Been thinking about retraining as an electrician & would appreciate any useful advice.

Have been looking at Clarkson Evans intensive training option or perhaps local college. Anyone done either? Also what are work prospects like? Would be ideally looking to get some experience post qualification & then eventually look to go self employed.

Will that give you your Part P?

You looking at any sport of electrical work or just domestic sparky?

I did a four year apprenticeship in electrical/C&I bias and work in light to heavy industries.
We had to start with city and guilds , onc , hnc etc. That was twenty years ago – not sure if NVCQ’s are the new required qualifications to work where I am. 17th edition a must have imo.
My friend has his own (mainly domestic)sparky company and he has had a couple of people working for him who have completed the types of courses you mentioned – They initially lacked confidence in alot of areas , as bashing a house is more dificult than wiring up a test bay for instance.But that was mainly an experience issue. One wrapped and the other is a decent spark. They don’t/didn’t get the same rate as a fully qualified spark either.
My advice is to try and get some practical experience in the area you want to work – any local companies want a leccys mate maybe.
Best of luck.

I did a full apprenticeship and now have a gold electricians skills card. Since becoming qualified I’ve done several C&G courses to keep up the the regs changes, testing & inspection etc. I’m now an electrical site manager on large commercial and industrial projects for a national company and would never employ an electrician who has just completed an intensive course, no experience. I don’t even think you’ll be nvq level 3 certified. Don’t know what house bashers would do or except but I’d recommend you find an adult trainee role and become an electrician the proper way doing the full training.

Cannot disagree with Mr Mojo, would suggest you get on t’interweb and track down the commercial and industrial electrical installlation companies within a practical radius of where you live, approach them via the projects/installation depts, do not go via the HR depts as these are usually staffed by air headed box tickers, the guys on the coal face can give you more insight as to your chances of getting a start.
I say industrial as most of the contractors I work with at the moment are busy, the house bashers are scraping around for stuff.
Good luck

The intensive course would get me (assuming I pass)-
?City & Guilds 2393-10
?City & Guilds 2377-22
?City & Guilds 2382-12
?City & Guilds 2392-10

..along with some practical training. Clarkson Evans also offer you the opportunity to get some site experience (unpaid of course!) with their regular Electricians.

I do have a healthy scepticism of the ‘become an electrician in 4 weeks’ speil, but might be the way to get some quals & experience, however little, which I guess may help get a foot in the door somewhere. Will speak to some local companies for advice & see what they suggest as the best approach.

I’ve noticed there’s a bloke up the road who works for CE so might have to have a chat with him as well.

Thanks for all the advice chaps.

you can do level 2 without working but you cannot do level 3 without working.
The world is full of kids who have done level 2 but cannot get level 3 without work and the construction industry is on it knees and that includes electricians

It would take you i yr FT to do 2 and then a year working to do 3

I suspect those quals are technical certs and not compotency based and so they are unlikely to get you a job
MY BOLD

2393 The Certificate in the Building Regulations for Electrical Installations in Dwellings is for those working in the building trades and others who need to know how electrical installations in homes can affect the building construction.

You should be a qualified electrician or a qualified individual in an allied trade. You should also be practicing your trade in England and Wales, as there are different regulations governing Scotland and Northern Ireland.
City & Guilds 2377-22- A qualification in Code of Practice for In-Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment is for practising electricians who want to progress in their career or move on to further study
2382 – If you’re a practising electrician, you must comply with the regulations for electrical work – this Certificate helps you do that.
If you were certified for the previous edition of the IEE wiring regulations (which came into force in June 2001), you can take a one-day refresher course. If you are a newly qualified electrician or have not achieved a qualification against the last amendment or the 16th edition, you’ll need to do the full course.

http://www.cityandguilds.com/search-results.html?sType=all&fQuery=2382

search the course codes here….I dont think you will get a job as an electrician with these quals and no NVQ/City and Guild qual as an electrician as they are for people already qualified as add ons

FWIW there is an oversupply of electricians by circa 20,000 over the next 10 years

if you can get a job with an electrician then do training if you cannot then dont basically

you can e-mail me for more detailed info if you want

The qulifications are only half of it as stated, I would always expect someone to have the quals but after recently working as contracts manager for an electrical contractracting firm who dealt with alot of new build housing (house bashing) it turned out that a fair few of their blokes were not qualified but had been at it for years and as far as new build housing was concerned were no worse than anyone else i’ve worked with. Its as much to do with who you know especially in the smaller contracting firms. We used to get sparks call us for work all the time but would never take them on unless absolutly desperate as you were never sure what they would be like and they would always be the first out of the door when work slowed down.
It’s a hard game the contracting side of things especially on price work and you are either built for it or not. I would look down the route of small works or facilities maintenance to get going as speed is not so vital here and this will give you a more complete coverage of electrical works. The big price work contractors will take someone unexperienced and have you boxing out or drilling holes for ever while the experienced guys will do the better work.

I did an adult course in gas work and make a decent living as self employed.. i did this though before the recession and had a decent customer base before the world closed down.

i cant reccomend doing the same now. i was lucky and had a full years work experience unpaid working for a local authority as i completed my theory training. they gave me paid work straight away upon completion I left after 6 months as my aim had always being self employment.

i still contract for that local authority. without that practical time on the tools i’d have been lost passing exams is easy repairing installing day to day is a never ending learning process and the more experience you have the more employable you are..

in sunny rochdale there are a LOT of gas safe registered guys.. ( a couple of hundred within 10 miles..) i suspect there are at least 5 sparks for each gas man.. frankly there is not the work there at the moment for them and my local employment agency is only paying 8.50 an hour for up to date qualified sparks..

you can cut grass or clean windows and make more than that..

would never employ an electrician who has just completed an intensive course, no experience.

This in massive spades. To me, all these training companies offering electrical courses are like those companies who offered IT training in the early 2000’s, they will happily take your money, possibly offer you placement, but in the end its not enough.

Better to get onto an apprenticeship, pay isn’t good, Which is why the more mature student who wants to switch careers will struggle financially with it.

Qualifications is one thing, but experience counts.