how'd you beak in to the industry ?

I want to become a boiler engineer, maybe work for bosch-worchester.

What kind of training or is there an prentice program you can get on to.

Just wondering how I get foot in the door.

being 35 haing been made redundant I'm looking for something permanent to do.

I'm pretty handy with boilers, on a personal level of dealing with them so hoping to build on this.

Feels a bit weird wanting to retrain now, but needs must, and I have to adapt to my unfortunate situation as oposed to just getting any crap job may as well be something I like and can live off.

Reply to
Themonk
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I'd ask the prospective employer, maybe google them first

NT

Reply to
Tabby

Assuming you have the practicle skills and knowledge, you have to get yourself on a "Gas safe" course (previously CORGI) I think it's quite expensive but you need it to legally work on gas equipment.

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Do you then need to do two years "apprenticeship", like you do for a sparky?

Reply to
tim....

Cannae fill the car , go the cinema and have a bag of chips with change from a quid either nowdays.

Very few electrical contractors are staffed with journeymen electricians,some are staffed mainly by people with no formal qualifications at all.

Just need some one who has joined the nic/eic club , which dosen`t involve proving years of tea making but does involve large subscriptions, to sign off the work installed by the monkeys.

Aquaintance got made redundant from the DSS, ironically, he retrained as a boiler service guy, college course 2 years worth in 9 months to cut costs, catch22 was that some employers wanted qualifications and experience, if you have some experience mebbe see what colleges and assistance are available.

Cheers Adam

Reply to
Adam Aglionby

Errm, you're 35. Get used to it. I have to retrain about every two to five years. I'm "quite a bit" older than you.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Oh, well done you!! Why do you have to keep retraining? Do you choose a bad line, or have you just not been very good at everything you've retrained in.

The OP has been made redundant for the first time by the sounds of it. Just because you are used to reinventing your career every 2-5 years doesn't mean the OP should take to it like a duck to water!!

Reply to
JW

Themonk ( snipped-for-privacy@host.com) wibbled on Monday 17 January 2011 16:18:

Condolencies on the redundnacy - that's a bitch.

But WRT to your age: 35 is nothing. I'm 42 and my job, even though it is what I've done for 20 years (computer syadmin, linux mostly), requires me to be constantly "retraining" on the hop, because what I do now bears only a passing resemblence to what I did 10 years ago.

You can give me the "I'm too old" slant when your dead!

You've got another 30 years of work coming, perhaps more the way it's going

- it is an excellent time to change direction if that suits you.

I'm assuming you are refrerring to domestic boiler work? If you meant industrial, none of this following blurb is going to make much sense...

I'm pretty handy with most aspects of wet plumbing and a little gas. The only thing I would say is whilst I am happy to do my own work in my house, doing it in someone else's scares me a little - because there is more (AFAIK, I'm imagining) pressure to do the job quickly but well, not leave a hideous mess, work around people etc. Plus it's not just about the plumbing

- it's about lifting floors, making good, detective work, being organised with people and parts - not to mention the accounts[1].

And plumbing and electrical work are the two that tend to involve the most disruption.

If I were you, I would offer to be someone's gopher for a few weeks, if it is possible. You'll probably have to do it for free, turn up reliably and meekly accept making the tea, clearing up etc. But, from my POV, it would be an excellent way to see how a few jobs are run in reality - something a GasSafe course will probably not teach you.

Good spirit! Do check out the possibility of any financial assistance or loans that might be available for retraining. It's a long shot - much of that stuff has probably been cut back, but no harm in asking. JobCentre, Google would be worth a start.

[1] If you do start up, it would be worth having a think about how to keep your books too. Bookeeper, accountant or DIY. Not so urgent because as long as you keep a detailed and orderly file of jobs and recipts, you'll have the raw data for when that time comes. I will warn you about accountants though

- can be sodding expensive and yet surprisingly useless. I would only go with presonal references from people you know. Perosnally I wouldn;t DIY it unless that's already your core skill, because you'll have enough to worry about - but in a year or two, when you see how the various bits of the system work, you may be able to start doing some stuff yourself (eg VAT).

You could also phone Gassafe and tell them what you want to do - they should be able to tell you what courses and qualififactions you will need to get to a certain level of domestic competancy.

Anyway, good luck. There are a few GasSafe fellows on this group who pop in from time to time - perhaps they might be willing to offer a better insight?...

Anyway, good luck with it all -

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim Watts

Thanks for proving that you know nothing about the world of work.

Reply to
Steve Firth

I'm just changing my job after 13.5 years at the same company. I'm going to a total package worth around 160% of what I have today. I have achieved that by constantly learning and climbing the career ladder. It has been by hard work, and a certain amount of luck, as the redundancy problem can hit any of us.

From the sound of your retort, it seems that is what you also mean. However, you sadly failed to understand that the OP was *made redundant*, and thus is looking to completely change his line of work by necessity - not just as a progressive job change. If, of course, you mean that your job does require you to completely throw away your skills every 2-5 years and re-train from scratch, then I would say that you are the rarity, rather than the norm.

Your response to him was therefore ill conceived, and very possibly hurtful to him at a time when he is needing support in changing his career path considerably.

Thanks for proving that you know nothing about English comprehension or human feelings.

Reply to
JW

Similar to my other response to Steve, gradual training 'on the job' and 'on full pay' is rather less daunting than being forced down that route due to redundancy.

He only said it 'feels a bit weird'. I feel a bit weird changing job after

13.5 years - but I'm not saying I'm too old to do so or anything! ;-)
Reply to
JW

I was over 50 and had been a sales rep for 30 years (various companies) before redundancy pushed me into starting my handyman business. Haven't looked back. View it as an opportunity.

Good luck

-- Dave - The Medway Handyman

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Reply to
The Medway Handyman

I was over 50 and had been a sales rep for 30 years (various companies) before redundancy pushed me into starting my handyman business. Haven't looked back. View it as an opportunity.

Good luck

-- Dave - The Medway Handyman

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Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Your local Business Link (or what ever they are called now) may well have a course or courses in "setting up in bussiness". When I went freelance years ago such a course was invaluable. Covered the basics of the different structures, Ltd Co, Partnership, Sole Trader, the advantages and draw backs of each; the legal stuff, responsibilties, Public Liabilty Insurance, Permenant Health Insurance; basic book keeping, what evidence you must keep, how long for, how to use simple paper based account books; VAT and it's various options and so on and on and on...

You may well be able to get the course fee paid by the DSS as it's "getting you back into work" and off the unemployed figures.

Keeping your own books is not difficult, you just need to be a bit organised. Shoving all your reciepts and copy invoices into a shoe box and forgeting about them until two days before a return is due is

*NOT* the way to go about it. Little and often is the best way IMHO, pick a convient time each week to update your books with the previous weeks transactions. So when it comes to return time it's just a case of checking the books have the supporting bits of paper and things add up correctly. My quarterly VAT return never takes longer than a couple of hours and most of that is the cross checking the bits of paper as the spreadsheet does all the number crunching.

I only use an accountant for my Tax Return, he is a specialist Tax Accountant so knows what HMR&C will blindly accept or what might raise an eyebrow or two. He is also more in touch with the non-stop stream of changes to tax legislation and how to legally minimise ones tax bill.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnJW ( snipped-for-privacy@group.com) wibbled on Tuesday 18 January 2011 08:56:

Yes - that is true. I've changed employers about once every 5-6 years, almost always due to "reorganisations" (which I either survived, got "promoted" ("" > You can give me the "I'm too old" slant when your dead!

It was meant in the spirit of positiveness :) When I was 20 I didn't think

35 was "old" - less so now. Though I am a bit suspicious about 55... But as long as nothing falls off, I don't think it makes much difference.

It will feel weird, and at times might feel like a huge mistake, even though it's not, so best to try to solidify one's frame of mind up front...

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim Watts

Well said, although I don't think there's anything specifically "English" about it :-)

The people I know who have been made redundant have then been re-employed on a contract basis a few months later, often on better terms. Nobody wants to employ anybody these days, and I can't say I blame them.

Reply to
stuart noble

",

A man after my own heart!

MBQ

Reply to
Man at B&Q

I'm nearly 50 and haven't long finished a teaching assistant course.

Reply to
Skipweasel

I don't often, if ever, commont on peoples use of english. My own spelling and english can be pretty crap.

However the impression that poor spelling and english gives when contacting a prospective employer is not good. When I first read your post the english gave the impression that it was from a semi-literate school leaver with only a couple of GCSE's...

Also do your research on any prospective employer, getting their name right is good start. B-) Finding out who in the company deals with job applications, what the company actually does, how they do it, etc Their web site can be a mine of useful background information.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I'd suggest you search the forums on a few heating and plumbing forums, e.g., Screwfix or DIY-NOT. There are a lot of people looking for openings, offering to work for free even and not getting much sympathy. Those in the boiler trade are dismissive of those career changers who'd like to break into it. The only method seems to be to do a course for several thousand pounds. Afetr qualification, you need to find a Gassafe registered installer who will allow you to work with him to build up your portfolio of supervised jobs. There are people charging for this; you pay to be allowed to work for them. Some courses arrange a placement, I believe.

Do not pay for a course until you are certain that the Gassafe supervised work experience towards this portfolio has been confirmed. It is not easy, it is expensive. It can be done.

The plumbing trade was hyped up as a get rich quick scheme by unscrupulous training providers (earn =A370k, etc).

It's a trade.

Reply to
Onetap

We have a couple of gas engineers living locally, and their vans are more often than not parked on their drives. Well paid when you're working...

Reply to
stuart noble

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