Finnished Tech Cert in Feb. Spent two months trying to find a placement paid or otherwise and then two came along. Both part time. Spent 6 months now working with two blokes 3 or 4 days a week. Pay is a token gesture but I'm happy with that. I'm only of very slight use so far but improving.
Good variety of work. My aim is to continue for a good while longer whilst undertaking increasingly ambitious jobs for friends and family (there's about 5 months worth of work under that catergory alone) and then maybe middle of next year start advertising to do very small jobs that i'm confident with.
Then, realisitcally, year - year and a half down the line get the NVQ done and see if I can't start doing it full time with a company or part-time on my own.
I'm basically doing an apprenticeship the hard way where none could be found.