfolio of work evidence. You need 70 DAYS not hours of evidence. CORGI in our area are not to keen on a new entrant going for there own membership straight after passing and advise you to gain more experience with a CORGI firm before applying. That is not to say with a good portfolio which they should inspect they will not let you join just they prefer more job time.

 

[JPC]

i have to also say its 70 days. i have contacted 3 different colleges/training companies and they all want 70 days now
70 days is hard. i'm mainly self employed and try and do boiler/cooker installs with fellow RGI to build up the 70 days...its going to take at least 8 months if not a year (unless you get to work with gas only firm...but 70 day is still 3.5 months work !!)

 

[gas4you]

I knew it was 70 something

 

[Blasphemous]

Toolbox,
You might have no problem finding work experience. You may well pass ACS with flying colours. But are you just looking for a quick fix to your problem at the end of the year?

There IS work out there (but it is VERY competitive now) and Plumbing can be an enjoyable career (as well as a bloody frustrating one! )

I don't profess to know the answers mate. I wouldn't presume to advise you what direction to take (if I knew that I'd be doing it myself!).

I am a qualified Trainer and deliver Training. One thing I encourage people to do in situations like yours, is put together a SWOT analysis of themselves. If you don't know what a SWOT Analysis is do a quick Google or have a look here for a fairly simple example:

http://career-advice.monster.com/selfassessment/Analyze-Your-Career-with-a-Personal/home.aspx

You may feel that something like this wouldn't benefit you but I can tell you from experience that people (from various operational areas of business) have come to me having carried out this type of analysis upon themselves and told me that it has indeed proved useful. You may think to yourself, 'well I know all of those things about myself and about what I want to do', but once you have it written down it really is more tangible for the brain to work with. Another thing I often suggest to the person is for them to ask a partner or close friend who they know will be honest, to carry out a 2nd SWOT on them as well. This can prove extremely useful. We will often over look our own Strengths in a particular area because for example we are so focused on the goal (Plumbing etc). The 2nd SWOT can help to broaden your views on what it is that you are good at. What you are not so good at. What upsets you. What you like to do. What you don't like to do.

A SWOT may well show that you should go with a Plumbing Career. It may just be that you aren't bothered about making a lot of money. It may be that you will be happy working part time some weeks. It may suggest that you wouldn't like working for yourself. For example it may show that one of your Weaknesses is Being Disorganised. You might not like Paper Work. This doesn't mean to say you shouldn't be a Plumber but you may want to think about working for someone else who will do all the estimating, money chasing, advertising & marketing etc etc.

At the end of the day, its entirely your decision mate and as I have said, I wouldn't presume to advise you of how to plan your career but I hope I have been helpful and that you get to where you want to be in life.

 

[ChrisR]

There's nothing at all special about gas. To be successful on your own you have to be well organised, bright, disciplined, have good interpersonal skills, look reasonably presentable, be reasonably fit, etc etc. The same would apply to many trades, and many other professions.
If you're average, you certainly won't get rich. And that's after you've found a way in.