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Joiner vs Electrician

Nate Silvers said:
Haha fair enough, you like Science then or was that a class you didn't misbehave in :p I don't remember what Trigonometry/Pythagoras even is but I'll learn it at home :) Thank god for the Internet.

Think I'm ready for this though got new motivation and perspective. I've grown out of everything I used to do like skateboarding, gaming, Facebook, drinking on a Saturday. I remember I said I'd never stop skating, seems like a total waste of time now. Well not a waste just bottom priority.
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lol quite funny I'm considering skating again :D

sometimes you just have a brainwave and decide to do something, Revision is key though, if you put the effort in you will be rewarded, some of the exams are tough!

my last 2 exams were from 8:30 to 4:30, extremely nerve wracking but as said, if you revised you will not fail as it's just a process of elimination.
 
Part of being a spark is getting to know the measure of electricity. its not just about putting wires into a cu and turning it on. You have to know your cable runs and what % of power you will be running down them. will the cable be adequete to handle what you are sending it.
also you have to do a lot of formulas (mainly on large scale) but still its not that easy as you are always required to take a new test when the 17ths regs release a new set.

that alone will drive your costs up per annum.
Its also hard to get a break in any trade unless you are time served. Most companies look at graduates or 16/18s as mentioned.

so its pretty tough out there but if you have a support network and home and such then go for it.

i did it the hard way while keeping down a mortgage and kids etc but you will always have a trade at the end of it.

even if you do get shafted by the goverment
 
Well I went into college today and basically to sum up she said apprenticeships aren't a good choice. Competing with the school leavers and they have to pay me more by law because I'm over 21 and they'll be telling me what to do when I'm an adult.

Told her I wanted to do electrical/mechanical engineering she talked about it and went through the course list.

EAL Level 2 Diploma in Mechanical Engineering Technology this is £1,150! She said it's free though on JSA.

Gonna have to do one part time course as I can't afford full time and it's two years I think. Then she showed me the computer one and it's

CCNA Network Fundamentals
CCNA Routing Protocols & Principles
CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate

All have a £395 resource fee and I'd have to pay 20% if I enrolled.

CCNA doesn't mean crap so what's the point.
Because I'm on JSA aswell and the course is two years I'd have to stay on it for two years but I also got to look for work so it's all messed up doesn't even seem any point in trying, think I'll just rot.
 
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Sounds good wish I did that instead of Art & Design. Apprenticeships don't look like a good choice unless you're young. You're only 23 and way ahead of me.
 
Sinny said:
I've just finished 3 years of Electrical training, be prepared for people putting you down all the time if you did. 3 of my friends are employed now as a trainee yet most of the companies I've contacted tell me to give up and they only hire 16 year olds...

If you're still young (like me) or have no ties then go for whichever you seem to like doing more. despite what they say, both trades are equally good to get into and the work is out there, sadly not for me yet lol.

I've been told it's like this.

Plasterer - 90% skill / 10% knowledge
Joiner - 50% skill / 50% knowledge
Electrician - 10% skill / 90% knowledge
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What a load of tosh LOL , being a joiner takes an awful lot of skill and knowledge. Whoever told you that has obviously never built a alternating tread stair case :D
 
LOL isn't that carpentry?

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Forde said:
Bit disappointed - I thought this thread was going to be about a building site fight club or something :(
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Scaffolders would win every time... They are all strong, on speed/coke and have little sense of self preservation.

Anyway OP become an electrician, it's well paid and relatively easy work I.e you will still be able to lift your arms above your head at 45 unlike a plasterer.

I may be a bit bias.
 
bigjimmyauk said:
What a load of tosh LOL , being a joiner takes an awful lot of skill and knowledge. Whoever told you that has obviously never built a alternating tread stair case :D
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It's not utter tosh, nearly all my family are tradesmen. More skill is required in Joinery than Electrical, I've just finished 3 years of electrical training at college yet I know nothing.

I'm not saying being a joiner doesn't take both, as said it's an equal measure, but being an electrician is more of an Academic trade.
 
I was lucky to get a job as a trainee spark, very few companies training nowadays compared to the past.

Just finished my electrical training, unfortunately the company only trains you to domestic installer level not full spark :(

I am considering going to college in my own time to get more certs, maybe hnc/d or degree.

Tbh as above sparking requires more knowledge than skill so you can train fast and get working.

For me anyway all the city and guilds exams are a piece of ****, can do em in your sleep tbh, whereas skill cannot be faked it takes time and experience.

So for a quick new career choose something more knowledge than skill based.

Also throwing this into the mix, gas engineers, get more £££ than sparks.
 
I'm a Joiner. I went to college to do an Apprenticeship where they teach all the chippys and joiners together for the first year then for the next 2 the joiners go thier separate route.
There isn't as much money in a workshop as there is on site when your first start but give it a few years and if you've got a good eye for it you'll be on £12+ an hour.

The good thing about starting in the workshop is you learn the detail of making the items, then you'll find fitting them comes a lot easier meaning you could always move onto site work if you wanted. As my lecturer at college said, 'you can turn a joiner into a carpenter but you cant turn a carpenter into a joiner.'

Wether you pick electrics or joinery they will both be worth it, as others have said it depends what you have a passion for!

My last piece of advice is if you do go for Joinery make sure you get a placement at a smaller company. Family run companies are quite common and you'll get a lot of variety compared to working at a larger workshop where you'll be stuck machining or assembling for days.

Hope that helps!
 
HardwareGeek said:
I was lucky to get a job as a trainee spark, very few companies training nowadays compared to the past.

Just finished my electrical training, unfortunately the company only trains you to domestic installer level not full spark :(

I am considering going to college in my own time to get more certs, maybe hnc/d or degree.

Tbh as above sparking requires more knowledge than skill so you can train fast and get working.

For me anyway all the city and guilds exams are a piece of ****, can do em in your sleep tbh, whereas skill cannot be faked it takes time and experience.

So for a quick new career choose something more knowledge than skill based.

Also throwing this into the mix, gas engineers, get more £££ than sparks.
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:O! God knows how you found them easy, when I tell friends I've had 3 exams over 6 hours long they don't believe me :D.

as above, family companies are the ones that put me down, tell me I'm useless unless I'm 16, yet I've got 2 friends both 23 who found training, getting minimum wage but getting their training paid.
 
Sinny said:
:O! God knows how you found them easy, when I tell friends I've had 3 exams over 6 hours long they don't believe me :D.

as above, family companies are the ones that put me down, tell me I'm useless unless I'm 16, yet I've got 2 friends both 23 who found training, getting minimum wage but getting their training paid.
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Afaik just depends on if your good at academic stuff and what level you have studied at before.

In my training group of 10 people a lot of them struggled with the theory and the math but i think thats just because they hadn't studied much before, either because they were straight out of school and didnt work to hard on their GCSEs or they had been working and not used to studing anymore ( oldest in my group was 47 btw)

But if your good at academic stuff or studied at A level and/or Degree level before its really easy.

a lot of the city and guilds exams are open book so if you can read you can pass, the only competition was who could get the highest score tbh, although a few failed some of the modules.

For example 17th edition is open book so if you took a person off the street and gave them a quick lesson on terminology and a few pointers they could probably pass it.

Another example of knowledge vs. skill / experience is the 2391, we were told the exam is a nightmare and the practical is an easy pass.

What i found was the exam was easy, pretty basic stuff and the practical was hard, just because you cant fake experience and we were put into the practical with basically no experience of testing and the course is supposed to be for people with 2 years testing experience under their belt.

Ps. Which exams were over 3hrs long? i didnt get put through 2330 or 2357 as it is now, was it for that?
 
Neither... become an auto electrician

even the worst ones in the trade are making 200 a day
 
HardwareGeek said:
Afaik just depends on if your good at academic stuff and what level you have studied at before.

In my training group of 10 people a lot of them struggled with the theory and the math but i think thats just because they hadn't studied much before, either because they were straight out of school and didnt work to hard on their GCSEs or they had been working and not used to studing anymore ( oldest in my group was 47 btw)

But if your good at academic stuff or studied at A level and/or Degree level before its really easy.

a lot of the city and guilds exams are open book so if you can read you can pass, the only competition was who could get the highest score tbh, although a few failed some of the modules.

For example 17th edition is open book so if you took a person off the street and gave them a quick lesson on terminology and a few pointers they could probably pass it.

Another example of knowledge vs. skill / experience is the 2391, we were told the exam is a nightmare and the practical is an easy pass.

What i found was the exam was easy, pretty basic stuff and the practical was hard, just because you cant fake experience and we were put into the practical with basically no experience of testing and the course is supposed to be for people with 2 years testing experience under their belt.

Ps. Which exams were over 3hrs long? i didnt get put through 2330 or 2357 as it is now, was it for that?
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302/303 were a full day of testing/inspection and fault finding, and a 20x exam building an installation.
 
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