Jump to content
DOSBODS
  • Welcome to DOSBODS

     

    DOSBODS is free of any advertising.

    Ads are annoying, and - increasingly - advertising companies limit free speech online. DOSBODS Forums are completely free to use. Please create a free account to be able to access all the features of the DOSBODS community. It only takes 20 seconds!

     

IGNORED

NHS refuseniks retraining later in life-Sparky/Plumber/any other suggestions?


sancho panza

Recommended Posts

Bobthebuilder

Gas safe is a strange one, not many plumbers are Gas safe, and not many gas safe guys are plumbers. It covers a wide range of different trades, chimney sweeps are gas safe because they often have to take a gas fire out, sweep, then replace, test and certificate.

I fix boilers for a living, if you look at my tool bag, I look more like an electrician than a plumber. Testing to see if a pump is receiving 230v, or it has a resistance of 170 ohms proves that it's working rather than changing it only to find you have not fixed the boiler, etc.

Becoming gas safe is not that hard and a lot cheaper than the electrical qualification. You would need to spend a few weeks working with a gas safe registered person, try phoning a few local ones to see if you could do a couple of days with them, we all get phone calls like that, been through the same etc.

It would cost a grand to do the gas safe exams, then £500 to register with gas safe, £175 a year thereafter for your yearly licence.

I know a guy who did his in his 50s, we did his work experience on his own boiler in his house and I just signed his collage forms. He is now working for Baxi.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 103
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Having read lots of your posts I think you would be wasted in the trades. Also this is boom time for the trades it has never lasted in the past!!!

How about training to become a financial adviser?

If you need to be back to pick up children (how many more years?), taxi driver ( probably out of luck in multicultural Leister) , ice cream or Mobil coffee van? Driving instructor?

Many large firms used to employ their own nurses. Every firm over six (it think) has to have a first aider do you are one up on most positions. What about teaching assistant.. school hours.

I lost a fairly well paid (30k) technical sales job in my late forties. One big disaster after another till I gave up. Never ever managed to get to the same wage 15 years later.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, sancho panza said:

Of late been trying to get a log burner installer with no joy.Could be a nice ticket to get running alongside another qual if it's easy enough to get.

Is it a problem with getting an installer?  The trades are feck at the moment -  I've been fecked over multiple times this year.  That said, it was a pain to find one all those years ago.  Ask a sweep?  DIY (not sure what the HETAS requirements are to get the cert or get the council to sign it off for a fee)?  There, one to add to a portfolio career - stove installer and/or sweep (people will want you registered for insurance purposes but I doubt getting that is too onerous).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, sancho panza said:

 

I hand't thought about tiling.Another handy skill to have.Do you know what formal qulifications you need?

ref the vaccine,I don't want to spread fear(like the govt have done with covid),but I genuinely believe(having had covid),that I'm more at risk from the vaccine than covid.

I can't unsee what I beleive I've seen.

 

None. And theres plenty of dubious tiling around to prove it. I did a 5 day course in Stoke with Pitt training it was fairly good on setting out which is what you need to know to leave a nice looking job behind. Would be advantageous to know how to take a toilet bowl off the floor though. And how to self level a floor, and how to trowel a wall prior to plastering u might not have to, but its easy if you are tiling over after.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thinking caps on.  Biosecurity in some form is going to be a thing (corporates, rich families, etc) and with your background.....  The trick is to spot the opportunity, or make one!  Funny if they become as important and as well paid as the other types of security! 

Anyway, back to me electrics as I've got someone coming to sign off!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you have a spare room fostering but I’ve just discovered there is a shortage of foster carers for adults with kids I kid you fucking not .you get 700 a week tax free to keep an eye on mum

or dad and there kid you teach them how to look after a child how to cook budget look after there kid pay bills etc etc .they have there own money to buy clothes nappies food etc .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Bobthebuilder said:

Gas safe is a strange one, not many plumbers are Gas safe, and not many gas safe guys are plumbers. It covers a wide range of different trades, chimney sweeps are gas safe because they often have to take a gas fire out, sweep, then replace, test and certificate.

I fix boilers for a living, if you look at my tool bag, I look more like an electrician than a plumber. Testing to see if a pump is receiving 230v, or it has a resistance of 170 ohms proves that it's working rather than changing it only to find you have not fixed the boiler, etc.

Becoming gas safe is not that hard and a lot cheaper than the electrical qualification. You would need to spend a few weeks working with a gas safe registered person, try phoning a few local ones to see if you could do a couple of days with them, we all get phone calls like that, been through the same etc.

It would cost a grand to do the gas safe exams, then £500 to register with gas safe, £175 a year thereafter for your yearly licence.

I know a guy who did his in his 50s, we did his work experience on his own boiler in his house and I just signed his collage forms. He is now working for Baxi.

Mate couldn't get a boiler last Thursday. Screw fix, anywhere. Just saying. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Phil said:

Mate couldn't get a boiler last Thursday. Screw fix, anywhere. Just saying. 

Don’t tell me people are stock piling boilers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Hancock said:

You can do 1 day courses to learn tiling, its doing it at speed thats the issue.

If i'd the money i'd like to do a furniture making course, but they ask absurd money to do them.

 

That's the sort of thing I'd like to do on top of a decent qualification thatworst comes to the worst,I cna go full time to feed the family.

I've got a reasonable investment set up and my specualting has done well this last four/five years but with any speculating,you need to back it with a ticket that you can fall back on..


It was when I met Mrs P that I went and did the Paramedicing to get  aticket

7 hours ago, With a crooked smile said:

If you refuse the jab do you get a decent NHS redundancy package? 

I think it's going to be classed as gross misconduct or soemthign similar so exempt from redundancy.

7 hours ago, Caravan Monster said:

I'd avoid solid fuel installation because the work is often absolutely bloody miserable and likely to soon get heavily regulated / outlawed by the corrupt idiots of government. At 50 it's probably best to concentrate on narrow fields of specialisation and make the best of any contacts as the construction industry runs on who you know. Would garden work appeal? there's endless work grass cutting and hedge cutting, but it's as hard going as construction in middle age. Motor mechanics is another area that occurs if so inclined, or vehicle recovery - military + paramedic background might be well suited to that job.

Ironically I was vaguely looking at getting out of construction and into the nhs a few years back. Dodged a bullet there!

This is the thing,with the tiing,it's a one/five day course,I can put it on top of a decent plumbing or gas safe quakification( as per @Bobthebuilder psot further on) .Now you tlak about solid fueld installation like that,it doesn't make much sense.It was jsut a shortage i can see but like you say,soon to be regulated beyond sense.

ref the gardening work,I hate it.But I've always fancied owning a big fat mower and cutting some hedges.Agian,another stirng to the bow like the tiling.Key with that would be having 'contacts' a la Hancock(no offence to our very own HB|)/Patel/the Tories that you know

6 hours ago, Harley said:

Be careful with these fast track courses as not all can get around the experience requirements needed to get membership of a competent persons scheme to enable you to self certify your work, which is an absolute must.

That's my feel,that why I'm asking.I understand finance and how many of these courses are there to screw punters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Harley said:

It must be a real shite time for you and the rest, regardless of what actually comes to pass.  Various shite happens to a lot of us though like my partner who had to leave her last job a while back due to various shite she could not control.  Best thing she did mentally in her case (and the company's just gone bust!).  A question not seeking an answer - did you always plan to work as a paramedic until retirement or could this be (and it may turn out it isn't!) the time to do whatever else you had in mind.  Most successful people I know got pushed!

Yeah it is crap.There's more than just me doesn't want the jab.Quite a few A&E Dr's and Nurses I think.But that's life,it's not fair.

I did it for a ticket so I could feed the Mrs and kids in extremis.I'm working half a week now.Mrs P part time too.We live a humble life focused on the kids.

Was planning to go to a GP role in the next few years but they've cut that off too.

6 hours ago, Harley said:

So could be a great time to look at the big picture, like move where you want to be and get the skills to fit.  Every threat can also be an opportunity.  For example, like a few around here, buy a renovation project and diy to save the money while the other half works, then use the experience gained to become a handyman, etc.  End result - cheaper house, skill set, and time to think!

PS:  Or combine with formal training - plenty of electrical work for your assessment by the competent person body (although not all assessors  like both examples of your work being at the same site).  Or help out a sparky (esp. an ex military one) to help meet the experience requirements - he/she could at least supervise your work.

PPS:  Or end up with a portfolio career - a bit of this and a bit of that - from trader to computer repair to handyman to whatever - several people do that out in the sticks.

QUite,we're looking to move for my retirement and buy a home,so looking to ick up a few skills as I'm crap at DIY.

I've got a few contacts I can touch up but I want a good idea of what I'm after first.

6 hours ago, Animal Spirits said:

Perhaps see if they offer any suitable re-deployment options when it comes to it?

Also consider an operational role at Severn Trent or another water utility, you'll generally be site or area based with varied work.

They won't offer me anythign.Ambulance service is a brutal employer,would defo look at a job on site somewhere but they probabaly would want full time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Bobthebuilder said:

Gas safe is a strange one, not many plumbers are Gas safe, and not many gas safe guys are plumbers. It covers a wide range of different trades, chimney sweeps are gas safe because they often have to take a gas fire out, sweep, then replace, test and certificate.

I fix boilers for a living, if you look at my tool bag, I look more like an electrician than a plumber. Testing to see if a pump is receiving 230v, or it has a resistance of 170 ohms proves that it's working rather than changing it only to find you have not fixed the boiler, etc.

Becoming gas safe is not that hard and a lot cheaper than the electrical qualification. You would need to spend a few weeks working with a gas safe registered person, try phoning a few local ones to see if you could do a couple of days with them, we all get phone calls like that, been through the same etc.

It would cost a grand to do the gas safe exams, then £500 to register with gas safe, £175 a year thereafter for your yearly licence.

I know a guy who did his in his 50s, we did his work experience on his own boiler in his house and I just signed his collage forms. He is now working for Baxi.

This is the sort of info I was after Bob in terms of gas safe and plumbing.It sounds from your psot that it's easier/cheaper to get gas safe and /or plumbing than leccy quals,which steers me towards something along those lines,then add on a few little courses here and there.

Ideal scenario is that I don't have to work but ideal scenarios don't last so that sounds interesting.ALthough I do wonder-much like paramedcing-how many years before you feel competent.?

 

6 hours ago, Bilbo said:

Having read lots of your posts I think you would be wasted in the trades. Also this is boom time for the trades it has never lasted in the past!!!

How about training to become a financial adviser?

If you need to be back to pick up children (how many more years?), taxi driver ( probably out of luck in multicultural Leister) , ice cream or Mobil coffee van? Driving instructor?

Many large firms used to employ their own nurses. Every firm over six (it think) has to have a first aider do you are one up on most positions. What about teaching assistant.. school hours.

I lost a fairly well paid (30k) technical sales job in my late forties. One big disaster after another till I gave up. Never ever managed to get to the same wage 15 years later.

 

If I became and IFA I'd spend all my time explaining to clients the pitfalls with all the investmetns my firm is trying to flog them.

I thought about teaching but I've jsut seen New Zealand threatening to arrest teachers for not being jabbed and I can see these loons doing that here,so I've banked that one.Supply teaching Mon and Friday would have been ideal.

There are some big firms employing paras but they'd all have to be jabbed as they're pateint facing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With a crooked smile
1 hour ago, sancho panza said:

think it's going to be classed as gross misconduct or soemthign similar so exempt from redundancy

I guess you are a member of a union or professional body? I'd be taking this up with them. It just seems a massive step by the government and I say that as someone whos double jabbed. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How do you think the dole office are going to treat all this? Loose your job because your unvaccinated in their eyes you’ve made yourself unemployable. 

Chucked out your private rental as you can no longer afford the rent? Sorry, you’ve intentionally made yourself homeless?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unless you have contacts already I don't advise construction.  You will be up against and (In the eyes of the firms, directly comparable to) the incompetent or uncaring. 

The NHS should have prepared you for the bureaucracy though xD

And the TV lies (When did it ever not?) when it portrays building etc as a jaunt from one cafe to another, ripping of people for 1000s and haing 'loadsa money'

It's fucking hard work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems a great waste to quit being a paramedic to avoid the jab I’m not avoiding the jab because I think it’s poison but because im a cunt.my interest lies in how far they will go to make me have it .my kids won’t be getting jabbed because I don’t see has it benifits them health wize both have had it and apart from some coughing they were fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Loki said:

Unless you have contacts already I don't advise construction.  You will be up against and (In the eyes of the firms, directly comparable to) the incompetent or uncaring. 

The NHS should have prepared you for the bureaucracy though xD

And the TV lies (When did it ever not?) when it portrays building etc as a jaunt from one cafe to another, ripping of people for 1000s and haing 'loadsa money'

It's fucking hard work.

I would echo this, especially for a bloke over 50. 

The guy who serviced my old boiler had it sussed; 72 quid for an hour's work, worked exclusively on Viessmann boilers, so only needed a small range of tools and limited knowledge, would take a job only if parking was guaranteed and wasn't too far from home.

He drove a top-of-the-range VW T5 for work and a BMW M4 for afters, so must have been doing something right. Lovely fella too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bobthebuilder
22 minutes ago, Don Coglione said:

I would echo this, especially for a bloke over 50. 

The guy who serviced my old boiler had it sussed; 72 quid for an hour's work, worked exclusively on Viessmann boilers, so only needed a small range of tools and limited knowledge, would take a job only if parking was guaranteed and wasn't too far from home.

He drove a top-of-the-range VW T5 for work and a BMW M4 for afters, so must have been doing something right. Lovely fella too.

That is pretty much me.

Specialize in 5 boiler manufactures, but Vaillant is about 90% of what I do, £85 per hour. A bag of tools, hop up, and an expansion vessel pump is all you need.

Of course location has to be taken into account, I am in London, I turn more work down than I actually do. Not sure, this would be possible if you live in the shires.

Also, experience matters, but if you can fix what you get called out to do and turn up on time then, that's basically it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bobthebuilder
43 minutes ago, spunko said:

Carpenter specialising in custom cabinetry. Anyone can find a half good carpenter but finding a very good is almost impossible IMO.

The reason why they are so hard to find is the cost of setting up a business like that. You need a workshop (rent, rates), big new vans (£40k), top quality site tools like festool (probably £15,000 just for these). Plus vat, materials, wages, etc, etc.

Best bit of advice I can give to anyone wanting to get into a self-employed trade is to look at the building trade as a big apple pie, builders do the whole pie. You want to do the smallest slice of pie with the best money you can earn.

This is where being able to sign something off for building control is vital, gas and electrics fill this role.

Edit to add. Set up as a sole trader and keep your turnover below the vat threshold. This way you will be 20% cheaper than the big competition and it's a lot less hassle come tax return day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Bobthebuilder said:

Edit to add. Set up as a sole trader and keep your turnover below the vat threshold. This way you will be 20% cheaper than the big competition and it's a lot less hassle come tax return day.

Problem with that is VAT threshold is getting eroded away and i really can't see them increasing it with inflation over the next few years.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, spunko said:

Carpenter specialising in custom cabinetry. Anyone can find a half good carpenter but finding a very good is almost impossible IMO.

I’ve got a friend in London that is a picture framer you would not think there’s any cash in it but there must be he has a shop etc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lightly Toasted

We had a Charnwood log burner (IoW made so local interest for @Wight Flight maybe!) installed yesterday, as well as the technical/safety side of siting and fitting the stove it involved:

  • knocking through masonry to connect the flue into the chimney.
  • making good the stone work around the newly-fitted flue
  • roof/ladder to drop the flue liner down, climbing up into the chimney space to connect the liner to the stove flue.

If it had been going into the existing fireplace there'd also have been some sheet metalwork to make the registration plate that the flue goes through. Taken together, it's more than I think a typical domestic plumber or electrician would have to do.

If you were just dealing with existing fireplaces it would be easier. Or work with a builder I suppose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...