Newbie - looking for a career change

[SouthRad]

Evening everyone

Probably going to get slaughtered for this but it's worth asking. Nothin' ventured nothin' gained and all that.

So as the title suggests, I'm after a career change. It's a fairly drastic one as I've been in retail management for the last 6/7 years(!). It's a fairly thankless job with very unsocial hours and now with zero scope for any progression. As I turn 31, and with my first child on the way I've realised I need to do something, and get focused on a more positive and progressive career path.

I'm looking to retrain in Gas fitting/Engineering but I've got a few concerns. Firstly, I've absolutely zero qualifications or past experience in the field so I'm starting out from the very beginning - how many years would it take to gain the necessary qualifications to be taken seriously by employers? There's a 'Gas foundations course' starting next month in a Gas Assessment and Training Centre in South Wales near me. It's a 6 month course which is divided into a few sections. I was told it's a month in college 5 days a week, then 4 months divided into 3 weeks on sites with an assigned mentor, followed by 1 week in college, then back out for 3 weeks etc. Then the final month is dedicated to exams. If successful then I'd be able get Gas Safe registered. All this to the tune of around £5,000.

I'm under no impression that 6 months of training would put me in a position where employers would be welcoming me with open arms. How far along the road will a 6 month course like that get me, so-to-speak. I see jobs advertised which require a whole chapter of qualifications. Things like CCN1, CEN1, CPA1, HTR1 which I would guess take quite a bit of time and money to get qualified in.

Another concern is how easy is it to get work in this sort of field? I suppose it varies quite a lot depending on the area, I'm based in South Wales. What I don't want is to spend years getting qualifications to find the field is far too competitive where employers can pick from way over-qualified/over-experienced people and effectively underpay them simply because there isn't enough work to go around. I've been burnt by that sort of thing before.

Any advice on the most effective ways to get into the gas fitting/engineering field? And before anyone jumps in with some nightmare stories of how its not worth it, the job sucks etc... nothing. can be worse than retail!

 

[Karl]

I would personally try and start by getting down to your local plumbers merchants or visit companies with good reputation in your area and start getting yourself out there. The likelihood of someone taking you on full time paid is very unlikely I’m afraid! So ask them if you could maybe come and help them (free of charge) on any days off you have in your current job, not only to prove yourself but to also make sure you actually would enjoy it! End of the day you don’t want to fork money out on courses if you then find out you hate it! But if you enjoy it whilst even not getting paid you’ll more than likely be keen to suck up information like a sponge. Once you’ve proved yourself to an employer and they see you could be a potential asset then they’ll probably take you on. And then from there you could gain your basic qualifications e.g level 2 at evening classes and gain your gas etc in time and experience which normally your employer would pay for. Sorry for the para but I’ve seen so many people learn there trade in a classroom with little on site experience, not saying it’s the same with all but they tend to be the ones who don’t really know what’s actually going on in different situations.

 

[Scott_D]

What sort of work do you want to do?
Most gas work needs plumbing knowledge unless you want to fit meters only?