Help, 29 Year old Female looking to train to become a plumber.

[JasAsh1987]

Well as the title suggests i'm looking to train to become a plumber in the Nottingham area.
Having done various other jobs i have now decided to have a complete career change and would welcome any advice anyone would be able to offer me.

Having trudged through the internet i am still no wiser as to what i need to do to achieve my goal.

Any help would be much apprieciated

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dotty]

Go and talk to your local college. Don't go down the 6 week wonder route.

 

[CatAdelova]

Hi,

Well at the grand old age of 33 i finally did what I had wanted to do 18 years previous and started my training to become a plumber.

If you can get an Apprenticeship then I'd say thats your ideal option. If not your best bet is to contact your local Tech College and find out if they offer the City and Guilds Level 2 Plumbing course and NVQ. It will start in September so I think they will be doing enrolments around now or if not soonish.

Are you able to get any experience, do you know anyone in the trade?

I shadowed a local plumber 1 day per week for 8 months leading up to my course. I am now 6 months in and have managed to get a position as a Self Employed Trainee Plumber with a local company. I work with another plumber doing site work the 4 days I'm not at college. Its basically an Apprenticeship but not.

Hope that helps a little! I spent days and days searching around online when trying to figure out how to go about it. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Cat xx

 

[Silvana Maccari]

I believe you have faith in yourself. And I believe you can. So do some plumbing courses and live your life. I am going to attend a 3 day short Baxi course.

 

[townfanjon]

Jas, Good luck , but I wont mince my words here, its going to be fecing hard . As said , 6 weeks courses , forget them , they only want your money .
College route , you could get in but to get fully qualified you need the C&G and NVQ, C&G is learning at college . NVQ is site based evidence where you will need to be in a job or pay separately for each assessment ( you used to be able to do this dont know about now )
Only otherway is to bombard every plumbing firm near you for an apprenticeship.
Try Gas board , water board , one man bands etc etc etc etc

Good luck

 

[rpm]

Excuse me for hijacking this. How`s the holiday out there TFJ?

 

[townfanjon]

Lol , I am such sad sado I am on here lol , its blue sky , blowing a gale , lovely and hot , just had a few beers at the bar down the road. On the balcony at the moment and then off out again for some tea and then off to the pub quiz . ( to keep herindoors happy not me ) .....sold it to you ?? Lol .

 

[rpm]

No air fare, clear Blue sky, light wind and around 18 degrees here, taking a shower then heading for the early doors session with other trades at the local - What do you think? lol

 

[townfanjon]

No air fare, clear Blue sky, light wind and around 18 degrees here, taking a shower then heading for the early doors session with other trades at the local - What do you think? lol

you cant kid me pal , its your first day of decent weather , 18 degrees nowhere near hot enough for us Northerners with carp circulation. School boy error on my part missing Towns first playoff semifinal against Wednesday on Sunday Pfffftttttttt. Lol

 

[townfanjon]

Oops sorry 27 degrees

 

[Gareth Harris]

Plumbers/Heating Engineers/Gas Fitters - call them what you like, have to comply with lots of different legislation, HSWA, Building Regs, Gas Regs, Electrical Regs, Water Regs - and in order to comply and be a professional and competent plumber they must undertake extensive training. Not to mention a plumber has to be a designer, an accountant and a project manager.

As a result of this training they can register with self-certification schemes such as GasSafe, OFTEC, HETAS, NICEIC, NAPIT to name but a few. Generally customers are aware of what they need to ask for when having gas work, oil work or electrical work.

So why should I not mention another scheme that is trying to raise standards further in terms of plumbing. At the end of the day when a plumber is dealing with water they have the potential to effect peoples health if they get it wrong.

I have read many posts on here where these highly qualified plumbers are complaining about the work of rouge traders. But as an industry, what are we doing to try to rid the trade of these so called "plumbers"?

It is my opinion that if the competent and qualified plumbers come together under recognised competent persons schemes (including the likes of GasSafe for Gas, NICEIC for electrics), then together they can begin to influence the customer to use competent and qualified plumbers, which will once again help to reinstate the professionalism that is being a plumber.

 

[rpm]

Yeah good luck with that Gareth, feel you are going to be banging your drum for a long time.

 

[Silvana Maccari]

We appreciate you. May be some plumbing courses is better for you as you don't have practical experience. Best of luck.