Tify to Gas Engineer, what will it take??

[Tino Mclaren]

Hello all

Im a fully qualified time served instrument technician (ICI, Enron, contract work etc...)

Im considering a career change to a more public facing job (I wont go into the details unless someone wants to know) and have always been interested in plumbing.

In fact ive installed many heating systems (on site and dwellings) over the years, usually combi's but I stopped the dwellings when the regs came in but carried on with site work as that's a different set of rules.

I had my own kane 400 series (450 was the last one, not sure about the new gear) for gas combustion checks, pressure, co/co2 ratio etc.. I also worked with other gases too.

I also have a HNC in electrical engineering, im not a domestic spark as such (not part p) but again ive re-wired many houses over the years, more recently to 17th ed and used colleagues to sign off.

Im 51 now and I want a change, is there a swap over road map for someone like me? What will it take?

Many thanks in advance

Tino

 

[ShaunCorbs]

TBH I wouldn't change I'm sorry

 

[townfanjon]

Surely theres more avenues that could open up with the knowledge you have .
Plumbing and gas is not as easy as people think

 

[Tino Mclaren]

Thanks but im pretty sure its what I want to do, I appreciate that its not easy.

I was hoping for some help on any training I would need or how to achieve the swap over.

Cheers

 

[SimonG]

I'm 50, I want to go down to 3 or 4 days a week.

At 51 I wouldn't be advising a career change.

You could pay your money and do a six week course which would get you no where near. Training centres only want your dosh.

No easy way in.

 

[Chalked]

Gas training now takes a year to do. Including 6 months working with someone gas safe registered.

 

[Tino Mclaren]

I realise this is probably not the right place for this sort of question, thank you.

 

[townfanjon]

I realise this is probably not the right place for this sort of question, thank you.

Tino , sorry they probably are not the answers you want to hear , and IMO this is the place to ask this sort of question.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Just because you don't like the answers you've been given doesn't mean there wrong

 

[Tino Mclaren]

No, I appreciate some of the answers Shaun, you couldnt answer my question though because not many on here (if any) have gone to gas technician via this path. I wasnt being ungrateful I was just asking in the wrong place.

I feel by your short 'dont bother' answers you are like a coiled spring waiting to attack!!! Your demeanour says it all.

For anyone searching here is what I have found out:

I have rang ACS (actually UKAS HQ) and spoke to a very helpful chap (an ex engineer and dept manager). I can take the exam directly without completing training (I will be brushing up, a lot!), they can contact my employer and as long as my gas experience (which he believes to be extensive) tallies with ACS requirements then I will be deemed gas safe.

I will be on probation, ready for any inspector to look at my work as all new gas technicians have to do.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

@Harvest Fields @Matchless.plumb @jaydebruyne

 

[Harvest Fields]

Not got time to read and reply now. But will do later.

 

[SimonG]

Not got time to read and reply now. But will do later.

To summarise.

Feck off. I'll please myself.

 

[Harvest Fields]

To summarise.

Feck off. I'll please myself.

On an install that is annoying me but will definitely reply later. Sorry.

 

[jaydebruyne]

No, I appreciate some of the answers Shaun, you couldnt answer my question though because not many on here (if any) have gone to gas technician via this path. I wasnt being ungrateful I was just asking in the wrong place.

I feel by your short 'dont bother' answers you are like a coiled spring waiting to attack!!! Your demeanour says it all.

For anyone searching here is what I have found out:

I have rang ACS (actually UKAS HQ) and spoke to a very helpful chap (an ex engineer and dept manager). I can take the exam directly without completing training (I will be brushing up, a lot!), they can contact my employer and as long as my gas experience (which he believes to be extensive) tallies with ACS requirements then I will be deemed gas safe.

I will be on probation, ready for any inspector to look at my work as all new gas technicians have to do.

Ummmm, I don’t think age is a relevant factor in deciding to change career. If you want to change, change. It’s your life. Do what you want. So you don’t have to take any gas exams? That’s a crock of s**t. But hey, gas safe ‘know’ what they’re doing! Good luck with the change.

 

[Harvest Fields]

I’m not sure what you are expecting us to say? There is a massive variant of engineers on here that have come from all kinds of paths and backgrounds. I am under the understanding that even if you have previous experience in our field or even (electrical engineering) you will still have to have some kind of training and assessments before you can go on the tools as an gas engineer. Gas safe will not give you a gas safe ID without the right ACS/C&G/ACOPS/blue flame certification. By all means move Careers, it is completely your choice. I think the boys are just saying in their opinion it might be a move in the wrong direction. If the do move then the preferred method is an apprenticeship. Which at 51 you will probably not be willing to do, or a fast track course. Which is a lot easier, doesn’t give you the knowledge you need and is more difficult to get a job from and work from.
The decision is clearly yours.
This is just my thoughts.

 

[jaydebruyne]

On the back of what Harvest just said, I did a blue flame gas course which took me a year. After passing you go out and have to learn your trade. If you join a firm they want engineers who are already up to speed and won’t want to have you spending extra time on jobs learning what to do. If you go self employed and go alone you don’t have the safety net of the firm to take the fall when you make mistakes (and you will make mistakes). I do not recommend fast track courses. I did a plumbing one and they’re just a con. Spend your money wisely and do it properly. Learn at a decent pace.

 

[townfanjon]

Tino , you remind me of two of my pals , they ask my opinion on gas /plumbing related stuff , I spend time with them , give them free advice and they just go do what the fec they want , with the greatest respect you fall into this group , so go for it , I hope your knees and back are good.

 

[Old Account]

No, I appreciate some of the answers Shaun, you couldnt answer my question though because not many on here (if any) have gone to gas technician via this path. I wasnt being ungrateful I was just asking in the wrong place.

I feel by your short 'dont bother' answers you are like a coiled spring waiting to attack!!! Your demeanour says it all.

For anyone searching here is what I have found out:

I have rang ACS (actually UKAS HQ) and spoke to a very helpful chap (an ex engineer and dept manager). I can take the exam directly without completing training (I will be brushing up, a lot!), they can contact my employer and as long as my gas experience (which he believes to be extensive) tallies with ACS requirements then I will be deemed gas safe.

I will be on probation, ready for any inspector to look at my work as all new gas technicians have to do.

You won’t be able to jump the gas safe course. I am. Registered in Germany but my certificates weren’t

No, I appreciate some of the answers Shaun, you couldnt answer my question though because not many on here (if any) have gone to gas technician via this path. I wasnt being ungrateful I was just asking in the wrong place.

I feel by your short 'dont bother' answers you are like a coiled spring waiting to attack!!! Your demeanour says it all.

For anyone searching here is what I have found out:

I have rang ACS (actually UKAS HQ) and spoke to a very helpful chap (an ex engineer and dept manager). I can take the exam directly without completing training (I will be brushing up, a lot!), they can contact my employer and as long as my gas experience (which he believes to be extensive) tallies with ACS requirements then I will be deemed gas safe.

I will be on probation, ready for any inspector to look at my work as all new gas technicians have to do.

listen Tino,

First of all, you will need to either have nvq plumbing levels which takes loads of time as well as experience to become a good plumbing engineer. Secondly, the gas route isn’t easy either. You’ll need to invest a lot of time, money and again experience is what gives you later the jobs. Don’t be mad at people because they tell you the truth. The truth always hurts. Don’t you appreciate much more if people tell you the truth rather pointing you in a wrong direction ?

If you want to hear the other stuff you will need to go somewhere else where people will tell “ yes it an easy 6 weeks course and you are ready afterwards to undertake the real world as a plumbing engineer “!!!

Unfortunately that’s doesn’t work like this. Here are engineers which have over 20 years experience and still learning. I highly doubt that in your age that’s the right thing to do.

Have you got any engineer to shadow?
I also think the gas safe route requires now more pictures for the portfolio and longer stay with the gas safe engineer.

However, long story short engineers on this website are truly knowledgeable and helping whenever they can. But they also tell you the truth in changing the career with 51years of age. I agree with all the other engineers and don’t think you will find anywhere else a different answer

 

[Tino Mclaren]

Well thanks but I have been advised by the ACS themselves, you cant get much better advice than that can you?

Some of the Technicians on here (sorry you are not engineers, that requires 3/4 years at uni and a degree - we all know gas engineer is a technician so lets call a spade a spade) are way too abusive to be of any help and really dont understand the context as its not cropped us as a question before (having searched the site).

Some of you think you know it all but you really dont, I will be working as a gas technician in as little as 3 months because of my background. It seems you cant handle this fact, I have no beef on here but you are all very much wrong and I suggest instead of just posting a knee-jerk 'opinion' you actually ask someone who knows like ACS (UKAS) and then you will be enlightened and know the actual 'facts'.

Really you do your fellow technicians no favours by acting in this manor, I suggest you put the hammer away and use the grey matter.

So for any other Instrument Technicians looking at this thread:
1- Take the CCN1 exam direct with your local college (fee's vary but it's £100's rather than £1000's
2 - Give the ACS your working history and let them do their checks
3 - You will be on probation for 12 months, you can work with a mentor or as a self employed gas tech but you must be available to the ACS to have your work checked during this period.

Good luck!

 

[SimonG]

Try getting the same answer from ACS on a repeat call. Never dealt with them or gas safe but I find all these bodies are the same, full of failed engineers, oops apologies, technicians who can't give you the same answer twice.

Just a shame you won't report back that the conversation you had with ACS had led you up the garden path.

And as everyday is a school day, 3 or 4 years at university is not the only route to earning yourself a degree. But then a clever fecker like you would know that.

Good luck yourself

 

[Tino Mclaren]

So ignorant & disrespectful Simon, I was saying good luck to other tiffy's reading this thread not you or your rabble.

No a degree comes from studying at uni, no exceptions, you lot just make it up as you go along (yes I know NVQ level 5 is degree level but you still have to study at uni).

Why dont you redefine some other qualifications while you are at it?

Asking a straightforward questing on this site has been an eye opener, ive read most of the arrogant answers and I know where most of you sit, what an absolute disgrace to your profession some of you are.

 

[Harvest Fields]

There are plenty of people on here that appreciate the advice we give mate. Why post on here if you had already made your mind up? (ACS get paid if you pass or fail and if you do the training or not) As I have said before it is just an opinion. You make your own decisions not us. If you are not happy with peoples responses then why comment further? As for laying into people you have no idea about after you ask for an opinion that’s another matter. (I have said my peace, I am now done)

 

[SimonG]

So ignorant & disrespectful Simon, I was saying good luck to other tiffy's reading this thread not you or your rabble.

No a degree comes from studying at uni, no exceptions, you lot just make it up as you go along (yes I know NVQ level 5 is degree level but you still have to study at uni).

Why dont you redefine some other qualifications while you are at it?

Asking a straightforward questing on this site has been an eye opener, ive read most of the arrogant answers and I know where most of you sit, what an absolute disgrace to your profession some of you are.

[QUOTE="Tino Mclaren, post: 1000694,

Only one person being ignorant, disrespectful and up their own ar$e, yourself.

I'm not redefining a degree or putting down the thousands of people who have gained degrees without studying for three or four years at uni. But have studied whilst holding down full time jobs.

Taking your definition that a degree from uni would then negate a world were people would be able to career change. Which would then make your own post mute.

If you call being a disgrace telling people how things are then crack on.

Career changing or starting out in this profession is a mare and I don't care what you have supposedly been told by ACS.

I have the greatest respect for somebody willing to put in the hard yards to change career paths. There are quite a number on this forum and some who have given you some hard truths.

The truth is that even if you do succeed you will not be an asset to the industry.

An arrogant man who is incapable of accepting his limitations is a dangerous individual.

 

[Old Account]

Well thanks but I have been advised by the ACS themselves, you cant get much better advice than that can you?

Some of the Technicians on here (sorry you are not engineers, that requires 3/4 years at uni and a degree - we all know gas engineer is a technician so lets call a spade a spade) are way too abusive to be of any help and really dont understand the context as its not cropped us as a question before (having searched the site).

Some of you think you know it all but you really dont, I will be working as a gas technician in as little as 3 months because of my background. It seems you cant handle this fact, I have no beef on here but you are all very much wrong and I suggest instead of just posting a knee-jerk 'opinion' you actually ask someone who knows like ACS (UKAS) and then you will be enlightened and know the actual 'facts'.

Really you do your fellow technicians no favours by acting in this manor, I suggest you put the hammer away and use the grey matter.

So for any other Instrument Technicians looking at this thread:
1- Take the CCN1 exam direct with your local college (fee's vary but it's £100's rather than £1000's
2 - Give the ACS your working history and let them do their checks
3 - You will be on probation for 12 months, you can work with a mentor or as a self employed gas tech but you must be available to the ACS to have your work checked during this period.

Good luck!

I bet you, you won’t pass the acs. Your certificates won’t help you finding a boiler fault. But, as you told us already we do not know a thing. If you need an engineer you can call us