T
toast
Hi all!
Heres my story... :sleep1:
24 years old, changing career from mechanic in the army with an NVQ level 3 in mechanical maintenance to a plumber. Left the forces last month and started my apprenticeship last week nvq level 2 c&g 6189, 3 days of college for the first month for the health and safety side and then one day a week for 2 years then level 3 for another 2. The guy who is taking me on does a range of work from wood stoves to heating systems to bathrooms, hes gas safe and has trained people before so im lucky and in good hands. My goal is to become gas safe and continue and do courses for things like oil cert.
From what I understand, to be a fully qualified plumber, this route is best... it may even be the only route i dont know. The problem i have here is that like most people who change their career and require training, money is a problem. Of course i cant expect a massive wage when im just starting out but 4 years training on a low income is going to be tuff trying to pay a mortgage at the same time. Its not that i think im worth more but coming from a mechanical background working with hydraulics, pumps, technical drawings, electrics, fault finding and getting hands on the tools everyday i can relate more and pick things up faster. What i mean is the college course has a set time frame that i will have to stick to and its designed for guys/girls that have just come from school, i want to speed up the process with more hands on on the job but i don't want to be a cowboy.
My employer mentioned something about chinning off the apprenticeship and working with him for a year or so as a trainee, getting clued up and then going for a 5 day course with exams to become gas safe registered, much faster then 4 years. Ive scanned the internet and seen that you can become gas safe without the nvq as long as you have been working along side a gas safe engineer for a certain period of time. If i take the no qualification route am i limited to extra courses i can attend? Can i do the oil? No matter how good am i employable without that qualification? This route surely makes me a gas engineer not a plumber in a sense but i will have plumbing experience through his work.
Im not sure on the route to take but i've already done a 5 year apprenticeship in mechanics, I've done health and safety loads before and sitting at college doing h&s again with 16 year olds pis5ing about is painful. The way i see it is i will learn more 4 days of the week working with that one day being an attendance course for a bit of paper. I just don't know what to do. I'm trying to research it all but there is so many course codes within gas I don't know whats what :dizzy2:
Any advice is much appreciated.
Heres my story... :sleep1:
24 years old, changing career from mechanic in the army with an NVQ level 3 in mechanical maintenance to a plumber. Left the forces last month and started my apprenticeship last week nvq level 2 c&g 6189, 3 days of college for the first month for the health and safety side and then one day a week for 2 years then level 3 for another 2. The guy who is taking me on does a range of work from wood stoves to heating systems to bathrooms, hes gas safe and has trained people before so im lucky and in good hands. My goal is to become gas safe and continue and do courses for things like oil cert.
From what I understand, to be a fully qualified plumber, this route is best... it may even be the only route i dont know. The problem i have here is that like most people who change their career and require training, money is a problem. Of course i cant expect a massive wage when im just starting out but 4 years training on a low income is going to be tuff trying to pay a mortgage at the same time. Its not that i think im worth more but coming from a mechanical background working with hydraulics, pumps, technical drawings, electrics, fault finding and getting hands on the tools everyday i can relate more and pick things up faster. What i mean is the college course has a set time frame that i will have to stick to and its designed for guys/girls that have just come from school, i want to speed up the process with more hands on on the job but i don't want to be a cowboy.
My employer mentioned something about chinning off the apprenticeship and working with him for a year or so as a trainee, getting clued up and then going for a 5 day course with exams to become gas safe registered, much faster then 4 years. Ive scanned the internet and seen that you can become gas safe without the nvq as long as you have been working along side a gas safe engineer for a certain period of time. If i take the no qualification route am i limited to extra courses i can attend? Can i do the oil? No matter how good am i employable without that qualification? This route surely makes me a gas engineer not a plumber in a sense but i will have plumbing experience through his work.
Im not sure on the route to take but i've already done a 5 year apprenticeship in mechanics, I've done health and safety loads before and sitting at college doing h&s again with 16 year olds pis5ing about is painful. The way i see it is i will learn more 4 days of the week working with that one day being an attendance course for a bit of paper. I just don't know what to do. I'm trying to research it all but there is so many course codes within gas I don't know whats what :dizzy2:
Any advice is much appreciated.