Thanks for the advice mate, i'm always happy to admit when i'm wrong. Nobody gains knowledge by refusing to admit when they've made a mistake. In my ignorance i thought the courses would be fine, the reality of the real world working environment says differently.This thread gives an interesting alternative view on the short courses and their potential short comings from someone who is actually on the sharp end, I'm looking forward to the updates as you progress and how long it will be before you are knocking the short courses as a seasoned professional
I would stick with the day release 2 or 3 evenings a week is hard going after a full day onsite, I did the final year of my C&G C certificate 3 evenings per week at college and it was hard going by the time you throw in some homework
Good luck with your journey and I hope it is all you expect it to be
You would get away with house bashing if you combined one of these courses + books + internet + forums + existing knowledge of house construction etc. With the regs books on hand and some testing and inspection experience i think basic 3 phase domestic would be fairly easy to achieve within a year on your own. But there is no way a guy like that is going to walk into a massive factory with gigantic incoming supply, about 10 different DB's and dozens of switchboards and comms units and know what he is doing. No way.
I think there needs to be a regulatory body who oversees and regulates it here (in Europe us and Netherlands are the only unregulated countries) and who can then distinguish between basic domestic installation and 'real' electricians.
In France they distinguish between the two. It's a 1200 hour course over 10 months, including 6 weeks full time on site with a company just to be able to do domestic. If you want to be an 'electrical technician' you then have to do an addition few thousand hour course that lasts from 12 to 18 months including a substantial work placement.
I think it's the way to go.