Hey thanks for your post, I'm not intending to do an apprenticeship that's just paying £2.50 per hour and I'm not sure where you get that ridiculous number from - the company I work for now pay £14-15,000 starting wage and increase to £18,000 after 18 months - then progressing to £28,000.
Not intending to work sites until I retire either, I'll see exactly where I go once qualified, but will most likely be setting up my own business at some point further down the line.
Electrical engineering was something I looked at, but not what I want to do. From what I could tell, that focuses more on the design/management/operation side of things.
And I'm 36 not 40+
also I don't want to go and work as a manager for someone else; I have my own management style and have had enough of dealing with poor managers in higher positions, hence I need to be my own boss.
It's good that you managed to get an apprenticeship, but I also have some friends that run their own carpentry businesses but employ sparkies to do the electrical side of their installations, so thats a possible option to.
The domestic installers course is not something I chose for the exact reasons you listed, hence I'll be getting fully qualified through my chosen route.
But regardless of how long it took you to achieve this, what qualies you have, whether even I as a manager would employ you as an employee (based on how you present yourself not just bits of paper - which can easily sway a decision over someone qualified/retarded vs someone unqualified/buckets of common sense/savvy) you still achieved what you set out to do.
I can handle a few years of crap money, and fully expect to be on a low income whilst I do this, but i'm a long term thinker - if you read the full thread you'll see I could easily stay in IT and do further courses in that and earn 35-40k - but i'm sick of working in IT
(we also have 2-3 people on the course with diploma's in electrical/engineering needing to do the 2330+ because the work they want to do - their qualification is no good for).