As the title really, don’t post on here very often (more of a lurker) but people always seem to give sound advice between the insults and abuse 🙂

Long story short, I was in a big accident last august which has pretty much made me re-evaluate my life. I fractured my neck, lost lots of blood and had multiple compound fractures to my tibia with spiral fractures to my femur. Up shot from my nephews point of view is I’m like wolverine on an x-ray.

I’m making headway and getting better everyday although any form of physical excise is off limits so I’m left with light exercise on my exercise bike every few days. I know I’m dealing with depression as well but again that’s something which is improving and I have to take each day as it comes.

I’m currently working in local authority but feel less and less inclined to get up every morning let alone go to work (which I appreciate is most likely due to a mixture of depression and wanting to kill 99% of the people I work with). It does serve a purpose at the moment but I want to plan to move out of the job once I’m better.

Anyway I’m thinking of retraining and would like to learn a trade, I’ve always wanted to learn a useful skill and I enjoy physical work. I was thinking of retraining as an electrician and have found a few courses but as I’m not a 100% on what it is I exactly need to know I wonder if they are actually any good.

My actual plan was to take some time off from work and train up then re wire my house to see if I actually enjoy the work (obviously obtaining subsequent approval signed off by a fully qualified sparky) as I don’t expect to do a course and then be ready for the real world! From there I could look to either find work as a junior or start to do some part time work for friends and family assuming I have the relevant certs.

I was wondering a) has anyone done this? If so what was the biggest issue or stumbling block and not necessarily learning a trade but in general retraining when your a little bit older and b) are there any electricians in who could possible advise on suitable courses or where to look for info or even if any fancy an assistant for a day as I always think you learn best by actually doing it

cheers

I tried in my mid-30s, the biggest barrier I faced was I couldn’t really afford to do it with a wife and kids – I wanted to leave Finance and go into IT support, 1st line IT support people get paid about half what I was earning and it would take 5-10 years to get back to the same level.

Ultimately I used what transferable skills I had to move from finance to IT consultancy, they’re both effectively sales roles.

You wanted to leave finance and go into IT?

Why didn’t you just become a quant instead?

Oddball. From what I gather, IT can involve just as long hours in the city.

36 def not too old, I went back to college at 39 (physiotherapy).

By best advice is just do it, get stuck in. Otherwise you’ll be spending the rest of your life wishing you had done it.

Having a job that keeps you active will prob help all your aches and pains too, always better to keep moving! 🙂

caveat ive never done it ….

how ever one thing that strikes me is – your injurys are only going to remind you as you get older.

do you want to be crawling about under peoples floors in the winter pulling cables in 10 years time with said injuries – just a thought i dont know how they affect you , i know my dads been complaining of his old motorbike injuries through the winter for the last couple of years – hes 50 now and a builder.

other than that i am all for retrainin and getting otu of the rut if you can afford it , you have made the most important step and thats recognising something needs to change.

Tom_W1987 – Member

You wanted to leave finance and go into IT?

Why didn’t you just become a quant instead?

Oddball.

I didn’t want to stay in the finance industry, even though this was 2009 when my finance job got cut, I was offered a couple of other roles at other firms but I didn’t take them.

I’ll never go back to finance or banking.

Injuries sound like they could be a long-term issue. That said, the idea of re-training at 36 does not sound at all unreasonable. Even if a transition, including training, takes you a few years to complete, it will be better than you asking yourself for the rest of your life why you didn’t do it.

You must clearly think through what it is you would like to re-train for, but definitely go for it in the end. Good luck.

Just a post to bookmark in case the thread hots up. I’m about to sort of retrain in the same field – took courses in a couple of inspection disciplines last year that would make me much more readily employable. It’s taken six months to find a company willing to take me on so I can get the experience to ratify the qualifications, as my current workplace didn’t fancy it. If this doesn’t work out then I’m done with the dead end of NDT, and regardless I’m going to make the most of my first ever day-shift only job and do some evening classes.

The couple of friends of mine who have retrained have worked nights/weekends during their courses and then got permanent Jobs through friends/family/luck. That’s a carpenter and a joiner. A friend who spent a fortune on some distance learning plumber course said a couple of his classmates had set up a joint business early on, just doing the basic bits they’d already learned and were building up a decent amount of work. He ended up not being able to find a place that’d take him on for the experience required to finish and now fits cable for virgin.
Good luck with it all, I admire anyone with the motivation to make a change

One of those courses you see advertised won’t make you into an employable spark though.

Friend of mine did it when he was mid 30s. Got made redundant so spent some of his redundancy cash retraining as a gas fitter. Now self employed, works flat out all winter, takes it steady during summer. He does however complain of a lot of aches and pains now that he’s mid 40’s so bear that in mind, especially if you’re going from a relatively sedentary job.

Go for it though, you’ll never know if you don’t try…..

Retrained (some would say de-trained) at 40ish. Now 46 and thinking about it again. Life’s too short and there are many ruts. Shame to just get stuck in one.

As above though, be wary of those electrical short courses. You won’t be a fully qualified spark at the end of it. At best, you’ll be a ‘domestic installer’, sorely lacking in experience, in a world awash with domestic installers all chasing the same limited amount of crappy, dirty domestic work. Having said that, it worked for me but mainly due to it facilitating entry into a nice little niche that I found.

No way are you too old for the retraining, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

I had been in a very good office job for a massive company for 13 years. I sacked it off in my late 30s to run a self catering business on a Scottish island. Since then I have also retrained as an electrician and now do that self employed as my day job while my partner runs the self catering (both of us do the cleaning on changeover days)

I trained with Trade Skills 4U in Crawley. Biggest drawback would have been if I were still in England I couldn’t have started on my own straight away whereas my first job after passing was a full rewire! It was a full refurb that I was involved in and learned a massive amount from the other trades. Oh, and not that it makes any difference I turn 42 next week.

I’m 53, 36 sounds like a whipper snapper to me 😉

Your best bet is to have a chat with people in the trade, maybe ask of you can go along and shadow them for a day or two ?

My 2 cents – having your own domestic rewiring and repair business would give you freedom (but no security obviously but people will always need work done). A big part of your success will be you people skills, getting work, doing it well and getting recommended. How long are you proposing to do this for, can you be a sparky at 60+ ? I would stay away from larger construction type jobs, my ex-BIL is a carpenter and a lot of that work is poorly paid and of course increasing filled by cheap immigrant labour. What I would say is some of tradesmen I know do a bit of property renovation on the side, they tend to be quite practical so if a sparky by trade they can do building work too. They use this to add to their income. Hard work and a lot of hours but they say well worth it.

I jacked in my old job 3 years ago, been doing it for 15 years, got fed up and needed a change. Spent a year doing a PGCE and been teaching 2 years. More work than before, less money! But it is perfectly achievable if you can afford some time without earning to the level you might be used to.

I would agree with the people above who say you might find doing the sort of job you are after tricky in 10 years or so time, especially given your injuries. My old job involved offering training courses, many of the people on it were in their 40s and decided that crawling around houses was getting increasingly hard on their bodies and wanted to do something a bit lighter – but still using their original skills/knowledge.

I was a wee bit younger but I changed career at 34. My mistake was not doing it in a very organised way; I knew what I wanted out of, and I accidentally found something I enjoy, but I didn’t go into it with the goal of making it long term so I’ve not made the progress I could have done. Working on that though.

Spudface – NDT is my bag. Where do you live and what do you do??

Should have said, 3 years ago… I was 35.

Wotcha Mactheknife,
I’ve been ten years in a test house doing rad (lvl 2) on castings and put myself through mag & dye pen PCNs last autumn. The new job doesn’t do rad but I get the experience to ratify the PCNs and possibly a go on nital etch too.

Almost daily I get recruiters ringing about mag and pen, but rad jobs are rare as rocking horse poo (aside from a certain place in Droitwich that no-one will touch)
I’m in/around Birmingham.

Former Planning Officer, now, erm, retrained as a part time black cab driver. Never been happier, although only working two days a week helps. (typing this from my sunny garden)

in a test house doing rad (lvl 2) on castings and put myself through mag & dye pen PCNs last autumn. The new job doesn’t do rad but I get the experience to ratify the PCNs and possibly a go on nital etch too.

Deep.

Probably. Unless that’s a lost verse from the Hunting of the Snark (“he took his vorpal sword in hand…”). I recognise some of those words like “doing” and “through”. The ones in between I’m less sure about.

(Okay my wife retrained at a similar age in law and works as a solicitor. A trade’s a trade. Had to go for it pretty hard, did well to get a training contract and is reasonably pissed off with it now, but hey…)

I’m a 45 yr old London taxi driver currently doing my City and Guilds Level 2 to be an electrician at a local college. I’ve decided to retrain because I was feeling pessimistic about my future due to the effect Uber is having and cycle lanes making traffic unbearable. It feels really good to be to be doing something positive when I was getting depressed about my situation. My brother is a spark and was quick to tell me doing a course isn’t going to make you an electrician and the companies that charge you a fortune with the promise of making you a spark in six weeks are a rip off. I’m planning to get a bit of experience with my brother in the summer when I have s bit more time, I’m doing a fast track course, Level 2 in 18 weeks, I’m at college Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings and all day Saturday. Next year I won’t do the fast track course for Level 3, just 2 evenings a week for 36 weeks, fast track has been too intense especially with a young family and a big mortgage..
I would definitely recommend a change, for me 20 years is long enough to be doing one job, and I’m looking forward to doing something different, I’ve also really enjoyed mixing with people again in the class room and using my brain again. Good luck!
Loddrick, do you work in London?

I’m 46, started retraining abput 18 months ago as an App Developer. Just learned in my spare time (meant a lot less bike riding unfortuntaely). I’m luck it’s an industry with lots of on-line resources and that formal qualifications arent that important. I’m 3 months into a proper developer job, enjoying it and have to admit pretty pleased with myself.

johnx2 😆
I get the same on those threads where people talk about using I.T. programs

From the ASNT (American Society for Nondestructive Testing)website:

NDT Test Methods

Test method names often refer to the type of penetrating medium or the equipment used to perform that test. Current NDT methods are: Acoustic Emission Testing (AE), Electromagnetic Testing (ET), Guided Wave Testing (GW), Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), Laser Testing Methods (LM), Leak Testing (LT), Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL), Microwave Testing, Liquid Penetrant Testing (PT), Magnetic Particle Testing (MT), Neutron Radiographic Testing (NR), Radiographic Testing (RT), Thermal/Infrared Testing (IR), Ultrasonic Testing (UT), Vibration Analysis (VA) and Visual Testing (VT).

The six most frequently used test methods are MT, PT, RT, UT, ET and VT.

Around the time I started one of the company directors handed down the pearl of wisdom “get three disciplines and you’ll always have a job” and I rather took it to heart. Mine being Rad (R.T.) with experience and Mag (M.T.)& Pen (P.T.) without experience.

I’m 46, started retraining abput 18 months ago as an App Developer. Just learned in my spare time (meant a lot less bike riding unfortuntaely). I’m luck it’s an industry with lots of on-line resources and that formal qualifications arent that important. I’m 3 months into a proper developer job, enjoying it and have to admit pretty pleased with myself.

Tbf thats the same with IT support. My friend dropped out of college at 16, Google’d and Stack Overflowed his way into a Level 1 Linux Admin job, progressed since there.

He just hates it 😆

The secret to not hating your job is to work part-time, if you can afford it.

After 12 years in the RAF (and a brief spell working as a night shift manager in a M&S warehouse), I went back into education at 33 to do an Access course then started an Adult Nursing Degree at 34.

There were older people than myself on the course (the oldest being a 52 year old).

It’s never too late to re-train, we’re not old dogs after all…

Loddrick, do you work in London?

Liverpool

36 is a fine age for re-training. The way the employment market is changing so rapidly this will become the norm for the next 20 years or so as more and more jobs get AI’d out.

When I was in my mid forties I did a City and Guilds electrician course. Signed up at a local FE college. About 36 weeks a year for two years Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

I was working in London a lot, travelling down from Derby outskirts, college was in Nottingham. Took a bit of juggling but made nearly all lessons. So it can be done even if you have other commitments.

I enjoyed most of it. Practical maths and physics were involved which made me have to re learn stuff, which was good.

Passed both years but have never done it as a job as my job role changed and was no longer in fear of redundancy. However, the Certs are “in the bank” just in case I feel like a change or get offered a good package to leave work. I’m 51 now.

Some of the lads on the course (I wasn’t the oldest) got spark jobs part way through and went of to full jobs etc.

I quit my scientist job at 33 to be a Physics teacher.

At 39 I just quit to start by own business as I’m not prepared to put that many hours/crap/work for dodos on such a low wage.

I might as well go self employed.

So I did.

Been repairing a few crap auction hours and selling/renting them on after I repaired them has been fun.

Keep yourself happy and fit.

My knees hurt but only as I didn’t use knee pads at first. Now no worries.

30-90? make a change.

OP go and see a Psychologist or Psychiatrist first before you do anything.

I did. Its not the direct answer that you asked for. Mull it over.

Hi guys

Cheers for all the responses its pretty reassuring to know that other people have all taken stock at some point and looked to do something new. Means a lot to me to read .

P-Jay finances are a real consideration, I earn OK money and I appreciate that my current job gives some stability but as all things LG, redundancy is only a dodgy manager away as they look to find savings because a local Cllr has decided to spend money the wrong way! Me and wife are planning on having kids at some point as well, and do I want to go through the pain of dropping 15-20k off my salary when I need to be supporting them. So I need to plan effectively to ensure that when I do make a change we are going to be ok.

Injuries wise, I’ve never really thought about how they will affect me in the future but I refuse to let them dictate who I am and oddly, after I wrote this post I called a mate and went for a boulder! It might have only been a V1 but it was awesome to be back doing something I enjoy.

Wiksey I’ve actually looked at tradeskills4u and was looking at their silver domestic installer course. What course did you do and how did you find it?

Just so I’m clear I don’t expect to do a course and magically become an electrician. Its easy to look at a job from the outside and go “that doesn’t look too hard, I could do that” when actually its the subtleties and long learned skill that mean the difference between a good job and a bad one.

Hora I have and am still getting support which has itself identified that I should look to change my job. Its interesting what you can endure day to day when you have the escape of a bike or a climb but when this is removed its amazing the impact it can have. In reality though, and as much as I hate to say it, perhaps my accident was a blessing in disguise as its helped me to re-evaluate my life and appreciate things more. (don’t get me wrong I can think of a million things I would have rather’d happen 🙂 )

Have you considered going on a block paving course?

Have you considered going on a block paving course?

Very good I see what you did there! (have a look at my tale of woe!)
My advice is do it before you have kids, you won’t get a better chance.
Good luck!

I retrained, C&G 2330 (now replaced with 2365), which really just gave the basics of theory and practice (level 2 practical exam was to install a lighting circuit and final ring in a small cubicle and test, level 3 was testing and fault finding on a small mobile rig) The subsequent NVQ is where you learn in real-life situations and get your AM2
I would do as you suggest and get out with someone and find out which qualifications best suit your needs, and also the problems in running your own business v being employed

You could try getting work at more of a wireman type position building panels. Less physically demanding and although some electrical qualifications help you don’t need to be “part p” ready.

(caveat, I’ve not read the other posts, just the original post)

I retrained from a job in the arts to medicine starting at the age of 30. I have just (this Friday) finished med school at the age of 35. There are two people in my year older than me – both were 35 when we started and are now 40 – one of whom had kids and a mortgage when we started and was able to continue to Dad about whilst studying. When I started I was single – which made it much easier – with no kids and no mortgage. I’ve now live with my partner and have a baby on the way, so I guess I’ve been able to continue to be a thirty-something whilst studying.

Things that were easier being a bit older:

– Doing the work. In the early days of my course I found it much easier to knuckle down and work than I think the 18-year olds did. That definitely changed as they matured a bit but I still think that it was much easier for me.

– Learning – Despite what some people claimed, I didn’t find it any more difficult to learn new skills or to learn new information being a bit older. People say you lost the ability to learn as you grow older; I’m sure that’s eventually true, but I don’t think it’s that significant a difference between a thirty-something and a twenty-something

– Setbacks – I found it much easier to deal with setbacks and the general crappiness that can occasionally go along with medicine in particular and learning any trade more generally, possibly because I’d dealt with setbacks in my previous career and partly because I probably had a bit more going on in my life than the younger students so I found it a bit easier to maintain perspective

– People remember you. People in positions of responsibility / greater seniority remember who you are when you’re older which is surprisingly useful for your self-esteem if nothing else. Teachers often see literally hundreds of students a year, so something that makes you stand out a little bit tends to make you stick in their memory. The flipside is the very, very occasional person I’ve met who’s kind of an arse about people retraining late in life.

Things that were a bit more difficult…

– Money, sort of. I didn’t get much student loan and I had to keep working part-time during my degree – and occasionally had to lie to the med school about doing so – but on the other hand I have a lot less debt than my peers. I had 10 grand saved up before I started, I’ve now not got 0 grand and also have about 20k of student debt, so yeah, it wasn’t cheap.

– Lack of progression in life. I’ve still don’t own my own home (oh well) and I’ve probably not been able to buy as many bikes as if I’d carried on in my old job, but I don’t really mind too much. Several of my friends managed to tick off life milestones – first kid, first home, etc. – often because of a supportive partner or spouse, whilst studying so that might just be me.

– Retirement is probably a few more years away.

– Family members – most were very positive, but the occasional few were very vocally opposed to what I was doing. I didn’t particularly care, but if it’s someone whose opinion I cared abotu or someone whom I might have ended up relying on for e.g. financial support then I guess I might have cared a bit more.

Overall, it’s been a really good thing so far. I never once regretted moving to a new career – although I suppose that may change when I start work properly – and probably the only drawback was how impatient I was to get my five years finished and get back to work.

Do it!

Im 34 just retrained to IT support after working for 13 years in garment manufacture and quality control. I’m on a shit salary until next April but i couldn’t be happier, my only regret is not doing it sooner!

I ‘retrained’ to run a mountain bike manufacturing business at the age of 36. Working out ok so far although the pay is a bit off what I used to make and the hours are very long. Having fun though!