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[sammyboy]

Hi there does anyone have any experience of the OLCI training course as i have no qualifications as a plumber also they say that they will help you find work once qualified how much help do they provide as i feel that employers would require experience.

 

[obseen16]

hi mate, i did my 6129 with olci. i finally finished it in oct last year. they are not bad at the training but the price is very high, i think it cost me £4k to do. i was lucy enough to find work with a local plumber (it only took me 18months to find a plumber who would take me on). now im doing all the domestic side of the business whilst he goes off doing the industrial gas work, and oh boy am i learning alot everyday. im planning to do my level 3 and my gas stuff some time this year but im going to do it at my local college purely because of the cost being much much lower.

 

[sammyboy]

Thanks mate i had the guy from OLCI come round today the course sounds good but they want £5,500 for doing it if you don't mind me asking but how are you managing to pay them back because they have offered me the buy now pay later scheme which is interest free for 12 months but if you don't pay it back within the 12 months the rest you have to payback with interest at nearly 30%.You say it took you 18 months to find work this sounds a long time as the guy told me they help find you work and i can earn £50,000 a year instantly least to say i found this a bit of a tall story but i would expect to be earning £20,000 to £28,000 in the real world once fully trained but like any trade it takes years to gain experience.

 

[sonray ltd]

the guy told me they help find you work and i can earn £50,000 a year instantly

you got to be having a laugh.
you won't be earning £50,000 in five yrs either.
plus we are in a recession

least to say i found this a bit of a tall story but i would expect to be earning £20,000 to £28,000 in the real world once fully trained but like any trade it takes years to gain experience.

you'll be lucky to touch £8000 in your first yr.

some engineers that have yrs experience on boilers etc ain't touching £28,000

think your dreams are running away with you or someones feeding you bull.
don't get drawn into that rubbish.
i've seen them in plumbcentre 22 yrs trying to let the world know they are earning £60,000 + overtime.
and don't even know what they need to order for a boiler repair. very sad.

don't get taken in by this cr*p

 

[sammyboy]

to sonray are you saying that your trade is a bit of a con then mate as i am quite interested in plumbing.

 

[sonray ltd]

the people that do them courses are after your money.

work it out for yourself.
millions losing their jobs.
companys going into admin.
where in a recession.

and they say they can get you work. they couldn't guarentee it two yrs ago let alone now.

the trade is cr*p now, polish have got all the site work tied up.
the 7 week course cowboys have given every plumber a bad name and
bringing all the rates down to work for next to nothing.

 

[sammyboy]

Hi mate i understand that we are in a recession but it can't last forever and i want to get trained up now for when things get better so that i am in a good position to get a well paid job. I work in manufacturing at the moment and am part quallified in enginerring but want a change in career and i think that plumbing would be a good choice. If you have any advice for me in how to achive this i would be very pleased i can't just quit work + go to college because i have a mortgage and a family to support.

 

[sonray ltd]

Hi mate i understand that we are in a recession but it can't last forever and i want to get trained up now for when things get better so that i am in a good position to get a well paid job.

good luck to you but its not that simple.
what ever happens in this recession or after your at the bottom of the pile.

you do your course etc, then next comes the experience.
these courses have flooded the place with plumbers from 7 week courses
and we don't want them they have no experience.

and now many of the firms out there will ask how you done your nvq etc,
seven weeks you say, sorry don't want to know.

i've got one bloke with me not got a nvq to his name.
but got his water regs,unvented and yrs of experience etc and i know he
can be left on a job and he can do it.

i have a mortgage and a family to support.

your choice but just be careful and do all your homework before wasting money.

phone a few companys and ask if they would take plumbers off courses etc. get it from the horses mouth.

 

[sammyboy]

Hi mate cheers for the advice just seems a shame that the government can't do more to help honest hard working people that just want to get on.

 

[sonray ltd]

if you have 10 kids and won't work then they will help.

just keep trying, but its not all green grass over here.

 

[bobski]

ok ok iv gothe jist let me tell you where i stand.

I think for around 11 yrs now I have been working as a plumber. (Mainly fitting bathrooms) but doing everything else involved with plumbing to with in the law what I am allowed to do.

It’s only when you’re out of work you find trouble getting work qauls are important for interviews. As you’d expect I haven’t had many interviews usually id phone have a good crack with the boss get a start as a trial and take it from there. that’s how iv managed to get along but just recently I think four its been four weeks now and I still haven’t found any work and as my last job had me to busy all of my old clients for when I done a spell for my self have stopped phoning as I never had time when I was working to go and have a look at there problems.

anyway I am thinking of making a go of it myself again but this time be more of a business person that just a soft hearted philanthropist going round sharing my knowledge and dishing out cheap bathroom installs just because I loved doing it lmao. And that’s true. Well I have no one to support apart from me.

But I want to be qualified for a long time now its all IV wanted. I haven’t wanted it enough though to not be a cowboy. As I left two companies who said they where going to send me for qauls. One was a rip off merchant who specialty was telling ppl they needed new boilers everywhere we went. so I left and the other lmao well it was two issues the main plumber never ever put a strip of wood across the side wall of baths before fitting them I believe this to be wrong epically if fitting corner baths. Which is what happened the day before he told me install a shower tray but then had a problem about the use of support I was intending to give it. And he only wanted it round the sides. We had an argument I asked what was going to happen when the client dropped something on it and it broke. He said it wasn’t our problem. So I left that to.

So after 11 yrs no qauls and for the most part most of the things IV learned have been self taught. With the use of books internet and actually doing the work.

ok so is there any other qauls available to me. if i get 6129 with my experince i shoudl find a job easy what sort of rate can i expect?

i think one day all plumbers that work in the uk will need to be qaulifeid will 6129 be enough. and can i go for corgi after6129?

 

[sonray ltd]

6129 is ok but won't get you a job. 6089 is needed as well.
as you say you been doing it 11 yrs you should at least have your water regs.
i favour that more than an nvq.

 

[bobski]

ok ok iv gothe jist let me tell you where i stand.

ok iv just signed up for the 6129 course its 4950 wtf i hope im doing the right thing here.

but there has always been an underlaying feeling about not being a real plumber at least now once i dothe course i can be confident in knowing i have papers to wave in peoples faces wheni visit there homes.

 

[obseen16]

Thanks mate i had the guy from OLCI come round today the course sounds good but they want £5,500 for doing it if you don't mind me asking but how are you managing to pay them back because they have offered me the buy now pay later scheme which is interest free for 12 months but if you don't pay it back within the 12 months the rest you have to payback with interest at nearly 30%.You say it took you 18 months to find work this sounds a long time as the guy told me they help find you work and i can earn £50,000 a year instantly least to say i found this a bit of a tall story but i would expect to be earning £20,000 to £28,000 in the real world once fully trained but like any trade it takes years to gain experience.

hi sammyboy, sorry it too me a while to reply, in response to your above quote, i did my course when olci only had 2 training centres, manchester and london, i hear it now has about 4. anyway. at the time i was saving up and paying for each worshop, after about 3 worshops they offered me this 0% interest loan thing, i was given the whole loan with no interest. its costing me £71pm for 30 months. but i aint getting charged interest unless i settle it early. however things may have changed since then.

as for the they find you work bit thats totally hyped up. i had someone called rani looking for work for me (she was from olci) i think she rang me up once to see if i was still in search of work by which time i had already found a job. i think that even tho they say they find you a job its better if you look yourself cos your cv is probably gonna be sat with every other olci students in a massive pile so forget it,

the £50k a year wages absolutely forget it, i never believed that ever. if ur wanting to do plumbing for the money dont bother. you should do it because you love the job. im not even getting £18k at the moment but i dont mind as my experience reflects my wage (you gotta start at the bottom)

p.s which training centre are you at?

 

[sammyboy]

I am not at any training center at the moment i am really interested in becoming a plumber and i am just trying to suss everything out i don't think that i am about to give OLCI £5500 thou i might go to college on an evinning course just don't know the best route to take.

 

[obseen16]

I am not at any training center at the moment i am really interested in becoming a plumber and i am just trying to suss everything out i don't think that i am about to give OLCI £5500 thou i might go to college on an evinning course just don't know the best route to take.

olci prices have gone up a bit since i was there then, im planning to do my level 3 part p, and all my gas certificates, but i am doing them at my local college (manchester) the price for the level 3 at college 2nights a week was about £1500. just a bit of a difference in price.

if i was you id see about doing a college course first, i only went with olci as my college said they had a 3year waiting list for the 6129.