Wanting to become a plumber.

[Welsh]

Hey guys.

I first went to college hoping to become a welder but that went t+ts up and i couldnt find an apprenticeship for s**t so i worked here and there for a while but now i want to become a plumber, are there any courses i could take without waiting for college?

What are the options for someone in my shoes?

I know i would be happy in a plumbing job.

Thanks.

Welsh.

 

[Henno82]

Welsh, we won't lie to you here, there are an awful lot of plumbers both qaulified and training out there at the moment who struggle to get work and there are plenty of plumbers both qaulified and training who get plenty of work, if you apply yourself correctley and have a good understanding of things and are patient things will happen for you and to answer your question college would be the best option as it will cost you less money in the long run or you can do a training centre where you pay an arm and a leg to learn and in truth gain some knowledge but you are then left on your own in terms of employment and most end up either quitting or working for themselves, but it also depends on where you live, it is a hard trade to master but a worthwhile one and it can be rerwarding with investment of time and care.

 

[WaterTight]

Essentially, irrespective of your determination and talent, in the current climate, quite a lot is down to luck. It's a punt, I'm afraid. Had I realised how slim my chances were before starting out on my mission I'm certain I would not have risked it. But I did. And flukely it paid off. But it was self-evidently about as flukey as you can get.

Once you've learned a set of skills, especially ones that differentiate you from others, they become precious to you. And you wouldn't change having them for the world. So even if you learn a trade you struggle to make a living from - you won't regret the learning. But unfortunately that's all you can guarantee.

Very shortly you won't be able to gain quals without a work placement so all this will become academic anyway.

 

[fuzzy]

next year there are no full time plumbing qualifications available, only a level 1 building services course, that includes all BS

 

[Welsh]

I am willing to risk it because it is something i want to do, i tried welding and not only was there little or no work about but i didnt enjoy being stuck in a workshop all day.

I would like to become a domestic plumber and be self employed i don't know the pros and cons of being self employed but the job does appeal to me.

I was considering working away for a while saving money and going on a course but i read up on the courses and a lot of people are left out of pocket.

So is college the best way for me to get to where i want to be? thing i don't like about college is that it takes years to complete.

 

[jase158]

To become Gas Safe you must obtain the following qualifications in this order:

1. City & Guilds 6129 – Technical Certificate Level 2
2. City & Guilds 6129 – Technical Certificate Level 3
(mixed answers as to whether this is definitely required, but probably)

Then you MUST get a job with a Gas Safe registered plumber and then begin:

3. NVQ 6089 Level 2 – Domestic OR Commercial (choose carefully)
4. NVQ 6089 Level 3 – 3 to choose from
(I recommend in Mechanical Engineering Services – Plumbing (Domestic))
5. City & Guilds 6048 – Part L – Energy efficiency (needed to sign off boiler installations)
6. The following technical certificates are also HIGHLY recommended
a. Unvented Water
b. Water Regulations 1999
c. Electricity – Part P
7. ACS exam
Apply to gas safe to become registered
You can stop the training at Level 2 NVQ and just do water based plumbing but in this case i would learn tiling and electrics and the water regulations is a must for this. Also i have used Building Trade skills Centre in chessington for my NVQ they do not need you to be employed by a Plumber where as the colleges require you to be employed by a plumber, although i still need to find the work for me to be assessed on, the training centres are good if you can afford it, all the above training is approx £6000, but if you compare that to earning £40,000+ per year then it is nothing really. Just do your research, do not be pressurised into buying courses, if they are genuine they have got courses starting every few months so there is no hurry. Do not pay monthly these charge interest and i did not find any of these pay monthly courses that are not a con. when you have found a centre, type in the centre name into google followed by "scam" i.e. "plumbing academy scam" this will show you other peoples experiences following there training with the centre. I had a man come to me and said if i did not sign up now then obviously i was not interested and so the offer would be retracted and i would not be able to apply he was very pressurising and i felt like i had to do it, after looking on google i found out people were signing up to these courses and never getting any help from tutors or the centre, but paying £150 per month and they were bound in the contract untill it was paid off.
There are a lot of courses out there and you do not legally need most of them and they can be a waste of time, tell the centres the exact numbers of the city and guild qualifications that you want (some have not updated there qualifications in the last 3 year) do not be told that you need extra qualifications, i have researched this and spent several weeks looking through websites and forums untill 12am.
Also the Companies house website tells you if a company is a registered company, if it has only opened 2 weeks ago, the chances are that they will be shut within a week. also go to there centre, see if they are real, go unannounced if they are genuine then trainees will be outside having a *** and they will be welcoming you in without any notice. it may cost you in petrol but it will not be as expensive as paying for a non existent course.
Finally good luck with your new career it is fun and exciting plumbing, with every new experience on every day. but it really is for the stronger people. dont think it is a quick career change it can take up to 5 years to be trained and the training centres that say "become a plumber in 10 weeks" are lieing, they should be saying "know a little bit about plumbing in 10 weeks" even the training centres take around a year minimum to complete your training in full.

Hope this helps any questions please pm me

www.unionplumbingmaintenance.co.uk

 

[WaterTight]

where did you find that fish-tank toilet on your site:

UNION PLUMBING MAINTENANCE

love it!

 

[fuzzy]

To become Gas Safe you must obtain the following qualifications in this order:

1. City & Guilds 6129 – Technical Certificate Level 2
2. City & Guilds 6129 – Technical Certificate Level 3
(mixed answers as to whether this is definitely required, but probably)

Then you MUST get a job with a Gas Safe registered plumber and then begin:

3. NVQ 6089 Level 2 – Domestic OR Commercial (choose carefully)
4. NVQ 6089 Level 3 – 3 to choose from
(I recommend in Mechanical Engineering Services – Plumbing (Domestic))
5. City & Guilds 6048 – Part L – Energy efficiency (needed to sign off boiler installations)
6. The following technical certificates are also HIGHLY recommended
a. Unvented Water
b. Water Regulations 1999
c. Electricity – Part P
7. ACS exam
Apply to gas safe to become registered
You can stop the training at Level 2 NVQ and just do water based plumbing but in this case i would learn tiling and electrics and the water regulations is a must for this. Also i have used Building Trade skills Centre in chessington for my NVQ they do not need you to be employed by a Plumber where as the colleges require you to be employed by a plumber, although i still need to find the work for me to be assessed on, the training centres are good if you can afford it, all the above training is approx £6000, but if you compare that to earning £40,000+ per year then it is nothing really. Just do your research, do not be pressurised into buying courses, if they are genuine they have got courses starting every few months so there is no hurry. Do not pay monthly these charge interest and i did not find any of these pay monthly courses that are not a con. when you have found a centre, type in the centre name into google followed by "scam" i.e. "plumbing academy scam" this will show you other peoples experiences following there training with the centre. I had a man come to me and said if i did not sign up now then obviously i was not interested and so the offer would be retracted and i would not be able to apply he was very pressurising and i felt like i had to do it, after looking on google i found out people were signing up to these courses and never getting any help from tutors or the centre, but paying £150 per month and they were bound in the contract untill it was paid off.
There are a lot of courses out there and you do not legally need most of them and they can be a waste of time, tell the centres the exact numbers of the city and guild qualifications that you want (some have not updated there qualifications in the last 3 year) do not be told that you need extra qualifications, i have researched this and spent several weeks looking through websites and forums untill 12am.
Also the Companies house website tells you if a company is a registered company, if it has only opened 2 weeks ago, the chances are that they will be shut within a week. also go to there centre, see if they are real, go unannounced if they are genuine then trainees will be outside having a *** and they will be welcoming you in without any notice. it may cost you in petrol but it will not be as expensive as paying for a non existent course.
Finally good luck with your new career it is fun and exciting plumbing, with every new experience on every day. but it really is for the stronger people. dont think it is a quick career change it can take up to 5 years to be trained and the training centres that say "become a plumber in 10 weeks" are lieing, they should be saying "know a little bit about plumbing in 10 weeks" even the training centres take around a year minimum to complete your training in full.

Hope this helps any questions please pm me

www.unionplumbingmaintenance.co.uk

you dont need the 6129 to become gas safe, in fact you dont need anything as long as you meet cat 3 requirments. with the 6129 tc 2&3 only your still a cat 3. only the nvq's help you jump to a cat 2. In other words the 6129's count for nothing

 

[Welsh]

So how long would it take me to become fully qualified if i went through college?

 

[jase158]

Yes fuzzy is right the technical certificates are nothing in the world of plumbing except
1. it gives you the knowledge neede to become a plumber
2. you need your technical certificate to get on the nvq course
but to become a plumber it will take around
a year for technical certificate level 2
another year for technical certificate level 3
around 10 weeks to complete the nvq 2 and 3 as long as you have the bathrooms to be done.

and i believe but not completely sure that the ACS is 5 days.

as he says you do not need any qualifications to get on the ACS course but you need 1 years gas experience working with a fully qualified gas engineer with proof. But in my opinion i would rather be a compitent plumber before i started working on gas, it would be pointless doing gas if you cant solder the joints to make the gas pipe up.
so approxiamately 3-4 years depending on the amount of work your plumber has, yes i would apply for a job first as this can really speed things up.

 

[jase158]

there is a company that sell these, think they are american?

techtickerblog.com

we installed one for a friend of mine for a laugh, it actually works and everything

 

[KingDoey]

NVQ 2 is 2 years.
NVQ 3 is another 2 Years.

College is the best way to go as you get experience along the way.

IMO those short courses are bad because you don't learn enough to be competant. Our firm used several short course agency plumbers in the summer and they were useless.

I think you need several years of experience. Do college if you can mate!

 

[Welsh]

Yeah ive been on the blower to the local college and the man there told me to try and get an employer and also go to a open evening in january think im going to do that, seems the safest and best option where knowledge and experience is concerned.

 

[KingDoey]

Good luck. Hope it works out for you

 

[fuzzy]

college is by far the best option for learning, always have always will be, good luck anyway

 

[jase158]

I dont understand where people get the idea that these training centres are less worthy then colleges,

1. you must learn exactly the same stuff and pass exactly the same exams by city and guilds.

2. you do the exact same amount of learning, i.e. at college you do 8 hours a day 2 days a week over 24 weeks equaling 384 hours. in the training centre you spend 8 hours a day 5 days a week for 10 weeks equaling 400 hours. so roughly the same.

3. my tutor in my college actually run his own fast track centre and taught us the same way he taught the students in his fast track centre.

Also these people are actually here because they want to be not because there mum told them to get a career so they picked the ones that there friends are doing.

I spent 2 years doing my tech cert 2 and 3 with students messing around turning up when they felt like it, leaving when they felt like it. ****ing me off all the time, touching my rse. in the workshops there was only 2 people working at times, everyone else was messing around, there was 21 students at the beginning of my tech cert 2 and only 8 finnished and of those 8, 4 were rushed through and in my honest opinion did not know enough to do there own plumbing let alone work for somebody else and get paid. They got passed simply for staying until the end.

And further more my first tutor left after 1 week, we were left for 8 weeks to sit around and do nothing (they didnt even bother getting another teacher to cover). And then they sacked another tutor 2 weeks before the end of the year. I basically taught myself through college. I got to the exams and i did not know 30% of the questions and just had to guess. (luckily i wrote them down and made sure i knew them after)

In my opinion i would be very cautious of hiring staff trained by colleges. But then again i met 3 great people there who really are going to be excellent plumbers and they really wanted to be there.

 

[KingDoey]

Its all very well going to a training centre but what on site experience do you get if you do it full time? None.