labourers and the 17th

[not_today]

I have spoken to three companies today in my region (East Anglia) about trying to get a labourers/ mates job to gain some site experience. I explained my situation (hopefully going to college in sept 3 days a week) and

Two of the companies were very kind and told me they would contact me if something came up. The director of the third company has told me that he does not take on labourers without their 17th.

is it possible to obtain my 17th without any site experience? a college near me runs the 17th (2383) in the evenings.

do you think it will make me more employable as a labourer with the eventual goal of enrolling at college to do my nvq l2 and l3?

what advice could you give me to find some relevant site work?

cheers for the help

Sam

 

[bigbaddave]

Things are bad at the mo im affraid. Employers are getting more for less money.. If thats what they want then thats what they get.. Just keep trying bud.. Somthing will come up

 

[flyingsausage]

pretty much impossible, from what I seen speaking to a few different college lecturers and office staff over the last few years, very very few of them will let anybody just do an exam only for ANY subject at all.....the reasons given are A) their reputation if too many people don't pass first time round and B) the certificate issuers such as City n Guilds don't like it at all and strongly discourage the Colleges from allowing it...

I think it might be more to do that they make a lot more money from men sitting the full course than just sitting the exam

 

[flyingsausage]

i went for a interview today with a agency for a sparks mate job and when i got there they asked me if i had any quals i told them i had my peo lv2 elec engineering and c & g 2330 level 2 and that i was in my second year at college on the new 2357 course and then he said i needed the 17th edition qual, asbestos awerness ticket and confined spaces ticket which i havnt got so i did not get the job but they wanted all this andwas only paying £6.19 hr i think this i really bad

It is much the same for sparks,I have had agencies phone me up and offering me a start after applying for an advertised job and then asked if I had another ticket that was not mentioned in the advert and many times it is certificates that I have never even heard off.
You can't have every ticket going,I myself and many others I know in the trade have spent good money on some tickets and never had the chance to use them.
You do work out over time which tickets are worth having and which aren't.

The good thing about a City and Guilds qualification is that they last forever and are not time barred like IPAF,PASMA etc.


Remember the training industry is an industry and like any other it;s first priority is to exist and make money out of suckers like you and me.

 

[grantr37]

Update. Sam and I have had a good conversation today and he is looking into finding a college that does the exam only which I will pay for. He is signing on at the moment so I have advised him to ask the job center to put him on his 17th and cscs course. If he can get onto these free of charge, I have told him I will buy him the BGB. Cant say fairer than that.

The Jobcentre are very unlikely to pay anything for him, but he can get his ILA £200.00 voucher for free, this will give him £200.00 a year to use(towards) for courses, the CSCS is £17.50 just now....look on pearson website via google...

most colleges will do a discounted rate for courses if unemployed as well...

 

[grantr37]

It is much the same for sparks,I have had agencies phone me up and offering me a start after applying for an advertised job and then asked if I had another ticket that was not mentioned in the advert and many times it is certificates that I have never even heard off.
You can't have every ticket going,I myself and many others I know in the trade have spent good money on some tickets and never had the chance to use them.
You do work out over time which tickets are worth having and which aren't.

The good thing about a City and Guilds qualification is that they last forever and are not time barred like IPAF,PASMA etc.


Remember the training industry is an industry and like any other it;s first priority is to exist and make money out of suckers like you and me.

I don't Know about that these days, look at the 2391- now defunct and valueless in the eyes of a lot of employers, now I know most of us all say "I aint doing another one I have the 2391 from 3 years ago" etc......but if the employer says 2356 2357, and most everybody else has it, then we need to do it or lose out... its all about saleability i.e the agencies all want to have the longest list of "all our sparks have"..."such and such tickets"


Even the 2377-11 and 2377-12 are now defunct, and you guessed it "out of date and worthless".....Another one that I need to replace incase I get asked to do any PAT testing ....its now the 2377-22 and 2377-32, and that's what the Agencies have taken to asking for....


I think the changes that they are doing all over the place are just like a form of time Barring....the same effect...

 

[flyingsausage]

I do see your point,I done the 2391 way back in 2000 and I done the Pat Testing course in 1999,but they now seem out of date and i am no rush to spend any more money on any courses.

What I think is happening now is the people that own the agencies will also own the training providers,it makes sense as these are boom industries at the moment with millions of suckers(British workers)falling victum to them when trying to get a job.

My friend always says every system is corrupt and he is right in regards to the employment market - there is far to many leaches out there on the average man just trying to make a living.