Help needed please.

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Hi, this section seemed like the best one for this question, so here goes.

I finished uni last year (non related), after realizing it to be a brick wall in terms of getting a job, and hating sitting around doing nothing looking for a job, have joined a friends plumbing business as an apprentice, having no previous experience in plumbing or heating whatsoever.

That was over 10 months ago, and as some of you will think, i'm still very new to the game, however I feel I have learn't a stupid amount of information and have gained a ton of experience in the short time of me actually doing plumbing work. Please note that my boss is an experienced plumber and gas fitter with years and years of experience. I have also worked with a few other very experienced people on different sites and different types of work. I have being taught the proper way, I have been dropped in at the deepest of the deep end, all under supervision of course.

The thing is, I do NOT want to go to college, but I know for a fact, I want to be a plumber. I have no qualifications whatsoever so I will probably start right at the very bottom and that's 4-5 years?

I know these quick training courses are garbage and I cannot honestly understand how you can learn everything in 12 weeks, but surely there must be somewhere else where you can start a training course at an intermediate level and not at a beginner level?

What would you time served vets think of doing one of these training courses if I already had the experience and knowledge that I would get in a college course?....or is that still a cowboy way of doing it all?

Also do you actually need to have a certificate in the trade to do plumbing work? Or is it just frowned upon as you don't have it down on paper that you can do the job? I know gas work you have to be gas safe and that does need a qualification but what about everything else which doesn't use gas?

I hope nobody is offended as it sounds like i'm looking for an easy way out, but i'm honestly not, I just want people's opinions from other experienced tradesmen.


Thankyou if anyone can reply.
 
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Unfortunately for you, to acquire the desired qualifications you will need to go to college or a training provider. The crash courses are a pile of the smelly stuff!
You are just going to have to knuckle down, it's all about progression and to progress you need to start somewhere.
You maybe in a position where you can avoid the idiot level and start off at level 2.
Although on-site work is great for experience and getting the feel of things, there still lots to learn that you don't get out in the field of play. Get enrolled next year.
 
Also do you actually need to have a certificate in the trade to do plumbing work?
For most things, no. However this could and probably will change in the future.

Also consider that if you apply for work with any firm, it is highly likely they would want to see some qualifications anyway, regardless of then being required by law or not.
 
Why would you NOT want to go to college ?

The nvq's you so lightly dismiss will pay dividends in years to come, try moving on in the future without those bits of paper !!!

Forget the crash courses go to college.
 
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Why would you NOT want to go to college ?

The nvq's you so lightly dismiss will pay dividends in years to come, try moving on in the future without those bits of paper !!!

Forget the crash courses go to college.

The NVQ's I so lightly dismiss? I have not dismissed them whatsoever. I have been in constant education for 17 years straight. It has got me pretty much nowhere. That is why I am putting off college as much as possible because I do not want to sit in a classroom anymore.

A friend of mine has been in college for the past 5 years doing the plumbing and gas courses. He does 1 day a week and sometimes 2. In 5 years that is just over 1 full year of full time training but it has taken him 5 years? I do not want to waste anymore time like he has.

I'm just looking for some outside guidance, not to prove a point.
 
I am an Electrician.

I did a full apprenticship etc, but towards the end of my apprenticeship I did whats called an NVQ3.

It basically was a portfolio, made up of information and pictures of jobs I had carried out. I had a few site visits from the lecturer, to check health and safety etc, but I didnt have to go to college at all.

I'm not sure if theres a plumbing equivilant?
 
Why would you NOT want to go to college ?

The nvq's you so lightly dismiss will pay dividends in years to come, try moving on in the future without those bits of paper !!!

Forget the crash courses go to college.

The NVQ's I so lightly dismiss? I have not dismissed them whatsoever. I have been in constant education for 17 years straight. It has got me pretty much nowhere. That is why I am putting off college as much as possible because I do not want to sit in a classroom anymore.

A friend of mine has been in college for the past 5 years doing the plumbing and gas courses. He does 1 day a week and sometimes 2. In 5 years that is just over 1 full year of full time training but it has taken him 5 years? I do not want to waste anymore time like he has.

I'm just looking for some outside guidance, not to prove a point.

Constant education for 17 years wow ..........obviously that's coloured your thinking and I'm not been sarcastic.

I gave you guidance, you don't like it, you don't want to go to college again fair enough seems like a dismissal of nvq's to me ! ! it doesn't take five years ! you wouldn't just be sat in class rooms you'd be in the workshops as well carrying out practical tasks
Your friend hasn't wasted his time he has recognizable qualifications,
sorry you don't like my advice.
 
A friend of mine has been in college for the past 5 years doing the plumbing and gas courses. He does 1 day a week and sometimes 2. In 5 years that is just over 1 full year of full time training but it has taken him 5 years?
But it has taken five years, in grand scheme of things.
It will have taken your friend that time to gain experience, produce evidence of work and study the subject outside the class room for exam and assessment success.
I do not want to waste anymore time like he has.
He hasn't wasted his time, he has taken the correct route of progress.
The quick crash courses are not going to make you a competent plumber, that a simply fact. If you think it's a waste of your time, gaining experience and qualification using the tried and tested route of progression, you need to think a little bit more about what you intend or are capable of achieving in a short period of time. I hear shelf stacking and burger making has not got an extensive or too demanding training program!
I'm just looking for some outside guidance, not to prove a point
That is what you are getting, if the answers are not what you were hoping for that is unfortunate. But I advise as others have, to take the right route or not only will you be wasting your time, but also time of others and maybe putting clients property and lifes in danger.


I'm not sure if theres a plumbing equivilant?
There is, not just for level 3 but level 2.
 
My 18 year old step sons; one is an apprentice plumber, the other an apprentice sparky.
Yes, they do a day a week at college, big whoop! The rest of the time is on the job.
We couldn't be happier with their choice of profession. Plumbers and sparkies will always be needed.

You need to remove the "college is a waste of time" mantra from you head.
You'd be attending college to further your education in the JOB YOU ARE ALREADY BEING PAID FOR. There's no negative to that mate, and it's also a no-brainer!
What did you attend college for in the past that you deemed it such a waste of time? If it's something like politics and now you're a plumbing apprentice, then yes, it probably was a waste of time. But you're now being paid to go to college to better yourself at your job.

An example if i may. I can plumb (water only obviously)!!! I mean i have installed my bathrooms (including en suite). My step son, whilst having the same limited experience as you (approx 1 year in the job), has loads of technical knowledge gained from college. Stuff i wouldn't have a scooby doo about and when it comes to me tackling a tricky plumbing issue, i asked his advice, and his classroom knowledge won over my experience, because my experience, like his...and yours only goes so far at this stage.

Get to college mate, I believe you'll not be certified if you don't. Then you'll just be a non-certified (dodgy?) guy who does odd-job plumbing. Now THAT would be a waste of time....and you'll earn nowhere near as much.
 
Thanks for everybody's replies. Some sentences or....insults I can't quite seem to get my head around but yes, college is the way to go, i'm not trying to put it across that college is a bad way to go, and I didn't say crash courses were good or that I was going to do them.

I was just looking for some outside information to help me decide. As far as skills for me go fitting bathrooms, electric and gas cylinders, boilers, heating systems etc, is rather easy for me doing the practical side, but i guess there is a hell of a lot of more complicated procedures and regulations to know about aswell as fault finding etc that college will offer me, I understand that.

I just wanted you to realise I have been to college, I have been to university and at this moment in time, I have not needed them pieces of paper to say I can do something, I just don't want this to be another "certificate on my mantle".
 
What pieces of paper do you have?
What jobs have you applied for, that you thought those pieces of paper to be of value and that evidence of them would be required?
and what was the outcome of the job enquiries?
 
Just forget it. I have opted to continue working until September next year and possibly go back to college in the near future.
 
looks to me youve just wasted 10 mths of your time BY NOT GOING TO COLLEGE.
if you had you wouldve been 10 mths in,
and as others have said your earning as your learning.

i done the old c&g but im a chippy,and i went for 3 years in total twice a week.
do i see THAT as a waste of time,mmmmm a bit I SHOULDVE BECOME A BRICKIE.
less tools,dont need a van and pampered by a fork lift driver ;) :D

all joking apart every day is a learning day,but without a certificate to prove your competent then your as good as a chocolate kettle.
 
Just forget it.
Rude little fooker. You look like a quitter who thinks you're above practical advice. :rolleyes: Did you actually graduate or quit that as well?

You think you know something? You know nothing!
 
Just forget it. I have opted to continue working until September next year and possibly go back to college in the near future.

I gave you honest advice, if you don't want to go to college that's your choice, fair enough. I cant comment on your 17 years of education or why it hasn't resulted in gainful employment as I know nothing about it.

I was just trying to let you know that in the future if you try and get a job in the industry working for a company, without those certificates there will be no point in applying, you just wont be considered.

I'm sorry you don't like the advice I've given, truly it was well intentioned.
 
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