City & Guilds

Mp4 said:
DJ you still at Uni?

When they said what the uni offers etc it sounded a waste of time (what i did at college and programming - which doesn't appeal in the slightest)
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No I graduated 3-4 years ago. Although I enjoyed uni, I still felt that I had to start at the seriously low end of the food chain in work, and on another note, you learn a lot more in work!

1st line technical support - £13.5k

Apparently this is the norm for most graduates fresh out of uni in South Wales. Anyway, iv moved up since quite a lot :) Too many people swear by uni. Its not all that to be honest, nothing compared to working your way up with real working experience.
 
DJMK4 said:
No I graduated 3-4 years ago. Although I enjoyed uni, I still felt that I had to start at the seriously low end of the food chain in work, and on another note, you learn a lot more in work!

1st line technical support - £13.5k

Apparently this is the norm for most graduates fresh out of uni in South Wales. Anyway, iv moved up since quite a lot :) Too many people swear by uni. Its not all that to be honest, nothing compared to working your way up with real working experience.
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Ah thanks for the insight :) its good that you have progressed since Uni. It's all about experance these days :( can't geven get my foot in the door @ IT saying that quallies are pants and don't have the £ to do much + can't seem to focus doing home learning
 
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Smithy said:
Would this still be the case if you were 21, with no relative experience to write about and no other further qualifications?
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I'm 22 with 14 months of proper experience, relatively few qualifications and a truckload of extra-curricular stuff including DofE and a solo flight in an aircraft.

I don't mention GCSEs, A levels get a couple of lines, a degree I haven't got yet gets a fair bit.

If I was 21 and had been a lay-about up till that point then yes, I probably would big-up the C&G. But that's not me, and I was saying what I would do.



Another example: I only like to let people with Automotive Technicians Accreditation, Diagnostic or Master level, work on my car (you can check a register on-line). When the tyre fitters offer wheel alignment and say "All our guys a City & Guilds qualified." The response is: "Just the tyres please."
 
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My dad did a city and guilds and has worked as a fully qualified JIB Electrician for as long as i can remember.

I guess it depends on the sector, But in answer to are C&G useless, no its not a useless qualification
 
BigglesPiP said:
I'm 22 with 14 months of proper experience, relatively few qualifications and a truckload of extra-curricular stuff including DofE and a solo flight in an aircraft.

I don't mention GCSEs, A levels get a couple of lines, a degree I haven't got yet gets a fair bit.

If I was 21 and had been a lay-about up till that point then yes, I probably would big-up the C&G. But that's not me, and I was saying what I would do.
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"No" would have sufficed. :)
 
Smithy said:
How highly regarded are these qualifications? The college I'm looking at only offers it up to level 2 at the moment, but I'd be interested in perusing it up to level 3 if I could find a college near me which offers the course.

Also, how do these hold up against NVQ level 2 qualifications?
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C&G are just an awarding body, NVQ (2) is the qualification.
 
It depends on which C&G you get.
I've been involved in 3 C&G's over the last 8 months or so and one of them (level 2) was quite basic which anyone with a brain and a bit of logic should pass.
The other 2 (level 3) however are different beasts and one of them in particular now has a national pass rate of @45% and is extremely highly regarded in it's industry :)
 
In most area's the city and guilds has changed to an NVQ, i found the difference between the Advance craft ( 1988 ) to the NVQ ( 1995 ) to be less theory on the NVQ side. From what the tutors told me, the NVQ's were introduced because quite a lot of students in the construction fields excelled at the practical side, but had difficulty with the theory.

The city and guilds advanced craft i have in cabinetmaking and upholstery is equal to an NVQ lvl 3, which i have in carpentry and joinery. The city and guilds qualifications are recognised in other countries, so if you wish to move abroad then they will know what your qualifications are. When i did furniture we had a few students come over from other countries.

you can only do upto Lvl 2 in college full time, to do a Lvl 3 you have to be in employment, and do it as a kind of day release, or as in our company we have a training company come in and assess the guys. Once you've done your lvl 3 you can do lvl 4 which moves onto the management side of things.


Mark A, where did you do your course ? did you do it at Burnley college ?
 
doofski said:
In most area's the city and guilds has changed to an NVQ,
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Thats how it is over here, when i started my nvq lvl 2 (painting + decorating) fifteen years ago, c&g had just been phased out in all the construction related fields, on level 2 i spent 2 days per week in college, and 3 on the job, for lvl 3 it was one day in college, 4 on site.
 
I guess it depends on what your C&G is in.
I did mine in AutoCAD
2D Design
3D Wire frame design
3D Solids design

All three courses were a step beyond the 'introduction to AutoCAD' that was also available, and covered much of the finer detail of getting the software to do what you want, as opposed to just drawing basic lines and circles and a bit of text. As a result, in most of the jobs I have had doing CAD work, I've known more about how to use the program than most of the people I have worked with.
This knowledge was of great use when it came to setting up drawing office standards and accepted practice for creating and amending working drawings.
 
Mp4 said:
Ah thanks for the insight :) its good that you have progressed since Uni. It's all about experance these days :( can't geven get my foot in the door @ IT saying that quallies are pants and don't have the £ to do much + can't seem to focus doing home learning
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Once you get your foot in the door you will be fine :)

I was lucky enough to get my first job through the first interview (after sending out 10 cv's) after my C&G and my Uni course. Just get your foot in the door and you will find that the rest will follow suit quite easy once you gain experience and people realise how good you are, also get to know people in the buisness, its pays when you want to progress ;)
 
They were pretty standard years ago which engineering was big business.
My old man has City & Guilds qualifications, and he's doing alright for himself, 32k a year and a job he quite likes.
 
I'm another who has C&G qualifications coming out there ears. All of mine pertain to the building industry and where of no use whatsoever when the mini recession hit the building trade back in 91.

Joinery
Advanced Craft Joinery
Supplementary Studies (other building trades)
Building Science Diploma

Passing them does allow me to place AIC (Advanced Institute of Carpenters) after my name but since I've not done any serious building work since the aforementioned crash of 1991, I don't bother. It is helping with my study of Fire Safety but not overly so.
 
DJMK4 said:
Once you get your foot in the door you will be fine :)

I was lucky enough to get my first job through the first interview (after sending out 10 cv's) after my C&G and my Uni course. Just get your foot in the door and you will find that the rest will follow suit quite easy once you gain experience and people realise how good you are, also get to know people in the buisness, its pays when you want to progress ;)
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I don't have the luxury of going to uni tbh (28yr now) doubt ill get my foot in the door with level 3 qually these days. I've tried numorus sites and get no results given up on it tbh.
 
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