Hi All, Advise Please

Starchy · Jan 12, 2016

Hello Everyone,
I would appreciate some advice if you would take the time.

I became an apprentice electrician in 1990 & got my City & Guilds 2360 parts 1 & 2 back in 1994.
I served my apprenticeship on domestic installations, and continued with this work until 1997.

In 1997 I made a switch and moved away from the UK and started work on pipe lay vessels as a maintenance electrician (or as a trainee at first as I didn't have a clue what I was doing at first)
but after 18 years living & working away I became 100x better electrician then when I left.

I have returned to the UK and was hoping to pick up some work back here.
Ive noticed there have been some changes (and not just the colors in twin & earth)
It looks like I need additional qualifications but not 100% sure what I will actually require

Whats this Part P? how long is the course and how much is it? what is this 2391 I keep seeing its required when I look for jobs in the web.
Anyone care to advise.

Marvo · Jan 12, 2016

Welcome to the forum Starchy.

I'm sure one of the UK members will clarify about your quals and bring you up to speed on the part-p thing.

Starchy · Jan 13, 2016

Hi Neil,
Thank you for the advice it is much appreciated, to be honest mate there appears to be a hell of a lot of red tape involved these days, and the rewards (wages) are not reflecting the skills and experience. My last job in the UK (1997) was wiring new builds for £6 an hour, I'm a little bit dismayed to see a job paying £8 an hour, that's like 18 years gap, 11 pence a year increase, who can live off of that. Anyway that's just a moan, looks like its the same **** different era for sparkies.
Thanks again.

Starchy · Jan 13, 2016

I was dabbling on the internet on Monday, job search and it was practically the first job I'd seen,it was for a qualified electrician £8-12 an hour depending on experience, I thought omfg, hows this, there's a minimum wage in the UK now that cant be far off that.
The position was in Hull.

Andy78 · Jan 13, 2016

Starchy said:
I was dabbling on the internet on Monday, job search and it was practically the first job I'd seen,it was for a qualified electrician £8-12 an hour depending on experience, I thought omfg, hows this, there's a minimum wage in the UK now that cant be far off that.
The position was in Hull.

Hi starchy.
Unfortunately those sorts of wages have been popping up in town for a few years now, ever since the bubble burst. They are by no means representative of the town as a whole I understand though.
Try your CV round the bigger firms and you might get lucky as things seem to be picking up all over right now. I was getting £13/hour 6 years ago when employed, which was considered a minimum industry wage at the time.

Which was the firm offering shelf stacking wages out of interest ? I'm guessing it was probably for agency work bashing out council rewires.