Is a course worth it?

[aaronleflay]

Good afternoon all.

I am 28 years old and I'm looking to retrain as an Electrician.

I will hopefully be starting a course with ableskills.co.uk at their training center in Dartford in Sept.

I would really appreciate some independent advice about starting a career as an Electrician by using a course like the one I'm doing from ableskills.co.uk.

The course I want to attend is called the "JIB Gold Card Approved Electrician" package. It's full time Mon-Fri for 4 months. Most of the package is made up of different City&Guilds courses and aims to teach me to "be an Electrician, a Domestic Installer, how to test portable appliances and how to inspect and test on both single and three phase supplies". I will also achieve "a level 3 NVQ and AM2"

I can find plenty of shining reviews online about the course and the instructors. Which is great, but i can't seem to find out whether the qualifications gained on the course actually mean anything in the real world.
After spending 4 months and £8k training, am I going to be laughed at when I apply for work?

I did horribly at school when i was younger. Not because I'm stupid, but because I was too immature to realise that a good job will mostly require me to be learned in some way or another. I dropped out before my GCSE's and have spent my life convinced that I won't amount to anything because of my lack of qualifications. I don't want to waste my money. I want to better myself and learn something worthwhile that I can build a career out of.

Any advice on ableskills.co.uk or any similar course and whether or not it's worth it in the real world would be amazing.

Would you take on someone who has just been on this course?

Many thanks in advance.

The course is detailed here https://www.ableskills.co.uk/electrical-courses/jib-gold-card-electrical-training-course/

 

[Guest77]

Good afternoon all.

I am 28 years old and I'm looking to retrain as an Electrician.

I will hopefully be starting a course with ableskills.co.uk at their training center in Dartford in Sept.

I would really appreciate some independent advice about starting a career as an Electrician by using a course like the one I'm doing from ableskills.co.uk.

The course I want to attend is called the "JIB Gold Card Approved Electrician" package. It's full time Mon-Fri for 4 months. Most of the package is made up of different City&Guilds courses and aims to teach me to "be an Electrician, a Domestic Installer, how to test portable appliances and how to inspect and test on both single and three phase supplies". I will also achieve "a level 3 NVQ and AM2"

I can find plenty of shining reviews online about the course and the instructors. Which is great, but i can't seem to find out whether the qualifications gained on the course actually mean anything in the real world.
After spending 4 months and £8k training, am I going to be laughed at when I apply for work?

I did horribly at school when i was younger. Not because I'm stupid, but because I was too immature to realise that a good job will mostly require me to be learned in some way or another. I dropped out before my GCSE's and have spent my life convinced that I won't amount to anything because of my lack of qualifications. I don't want to waste my money. I want to better myself and learn something worthwhile that I can build a career out of.

Any advice on ableskills.co.uk or any similar course and whether or not it's worth it in the real world would be amazing.

Would you take on someone who has just been on this course?

Many thanks in advance.

The course is detailed here https://www.ableskills.co.uk/electrical-courses/jib-gold-card-electrical-training-course/

Yes you will, it took me 7 years in total before I became an approved electrician, 4 months is shear madness, others will be along later I am sure, but don't expect any glowing reviews of that course.

 

[Phil L]

If I was you I would think very carefully about spending that sort of cash on a quick fix course

 

[GMES]

Please don't go and blow that kind of money on a course of that nature, get yourself enrolled on a proper college course and in the meantime either keep doing whatever you're doing now or start applying for either labouring/ improver/mates work, It is impossible to become an electrician in 4 months.

EDIT use the 8k to bump up your wages if you get a job labouring for an Electrician.

 

[aaronleflay]

Please don't go and blow that kind of money on a course of that nature, get yourself enrolled on a proper college course and in the meantime either keep doing whatever you're doing now or start applying for either labouring/ improver/mates work, It is impossible to become an electrician in 4 months.

EDIT use the 8k to bump up your wages if you get a job labouring for an Electrician.

Thank you all very much. I should honestly of known better really. Things that seem to good to be true always are.

Best suggestion then would be to find an apprenticeship?

Does being 28 affect things? Will I be taken on as an apprentice or are.younger candidates preferred?

Thank you again for any advice.

 

[Andy78]

Don't do that course Aaron.
For learning to sink in takes time and application to practical situations. Too many people take a course in order to end up with a qualification. If you take a course in order to learn you will become a richer person with an in depth knowledge of your job at the end of it all.
In 4 month you might just be able to have all the info stuffed into your head and vomit it back out onto exam papers. You will forget most of what has been placed in front of you and be left ill equipped for this industry.

The streets are swimming with short course electricians who don't know what they are doing. We mop up after them all the time. Don't be a know nowt with a cert, learn a trade.

 

[GMES]

The only issue with your age Re an apprenticeship will be your employer probably won' get a grant however Give me a mature student any day of the week.

 

[Morley2012]

If you can spare your evenings once or twice a week you could enrol on to the "city&guilds 2365" course. Once you've completed your level 2 and 3 you can hopefully find employment, then it's just 2 bridging units for the 2357 (apprenticeship) course then on to the NVQ, Am2 and then collect the gold card once ready.

 

[aaronleflay]

Thanks all!

I feel a bit stupid really.

I suppose i'm old enough to realise that if it sounds too good to be true it normally is.

My best bet then is to seek out someone willing to take me on as an apprentice?

I will definitely take on the advice given here and call a halt to the course.

 

[newtothis]

May be ideal for someone with loads of real world experience, who never got around to formalising their experience. ?

Are the JIB are dishing out gold cards to people with no experience other than 4 months in the training centre environment ? That would be strange.

By strange, I mean I could be labouring to someone through an agency who has less experience than me, and they’re paid 3 times as much. That’s when the laughter would begin.