City and Guilds Plumbing Certificate

[lorraine]

Hi Everyone

I have enrolled to do a plumbing course at my local technical college and as I work during the day, I was given the opportunity to do a city and guilds plumbing technical certificate 2 for two nights a week?!?

does anyone know if that qualification is recognized or not? I had a look on the net and the general concensus was I needed an NVQ level 3. I then emailed the tutor chap asking to do this course and he stated that

"You must be employed by a CORGI registered company to do this course"

is he pulling a fast one?! Because if the above statement is correct it would imply that when you get older and people don't want you for an apprentiship then you are screwed because you can't become CORGI registered

Thanks

Lorraine

 

[Bahco]

Hi Lorraine

I have recently qualified on the plumbing City & Guilds plumbing course which was 1 day a week for 2 yrs. What the tutor was probably referring to is the NVQ gas course which stipulates that you have to be working for a Corgi company in order to achieve the certifcate. It entails being assessed on the job and not just in a college environment.

What you CAN do is do the plumbing foundation course and then level 2 which will give you what I have, which is a certificate recognised by C & G in plumbing which will be of some use when applying for a plumbing position.

Worth doing if you are interested in plumbing but you will need to enrol quick as Bilston College (where I went) has a 600 waiting list for places and is likely to be the same across the country.

Every man and his dog wishes to earn the £100k quoted in the papers.

Me too

 

[oilman]

Every man and his dog wishes to earn the £100k quoted in the papers.

My dog wants more than that, as for me, I'm not qualified so I'll put up with less.

 

[lorraine]

does that mean any tom dick or harry can become a plumber without having done the city and guilds? for example say they previously were a mechanical engineer or something, I imagine they would have done the fluid mechanics and thermal stuff to a greater depth than a C&G qualified plumber?

 

[Bahco]

does that mean any tom dick or harry can become a plumber without having done the city and guilds? for example say they previously were a mechanical engineer

Does it matter?

Good luck with your course and try to get some experience as you go in your own house or friends etc.

 

[chrishutt]

does that mean any tom dick or harry can become a plumber without having done the city and guilds?

Yes, anyone can call themselves a plumber without any qualifications or experience . That's pretty much how I started , many years ago of course.

Working with gas is different, because it is covered by the Gas Safety Regulations. Only a corgi registered business can undertake gas work by way of business (i.e. DIY not covered).

There's plenty of fairly straight forward plumbing work available that you can get stuck into, as soon as you feel confident enough. Your friends and neighbours will soon be asking you to do all sorts of things. You just need to recognise what might take you out of your depth.

 

[Agile]

None of you have explained what she needs to know. I will make it simple.

Do the NVQ2 and if you can get practical experience and be assessed in the workplace you get an NVQ2. Otherwise complete the course and you get a Technical certificate.

NEITHER would get you a job. For that you need practical experience and dont really need the piece of paper although thats better.

Working full time and doing the course in the evening would mean you would have to find a plumber who is working at weekends instead of playing golf to be able to give you the practical experience ( unpaid of course ).

So much of what you are hoping for is pie in the sky and seven days a week on a job! Its actually achievable but would be harder work than you probably want.

All that to get a job as a plumber at £8-£12 an hour ???

At this point many people become abusive to me but I am telling you the realities of the world but some people dont want to listen and believe newspapers which tell them there is a WWII bomber crashed on the moon!

Tony Glazier

 

[Bahco]

All that to get a job as a plumber at £8-£12 an hour ???

Tony, read THIS as you are underselling yourself mate.

 

[chrishutt]

So much of what you are hoping for is pie in the sky and seven days a week on a job! Its actually achievable but would be harder work than you probably want.

Tony, don't underestimate Lorraine. I've been checking some of her previous posts (mostly electrics forum) and I reckon she'll be CEO of Corgi or something in about 10 years. Talk about fast learner . So best to get in her good books now .

 

[Paul Barker]

Lorraine,

if you live in smallsville UK completely ignore the myths about plumbers wages.

Practice changeing bath taps at home, do roly poly's in the loft, better still if you have a trussed loft set yourself an asualt course circuit training lap of the loft on hot summer days, stop for a rest every circuit and inhale the fumes of laco flux burning, and chase round the cought fire lagging with your bear hands trying to beat it's progress.

Invite the family to use as much loo paper as they can possibly cram down before during and after they relieve themselves, hopefully enough to get lots of practice with a snake, but preferably to bung up the whole fall pipe.

Gather all the cash you have in the bank and give it away to people now, to get you used to the punters who never intend to pay you right from the start because they believe plumbers are so well paid they can afford it.

Sit back on your haunches until your knees dislocate until it's painful to walk even at a young age so that you won't look out of place when you take a job behind the counter of plumb city at 35 because your knees are shot.

I used to be a qualified nurse and I'm still not on 1/2 my final salary as a nurse. But otoh my job is much less stressful, I couldn't hack the nursing any longer.

Just dont expect to make much money in reality.

My mate fixing flat roofs makes far more than me and has a much easier life, anbd won't guarantee repairs!

 

[Agile]

"Tony, don't underestimate Lorraine. I've been checking some of her previous posts (mostly electrics forum) and I reckon she'll be CEO of Corgi or something in about 10 years."

Chris, from what some people at ARGI are saying about CORGI, Lorraine would probably outshine the CEO at CORGI already!

Nursing is usually considered very satisfying and is usually salaried so there is no problem from non paying customers. My rates given above are typical salaried rates for a wet plumber.

Prices charged to customers are obviously higher to cover overheads etc. Charging £30 to change a tap washer is well paid if it takes 20 minutes. But often the taps will not come apart and can often be broken.

Today I went on three visits and none of them were chargeable!

Tony

 

[lorraine]

Hi everyone

thanks for all the replies and compliments

I am a bit irritated to be honest as I thought i could just do weekend jobs to start off with but as this plumbing course doesn't seem recognized i shall endeavour to get an NVQ 2.

as for the comments about Corgi / Argi. My friend had a new fire put in at her house and the chap who came round made such a mess. there was a smell of gas afterwards as well. We went round and sprayed soapy water on the pipe and where the guy had soldered it, it was bubbling (leaking).

my friend wrote to corgi to explain what had happened. and Corgi did nothing! How can miserable lowlife money robbing scumbags (thats him not all the people who do decent jobs) get away with that if the governing authority aren't going to do anything. Is corgi membership really worth it or is it offering adequate protection for the consumer?

Lorraine

 

[ollski]

Corgi couldn't care less about a gas leak if it is reported directly to them, the way it should have gone is that a smell of gas should have been reported to transco who would come round and find the leak (soapy water will corrode copper pipe btw), transco guy would then by rights ID it and issue a riddor notice which goes to the HSE, then corgi would take an interest...I guarantee it.

Regards to the qualification what do you want it to be recognised as?, are you hoping to use it to try to find employment or simply to teach you the basic skills to set up on your own?

 

[Agile]

Oh dear, an irritated lady!

You CAN do jobs at the weekend, the only problem is that many plumbers play golf at weekends, but there are a few who do some work, finding them is more difficult.

I dont think we have got the message across to you that its practical experience you need, that is if your aim is to do plumbing work and not just chasing certificates.

As far as I know the latest C & G courses are meant to be parallel to the NVQ courses. Some while ago the C & G courses were the normal qualification but the NVQ2 has taken over as the basic plumbing qualification. However jobs depend on practical ability and NOT certificates.

I am dissapointed with the response from you and your friend to the faulty work by the gas fire fitter. That seems to me to be a nasty vindictive response to complain to CORGI rather than giving him the chance to come back to rectify his faults.

You called him "a miserable lowlife money robbing scumbag" but this is the profession you want to join. Would you really like anyone to ever describe you in this way? His only mistake seems to be a badly soldered joint. Will all your joints always be perfect, particularly when you are starting?

It is surprising that CORGI did nothing, IF he really was registered! Their usual attitude seems to be to persue the registered and ignore all the unregistered workers.

Tony Glazier

 

[lorraine]

Hi everyone,

Tony I take your point on board but I would expect that any decent plumber would actually check his work before hotfooting it in his van. I assumed checking for leaks was mandatory before he left?

I only described him the way I did because gas is not like gardening, it is quite a bit more dangerous and the fact he left it in such a state makes me think twice about getting tradespeople in if me/hubby can do the job.

I recently rewired my house and some of the wiring in there was absoultely discgraceful. None of the wires were clipped and all the off cuts were under the floorboards, in my kitchen the wires went up at 45 degrees up the wall! I know this may not be representative of the trades in general its just mine and my friends experience doesn't instil me with confidence.

I intend to get some practical experience, so I have written off to some local plumbing companies. I also put a little note in my local plumb centre. so hopefully someone will see it

Lorraine