Please help! am i taking the right course?

[Brighty]

Hi, I am attempting a career change, i have little/no experience and would like to become an electrician, and eventually setting up on my own. Since failing to get on a course at my local colleges for 2330, due to courses being so full, i have been looking at doing a distance learning course. Since being advised against OLCI i am now close to accepting a course at Main Electrical Training costing total of £4350. I will have 5 seperate weeks of practical training with home study theory and assessments inbetween.

The course qualifications will include;
-Basic Electrical Theory certificate
-16th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations City and Guilds 2381
-Portable Appliance Testing City and Guilds 2377/002
-Electrical Equipment Maintenance City and Guilds 2377/001
-EAL Level 2 Certificate for Domestic Installers Qualification
-Inspection, Testing and Certification of Electrical Installations City and Guilds 2391

What I want to know is, is this the right course for me? Or will I just be wasting a lot of hard earned cash? Will i be able to find work easily enough on these qualifications through this type of course? Will i find it difficult to gain the experience to back my qualifications? And do other tradesmen and more importantly employers think badly of these courses and tend to disregard employees trained in this way?

Thanks for taking the time out to read and answer my questions. Your response will be very important to me as i find this is the only platform i can find to answer these questions i have.

Cheers

Simon

[conductor]

Hi Brighty,
I would say that the qualificatons youve listed are certainly the ones you need. The city and guilds 2381 and 2391 are just about essential for electricians nowadays and the 2377 is useful if you want to get into pAT testing. 4350 quid though !!!!! No Way !
I passed my 2381 wityh a download from electacourse which cost under 30 quid !
The practical side though is a different kettle of fish that's why most electricians go through a 4 year apprenticeship BUT, you certainly can gain practical experience in much less time than this.
It would be useful if you could get work as an electricians mate for a while to get an idea of the work you will need to be capable of doing.
I don't think tradesmen or employers would criticise you for getting the qualifications that way, at the end of the day the exams are just as difficult for everyone, regardless of how you gained the knowledge and there's many leccys out there who still haven't got those qualifications.
These are my views, hope they help

[solo3uk]

Hi Brighty, go ahead and obtain those qualifications because even if you haven`t done much practical work as an electrician you can certainly get employment if you have 2391, even if it is as an electrician`s mate only.

You`ll have much more of a chance, if say several sparkys apply for a job with an electrical contractor. He most probably find that out of 10 applications only one, you, has 2391, the rest will say they worked here and there for so many years but can`t prove they know the regs and testing like you do, and nowadays is so important to do the job according to regs, that he`ll give you a chance.

Also there are jobs in factories that manufacture equipment and require people to 2391 standards, not to work as maintenance electricians but on the production side. Current rate of pay for that is about £10 + an hour, not a lot, but a start, you can buy 4 bottles of wine for every hour you work, which is not too bad. I recommend "Marques de Leon" from Tesco`s at £2.10 a bottle. Quite nice wine for the money.

The sticky point is the £4350 for the courses. I did the , 2391, 2381 & 2377 for about £1200 at college + books. Those courses took only 3 days for 2381 & 2391 and 2 for 2377. You could find a college far away that accepts you and then stay in a B&B for 3 days, much cheaper that way.

If you go and pay £4350 make sure they are recognized by C&G to accept their students exams, otherwise you`ll end up with knowledge, no money, no qualifications.................and no wine..........God forbid!!!

[Brighty]

Thanks for your advice, very helpful, I am now working as an electricians mate, picking up plenty of experience, and knowledge. I am already a dab hand at bending conduit. hehe Anyway after a few more weeks experience i am going to try one of these self study courses. Thanks to you both. You might have just saved me a lot of time and cash! :D