Doing an apprenticeship as an adult

Anyone done it?

My situation is that I’m 35 and was recently made redundant after 10 years working offshore. The job I was doing was fairly technical but very specialised and has no transferable applications to the real world (M/LWD for those of you who are wondering).

My family situation means that even if there was an upswing in the oil industry my other half has made it clear that going offshore again is a non-starter. I’ve got no interest in moving to Aberdeen so an onshore oil and gas job isn’t really on the cards.

So, I’m thinking about starting fresh and doing an apprenticeship. I know that adult apprenticeships are very common in Australia but there doesn’t seem to be all that much information available about doing so in the UK.

By the way, when I say apprenticeship, I mean more like a traditional apprenticeship (electrician, welder, mechanic etc.) Not like a nursery assistant or barista which are examples of things I’ve seen referred to as apprenticeships.

Oh, and if it makes any difference I’m based in Glasgow.

I’ve looked at it more than once. But finding anyone willing to take on an over 25 year old is the issue.

But finding anyone willing to take on an over 25 year old is the issue.

Due to minimum wage:

The current rate is £2.73 per hour as of October 2014 (this rate is for apprentices aged 16 to 18 and those aged 19 or over who are in their first year. All other apprentices are entitled to the National Minimum Wage for their age).

And training isn’t funded by the Govt if over 25 y/o.

Yep, less than £3 an hour – I was getting that 30 years ago in my first job…

” transferable applications to the real world”

What makes you say this ?

Performance under stress , problem solving fast , fault finding and diagnostics , logistics, communication and people skills , organisational skills , project management, ability to become specialist in a technical subject and be hands on with it………working independantly. And as part of a team

Give your self credit boss , you have alot of transferable skills , ok they aint obvious and direct and largely general skills but so long as you can back them up with examples youll be surprised where those sorts of skills can take you.

Do you have a degree to go along with your experiance ? Whats that in ? – i ask as today it seems like you must have a degree for mwd/lwd although 10 years ago this may not have been the case and after a while experiance trumps degree.

All said though i wouldnt discourage getting a trade if you can convince someone to take you on.

No money in investing in old people. Employers and government prefer the young as the pay off is better and the payments are cheaper. If you wish to re-train there are adult education course at college and adult education centers or see your local job centre.

Do something that makes money and is in demand while also lets be self employed in the future.

Tories are cutting funds to adult education – search for grants while you can.

Any NVQ 3 qualifications (A Level/Scottish Highers)? If not the local Chamber of Commerce should be able to point you in the right direction for some training and funding (only partial but every little helps). If you have NVQ3 or similar then NVQ4 and above will be eligible, you can’t get funding for a similar level if you all ready have one.

What about Ineos that would be ok to commute would it not, I used to do it from Renfrew (but got fed up and moved through)

We’ve just put the apprenticeship applications on the company website – GSK Irvine – maybe a wee bit far for you to travel, but there are a fair few guys from Glasgow that do it.

SSE have a apprentice/trainee engineer scheme. I have applied for it several times. Probably something available in the Glasgow area, though I think it involves a few weeks away at college in Birmingham.

I work managing electrical apprenticeships in Scotland and have several classes of adult apprentices. It’s a good route to go down and getting more popular with employers.
If you want to leave your email address then I’ll try and point you in the right direction 🙂

Unfortunately ime it is hard to get in the UK. But it is not impossible. If you know someone it helps. Or can just get a job labouring in your chosen field then do a college course in the evening.

As a stop gap if you worked offshore your hydraulics must be good? Job working for hose doctor type places could get you traveling around lots of firms meeting people. Money is OK too (not off shore level OK though)

i did a gas apprenticeship with my local council.. at age 40.. did it and qualified in just under a year they gave me full time work as soon as i finished.. two catches.. i had to pay for course.. and i worked for them unpaid for that year.. got a 35kpa job out of it though.. left after 6 months went self employed..

I’m 42 and doing a carpentry apprenticeship now.

I think you have to be extremely lucky to get on one at my age to be honest unless you are already in a job where they need someone trained or you know someone that will give you the opportunity.

” transferable applications to the real world”

What makes you say this ?

Performance under stress , problem solving fast , fault finding and diagnostics , logistics, communication and people skills , organisational skills , project management, ability to become specialist in a technical subject and be hands on with it………working independantly. And as part of a team

Give your self credit boss , you have alot of transferable skills , ok they aint obvious and direct and largely general skills but so long as you can back them up with examples youll be surprised where those sorts of skills can take you.

Do you have a degree to go along with your experiance ? Whats that in ? – i ask as today it seems like you must have a degree for mwd/lwd although 10 years ago this may not have been the case and after a while experiance trumps degree.

All said though i wouldnt discourage getting a trade if you can convince someone to take you on.

What you say is all true. Even though my CV uses all the phrases you mentioned above it’s more something that would put you over the edge if you had the core skills that someone needs.

I don’t have any programing skills or CAD skills which pretty much excludes you from any ‘proper’ engineering jobs. While the job involved some hands on work there’s nothing really to prove that I’d be suited to any manual work.

The only real skill that you get from MWD is some basic formation evaluation and the ability to monitor mud pulse telemetry.

While I do have an engineering degree, thanks to failing all my exams in my final year it’s only a BSc so not even a third class honours like all my classmates got. It took four years of work unrelated to engineering to start working at Schlumberger. The reason for that was that they had been a bit over-enthusiastic in their lay-offs during the previous downturn so when things kicked off in 2006 they were hiring around 20 engineers a month. If you had any piece of paper HNC or higher and could talk and walk upright then they would higher you.

So while I do have a lot of skills none of them really apply to any jobs I could find in the Glasgow area, at least as far as I know.

i did a gas apprenticeship with my local council.. at age 40.. did it and qualified in just under a year they gave me full time work as soon as i finished.. two catches.. i had to pay for course.. and i worked for them unpaid for that year.. got a 35kpa job out of it though.. left after 6 months went self employed..

This is actually interesting. Was it something like this:

http://www.trainingdevelopments-scotland.co.uk/become-a-gas-engineer.html

This actually looks quite interesting. I reckon I have enough saved up to pay for the course (even though they don’t mention how much it costs) and to support myself for the duration.

Saying that I have no idea what being a gas engineer is like in terms of unsocial hours and such like.

If you have a BSc. then that means you could get onto a Graduate Training Scheme. Many larger companies do these. Your low BSc. score would be overshadowed by you 10 years of experience – shows you can commit and are reliable.

Also, think less about transferable skills and more about transferable Competences. It’s HR BS for how you do things, rather than what you do. Seems to be the big thing in recruitment at the moment.

Have thought about an apprentice myself. I’m in a similar age and family situation to you. The low wage puts me off though. Feel for you. My wife has just lost colleages due to the offshore job cuts.

My mate’s BIL(in his 40’s) did an electrical apprenticeship with FES a few years back. What about trying Openreach!

Very interesting article a couple of years ago with a woman who was returning to work at 40ish having given up to bring up kids. She got an apprenticeship with Jaguar/Land Rover.

Seem to recall she had engineering qualifications from pre-kids. But it was the first time I’d twigged there was such a thing as older apprenticeships.

Whut?
I haven’t touched a CAD station in 20 odd years, and no part of my job, or any job I’ve ever had includes programming.
I’m an engineer.

Do you have to stay in Glasgow? Could you not get an onshore job that’s not in Aberdeen?

I work managing electrical apprenticeships in Scotland and have several classes of adult apprentices. It’s a good route to go down and getting more popular with employers.
If you want to leave your email address then I’ll try and point you in the right direction

If you could send me an email that would be great. It’s

johnwilliam1981 at outlook dot com

I’d really just like to find out a bit more about becoming an electrician and what the best way to go about that would be.

Do you have to stay in Glasgow? Could you not get an onshore job that’s not in Aberdeen?

I really have to stay in Glasgow. I’ve got one kid and one on the way so I want my parents around. Plus the fact that I lived in Aberdeen for eight months and we really don’t seem to get along.

Most importantly though is that I want to get out of the cycle of working in jobs where the skills don’t transfer. I worked for two MWD companies and the experience of going to the new one was the exact same as when I started in the first. Even doing the same job it still takes at least six months of training before you can be let loose on the rigsite. I want to develop skills that I can take with me and not feel like I’m starting all over again.