New member looking to learn

[armyash]

Hi to all,

i am well aware that the plumbing trade is extremely competitive at the moment and opportunities to get a foot in the door are few and far between but I wont be discouraged as i am determined to make a career in plumbing.

I am currently serving in the army and as a Royal Engineer we are required to learn a trade. I obviously chose plumbing as I knew it was something I wanted to do once I had finished my army career.

I have C&G 6129 and ACS qualifications along with the Water regs certificate and I have just applied for my CSCS card.

I am looking for an opportunity to learn the trade from an experienced tradesman working on weekends and any time I am on leave. I have a lot of my own tools and transport but most importantly I am extremely hard working, eager to learn, reliable and trustworthy and I am happy to start at the bottom. Making the brews and doing all the cleaning and fetching the tools would be fine by me.

If you are reluctant to give me a chance because you think that having me working alongside you will hold you up and make jobs take longer then I assure you that will not be the case, I don't intend to run before I can walk. If you would be prepared to let me come with you on jobs just to watch this would be beneficial and mean i do not intefere with your work.

As mentioned previously I am trustworthy, and I would repay the opportunity to learn through working extremely hard, being reliable and being on time.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, please contact me if you can help.

 

[Agile]

I do have to say that ex-army people are generally considered the best employees. Always on time ( "late" is not an army word ), hard working and diligent students.

However, employment is not what you are after. You want training to be able to set up in competition to all the existing locals and as someone starting up will be bound to undercut their prices to woo their customers! ( Or steal the customers as it will actually be! ).

Many would say that only a fool would train you just to enable you to take their customers.

The only exception would be if the business owner could find someone to buy their business on a phased basis including training in the trade for say two years. Thats what I would like to do but its difficult as no one wants to buy an existing business as they only want to steal the customers without any payment. Thats what stealing is, taking without paying!

Tony

 

[expertgasman]

edit

 

[boilerdoktor]

best of luck mate, hope someone takes you up on it!

ignore tony!

 

[armyash]

I do have to say that ex-army people are generally considered the best employees. Always on time ( "late" is not an army word ), hard working and diligent students.

However, employment is not what you are after. You want training to be able to set up in competition to all the existing locals and as someone starting up will be bound to undercut their prices to woo their customers! ( Or steal the customers as it will actually be! ).

Many would say that only a fool would train you just to enable you to take their customers.

The only exception would be if the business owner could find someone to buy their business on a phased basis including training in the trade for say two years. Thats what I would like to do but its difficult as no one wants to buy an existing business as they only want to steal the customers without any payment. Thats what stealing is, taking without paying!

Tony

Thanks for the response, although easily said I would remain loyal to whoever was prepared to train me for as long as was required by continuing to work for them once up to scratch and would be prepared to sign a contract of employment to that effect.

I understand that helping to train potential competition is a worry to anyone prepared to give me a chance as is having me steal customers away. I can assure you that taking away another mans customers would go against my ethics and morals.

 

[kevindgas]

I used to take on the youngsters and train them up some were brilliant, some average and a few were beyond help!! sadly the market place has changed and I personally find it difficult to keep enough work going even for myself. its a dog eat dog world now where customer loyalty is a thing of the past, nobody gives a **** about doing a good job and the punters will drop you for someone a penny cheaper.
so that leaves me in a position where i won't take anyone on now as i don't need anyone and i'm not going to help someone take what few customers i have from my business.

 

[armyash]

I used to take on the youngsters and train them up some were brilliant, some average and a few were beyond help!! sadly the market place has changed and I personally find it difficult to keep enough work going even for myself. its a dog eat dog world now where customer loyalty is a thing of the past, nobody gives a s**t about doing a good job and the punters will drop you for someone a penny cheaper.
so that leaves me in a position where i won't take anyone on now as i don't need anyone and i'm not going to help someone take what few customers i have from my business.

That's fair enough if you feel that way I will have to continue trying and hope I come across someone with a little more faith.

 

[Aquilani]

It will be very difficult to find anyone who will take you on right now, you are not alone when it comes to looking for a chance!
Whilst I find Argile at time negative he at least post's facts, it is true that to train someone to compete against you some day is rather daft. It is an investment to take on a trainee with so many rights these days with no guarantee that they will repay this investment.
I wish you all the best and urge you not to give up, sometimes by luck or chance an opening arises.

 

[David937]

I have been trying for an apprentice position since October-November last year and all I can say is that it is notoriously difficult. However the good thing in my situation is, after 1 formal interview with a heating and cooling company and 1 informal meet up at a large engineering firm I realised what exactly is that I want to do.

If you had asked me last year at this time I would have told you that I want to do plumbing and heating, however after the interviews and various chats with various experienced people I have concluded that the technical/design (commercial and industrial) side is more for me.

Anyway, best of luck with finding someone

You could sign up to the Apprenticeships website and have a look for vacancies there although from what I have seen, most are for people who have just left school and wish to complete a full 4 year apprenticeship. Still, could be worth a try.