Plumbing training courses / qualifications

[nogoodatfaultfinding]

I totally agree that spprenticeship is the best way forward for a school leaver and I am very pleased that Dick Puller has a firm that has the resources and variety of work to give them a very good training in the industry.

However, the sad fact is that his firm is probably in the top 1% of size based on the number of employees. As far as we see 80% of plumbers and gas people are self employed or work in very small firms with less than five people.

For the sole trader the variety of work undertaken and the style of working would never give enough variety. Furthermore the typical over 40 plumber would just be seen as an old fogey by a 16 y.o. For the sole trader a mature trainee is easier to manage, more serious and likely to learn a lot IF carefully selected.

Its also amusing that virtually all plumbers will be sending their own children to uni rather than a vocational career. Few of their children would want to do plumbing either!

Tony

You actually (not that you mostly dont) have a very good point here Agile as the guy i work for employs four of us including the apprentice (who is a 17 year old credit to his famly) yet his 2 teenage sons are at college and Uni and if you ask them they want a REAL job.
They Lord about in a 6 bed house and drive in cars their dad has bought them all because of years of his hard graft doing a Non REAL job!!

 

[Agile]

H sounds like a success story! Six bed detached, kids at uni most;ly with cars too.

But YOU dont like working for him and want another job. Why dont you want to stay there and learn how to emulate him?

Tony

 

[nogoodatfaultfinding]

H sounds like a success story! Six bed detached, kids at uni most;ly with cars too.

But YOU dont like working for him and want another job. Why dont you want to stay there and learn how to emulate him?

Tony

I love the guy and he is the best boss i have ever had however i have a 100 mile round trip every day just to get to my employ and something happened last week that although he knows hes wrong he wont back down on.
Im on holliday this week and since our disagreement the last 2 days he has been all matey matey on the phone however i have principles too you know.
I have never done a guvvy in my home town as i take all the work to him, i do not ever use anything i class as his for personal use be it his fittings, van or phone and he knows beyond a doubt that i am loyal and more than trustworthy but he pushed to far on an issue.

 

[nogoodatfaultfinding]

H sounds like a success story! Six bed detached, kids at uni most;ly with cars too.

But YOU dont like working for him and want another job. Why dont you want to stay there and learn how to emulate him?

Tony

By the way i would love the house etc but i know i will never be as good an engineer as he is!

 

[Tippex69]

Hi Garrymum,

I'm trying to pass on a plumbing course. I had to change my job just after I signed up for it and now have no time study. I can carry out basic plumbing jobs and enjoy it, hence signing up for the course in the first place. Unfortunately, my current job pays the bills and I can't afford not to work to do the course.

 

[RoyC]

Those training courses are expensive and will never teach three years experience in a few weeks.

So how can these courses justify themselves?


In the 50's I served 5 years apprenticeship and 7 years at technical college.
Not for plumbing, for patternmaking.

My point is :- these quick fix government courses are just to fiddle the figers and nothing to do with turning out craftsmen/women.

 

[Nige F]

In the 50's I served 5 years apprenticeship and 7 years at technical college.
Not for plumbing, for patternmaking.

.

What dress making patterns ( ducks for cover )

 

[DeltaT]

Oh well, I think we have firmly established that the mickey mouse courses are a complete waste of money.

http://www.unitetheunion.com/sectors/construction/industry_news/fast_track_plumber_training_-_.aspx

http://www.snipef.org.uk/documents/PolicyPaperNo1FAstTrackTraining300909final.pdf

 

[dextrous]

These courses are no more expensive to study than any other GCSE type course which require using materials. They give a very basic grounding in some of the very basics that a time served plumber will have to learn during their apprenticeship. They don't really claim to be anything more that that.

What they do do, however, is enable a person to do a few jobs half decently, safe in the knowledge that it will be up to standard. They provide a starting point slightly above no-experience-or-reading-at-all.

No-one is saying that someone who has done an "intensive" course will have anywhere near the same level of knowledge as a time-served professional.

Curiously, I tend to find that some of the work of old pros is quite substandard, shoddy, slapdash and lazy.

 

[DeltaT]

What rubbish!! You can learn more from a DIY book, they're a complete waste of money, no debate. They(cowboy course providers) claim to equip you with enough training/knowledge for you to start your own Plumbing business..............What a joke, most CC/CCC would not last 5 minutes in business.

Yes dextrous, I'm sure you'll come across some very dodgy installations in the course of your days work, you being at the forefront of the Plumbing industry - changing tap washers................Get real, how do you know what age the installer has been??!!!

 

[roguetrader]

we have a 17 year old apprentice, the days pass much quicker having someone so gullable and nieve to take the **** out of, send on false errands and do all the jobs we dont want to do. wouldnt get the same enjoyment out of some career changer.

 

[dextrous]

What rubbish!! You can learn more from a DIY book, they're a complete waste of money, no debate. They(cowboy course providers) claim to equip you with enough training/knowledge for you to start your own Plumbing business..............What a joke, most CC/CCC would not last 5 minutes in business.

Yes dextrous, I'm sure you'll come across some very dodgy installations in the course of your days work, you being at the forefront of the Plumbing industry - changing tap washers................Get real, how do you know what age the installer has been??!!!

I feel for you delta, I really do. Get well soon

I suppose it's taken you 35 years of hard work to become a time-served pr*ck as well as a time-served plumber.