Help Plzz Very confused ( OLCI & College)

[james017]

Hi my name is james and i am 22 years old, I want to do a course in plumbing i was and still am thinking of doing a fast track course with OLCI (City & Guilds Level 2 Certificate (6129) ) I need to know if anyone has passed this course this year or end of last year and has been employed by anyone this year? and if so on what wage ( If you dont mind me asking), as i know i cannot just jump into self employed as i will need much more field base experiance. I am very keen to do something in the plumbing industry but i am not sure if i will find an employer at the end of it what are my chances of this?

Thank you to everyone who replys to this it is much appreciated .

 

[Mushybees]

You'll be hard pressed to find a firm who'll take you on without the NVQ, especially now when times are hard.

 

[james017]

Ok if i also do the NVQ would that help me a lot or just a bit considering the price of it

 

[Mushybees]

The tech cert is seen as mostly worthless to employers without the NVQ.
I can't honestly say it'll put you in good standing for a job. There are a lot of qualified experienced plumbers out there who are out of work and after the same job as you.
It'll give you a chance whereas the tech cert alone would afford you none.

Sorry to be so negative lol.

My advice would be to get on the tools anyway you can. Favours for family and friends, small little jobs for people. Any opportunity you get to obtain some experience you should be grasping with both hands.

 

[obseen16]

Hi mate, i did the 6129 l2 (not the nvq) with olci. finished it in october 2008. whilst i was doing the course i was sending out hundreds of letters to local plumbers and building companies, eventually a few of them gave me some work experience here and there. after a while i got in with a local bloke who took me on full time doing domestic installations like bathrooms and central heating aswell as industrial gas work like laying gas mains and meter connections. after 7 months he decided to stop doing domestic so i was given a choice of either laying gas mains or go self employed and do domestic, i liked domestic work more so i went self employed, not the best time to do it but hey im still getting work. but i have alot of respect for him cos without him taking me on id be no where near as confident and experienced as i am now,

hope this helps.

 

[james017]

The tech cert is seen as mostly worthless to employers without the NVQ.
I can't honestly say it'll put you in good standing for a job. There are a lot of qualified experienced plumbers out there who are out of work and after the same job as you.
It'll give you a chance whereas the tech cert alone would afford you none.

Sorry to be so negative lol.

My advice would be to get on the tools anyway you can. Favours for family and friends, small little jobs for people. Any opportunity you get to obtain some experience you should be grasping with both hands.

What if i do City & Guilds Level 2 Certificate (6129) and City & Guilds NVQ 2 (6089) in these day and ages how hard would it be to find a job? ( no experiance)

 

[Mushybees]

What if i do City & Guilds Level 2 Certificate (6129) and City & Guilds NVQ 2 (6089) in these day and ages how hard would it be to find a job? ( no experiance)

As far as a measurement of competence goes the NVQ isn't very good. The tasks it requests evidence of are so basic anyone could pass it.
Because of that and because short courses are so rife now the NVQ in itself isn't seen as a measure of a plumber.
Experience is what counts.

If you can get in with a guy like obseen16 has done you're laughing. Other than that you can start doing small jobs and over the course of a few months take on larger ones or you can do an apprenticeship.
I've just come out of my time. It was expensive and difficult in that I had to take a massive pay cut for 3 years but it's been worth it.

 

[james017]

Hi mate, i did the 6129 l2 (not the nvq) with olci. finished it in october 2008. whilst i was doing the course i was sending out hundreds of letters to local plumbers and building companies, eventually a few of them gave me some work experience here and there. after a while i got in with a local bloke who took me on full time doing domestic installations like bathrooms and central heating aswell as industrial gas work like laying gas mains and meter connections. after 7 months he decided to stop doing domestic so i was given a choice of either laying gas mains or go self employed and do domestic, i liked domestic work more so i went self employed, not the best time to do it but hey im still getting work. but i have alot of respect for him cos without him taking me on id be no where near as confident and experienced as i am now,

hope this helps.

Thanks for that, Did OLCI help you find a job? or did they just do nothing?

 

[obseen16]

Thanks for that, Did OLCI help you find a job? or did they just do nothing?

Well as far as i know they are still "looking" for a job for me! i got a phone call when i finished my course to see if i had found a job (i lied and said no just to keep my options open just incase) since then they have aparrently been looking for me but i never even had a sniff of an interview lol. total waste of time if you rely on them to find you a job, your better off doing it yourself.

 

[Bernie2]

NVQ's are not really exams or I suppose something that can be taught. They are really just records of what you have done.

It all started back in the 1980's the EU said the percentage of British workers in the workforce without formal qualifications in the job they where doing was something like 80-90%. The EU average was well above that.

But the Brit workforce where doing their jobs okay, qualifications or not. So the government was in a dilemma, how could they get them qualified?

In came NVQ's.

What was intended to happen, was a team of inspectors would go into the countries workplace's and check what the workforce was doing, and how good or bad they where at it. And award them the appropriate competences toward, modules and NVQ's for the work they where doing.

That is why you can't really do NVQ's in a college environment. They are a mixture of knowledge which can be taught in college and practical ability which requires you to do it in work.

To me the whole system needs sorting out and should have been sorted years ago.

 

[HTB]

Well put Bernie.

 

[Carl86]

The NVQ Level 2 folder comprises of

1)[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]The first section in health and safety the + write ups and photographs that correspond to it (working at height, Clear access routes, safe tools storage, correct PPE equipment and visibility etc.)

2)[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Preparation, Jobs are lifting floor boards, drilling holes and cutting chases or holes in masonry material. Pictures and corresponding write ups to go with them in the folder.

3)[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]2 Decommissions (Heating or Hot & Cold systems) with 2 photographs of each decom. each with corresponding writes ups.

4)[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]2 separate installations either Heating or Hot & Cold Pipe work systems. 1 picture of cold pipe work and one picture of hot for both installations.

5)[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Maintenance section of the repair of 5 different components out a list. Likes of Taps, Isolation valves, Ball vales, Radiator Valves and the like. With Photos that correspond to each with a write up.

Each task you add the address of the property the work was carried out it and its signed and dated by the candidate and work recorder and (assessor - when the folders handed in).

The folder tasks need to be signed by your work recorder (plumber) and you will be visited by an assessor at certain points who also takes photographs of you doing the folder tasks only

You could complete that folder and still have a way to go as far as experience goes in my eyes there seems to be a whole lot of repeating going on in the folder having to write about how every task goes especially with the 2 installations.
Don’t get me wrong I want to learn and I’m not shy of hard work or the home work that comes with it in regard to filling out the topics in the folder, but to me I feel there is plenty of drivel in these folders which are easily manipulated or repeated which don’t test or gauge the competence of anyone so you’d be stuffed if you were shown things incorrectly from the get go or you didn’t have pride in your work leaving shoddy work everywhere because this folder shows the photos you want people to see.