15 year wants to be coded?

[ronan]

If you are serious about knocking on a door and asking for an apprenticeship don't waste any time ,go this week ,college will start early sept,if you are successful they will need time to get you on a course......My lads have no interest in engineering ...and I've told them there are easier ways of making money ,my father was a welder I'm a fitter who welds at work and as a hobby,I want better for my kids....Manufacturing is in serious decline in this country,remember the grocery manager at Tesco is probably making more money than most of us welders,fitters and fabricators ,and not working half as hard ........Having said all that ,I can't see me ever changing ,I like being" hands on " ...so that limits my earning potential,if i go for promotion I would do less "hands on",,,, the higher up the ladder the less I would do ....If i haven't put you off,go knocking on doors leave no stone unturned,its only 4 years and you can always change when you've completed your training.....good luck

edit:Just realised you prob have another year at school?.....I left before my 16 birthday as my birthday is in August ,I was one of the youngest in my school
year ....so i was nearly 16 when I started my apprenticeship....

+ 1 , how many rich fitters , fabricators , welders, etc do you know ? Very few i'll bet , but you do get a great feeling of accomplishment when you have built something.
Stay in school as long as possible and get the best grade you can , i don't know about the uk but over here when i was serving my time as a fitter we had to do a lot of maths , science, computers etc so its not all hammers and spanners.

 

[matt1978]

Brad,

If you’re serious about becoming a welder and want to earn good money, but don't mind working away from home on PowerStation’s, Oil refineries, Rigs etc etc you could do a lot worse than to apply for an Apprenticeship from the ECITB

I was lucky enough to get one and it was in conjunction with Doosan Babcock in Tipton.

They run a national scheme, its for 4 years. The first two years, you would be based at Babcocks at Tipton, where you do a bit of most construction techniques, like Fabrication/Mechanical fitting, Pipe fitting, Rigging etc and after that you specialise in a chosen discipline. If welding, you do an intense welding course, specialising in Pipe welding in Tig/MMA, but you also learn Mig and Brazing. You weld pipe and plate in mainly Steel and CrNi's and before you can move onto the next task, you must pass a weld test (coding) in the prior one. So for example, you tig weld a 3" M/S pipe in Flat position and you must pass that to X-Ray standard, before they let you move to the Horizontal position, then Inclined and so on. They do this on all different thicknesses’ and on diameters and then start again, but on Stainless, it’s really intense, but un-rivalled as regards teaching quality and the money in which is spent on training you.

They also send you to college on day block release.

If your not from within a 20 mile radius of where the training is being held, then they even pay for your local accomadation, which includes meals.

After those 2 years, they then send you for 2 years 'site' welding experience, where you will work on PowerStation/Refineries etc at the end of it, they even help to find you a job. Can't speak highly enough about this course.

Good Luck.

 

[ronan]

Thats sounds like a really good apprenticeship matt.

 

[matt1978]

Hi Ronan,

Yeah it is. Was a while ago when I was there to do mine (17 yrs!) though..........

But I went back earlier this year to trial some machines for an upcoming project and, they have made the welding school even better than it was and it was already one of if not the best in the country.

Cheers,

Matt

 

[madkayaker]

that sounds like proper training!

 

[matt1978]

that sounds like proper training!

It is.

I think it its the sort of training that is only available when its heavily subsidised. In this case, I think its part government, part industry.

You can imagine the cost of the raw material alone, not including the consumables, instructor time and then added to that all of the destructive and non-destructive testing that they do on each test piece before allowing you to move onto the next stage.

They also tried to install a level of perfectionsim in the welders, because if say for example, you sent a pipe butt weld down for x-ray and it came back with minor defects, but even so, was still acceptable to the ASME and BS EN standard, they would make you redo it until you had a pass with N.A.D (No Apparant Defects)

No private company could afford to offer that level of training as the costs alone would cripple them.

 

[madkayaker]

Babcock are heavily involved in government/ mod contracts and nuclear sector (they partly build 3mile island!)