Are college diplomas worth it for getting into plumbing?

[JAKE ROBINS]

Hello everyone. I'm 22 and want to get into plumbing. I can't seem to see any apprenticeships to apply for in my area (Newbury) but I can see my local college do Level 1 & 2 diplomas in plumbing. I have applied for a level 1 course and I am going to have an interview with the college next week. My main question is as the title suggest is it worth doing a diploma as I've seen you need to get a NVQ Level 2 anyway right? Also I have no trades experience as I have always worked in offices. Thanks in advance.

 

[rpm]

Hi and welcome Jake, enter diplomas or nvq in the little White search box (top right), feel you answer will be in there.

 

[townfanjon]

College’s apear to be going down this “ diploma” route these days, I am no expert but if the diploma leads to you completing the NVQ well thats great .
The problem you may have with the NVQ ( site based evidence) is getting a qualified plumber / heating engineer to sign off your work , in other words the diploma is worth sod all without the NVQ, ask the question at the college.

 

[Deleted member 25704]

Training plumbers in colleges is invalid and dangerous and Dr Simon Reddy did a PhD to prove it - the plumbing industry in the UK is toxic and for this reason #apprenticeshipmovement have introduced the #JourneymanPlumber which is fixed duration 48 months - with mandatory 36 months under supervision of expert in work place - college courses and city and guilds qualifications in plumbing are no longer approved by our Domestic Plumbing Trailblazer - note that over 93% of plumbing students in FE fail to find employment or apprenticeship and are forced to go self-employed! OPINION: Dr Simon Reddy on employability and quality in Further Education - EPALE - European Commission

 

[townfanjon]

Training plumbers in colleges is invalid and dangerous and Dr Simon Reddy did a PhD to prove it - the plumbing industry in the UK is toxic and for this reason #apprenticeshipmovement have introduced the #JourneymanPlumber which is fixed duration 48 months - with mandatory 36 months under supervision of expert in work place - college courses and city and guilds qualifications in plumbing are no longer approved by our Domestic Plumbing Trailblazer - note that over 93% of plumbing students in FE fail to find employment or apprenticeship and are forced to go self-employed! OPINION: Dr Simon Reddy on employability and quality in Further Education - EPALE - European Commission

I can agree with some of this , I spoke with Simon years ago , I never knew he finished it .
As for invalid and dangerous!!! , Truly not all , but yes I can see the point .
I retrained at a college , out of 22 mature students that started only 2 of us finished with level 3 , my pal and I , I can asure you are far from invalid and dangerous .
We both run our own businesses and give 101% .
As for the apprenticeship route , they should never have stopped them , in most cases its the only way , I agree with them 100 %

 

[Stehuggey]

Hi I would recommend that you volunteer with a plumber or company to get experience while you are training in college. There are companies out there who will do your nvq assessments for a fee probably 1000 + also . Best of luck