Courses

[moliere]

Hi to you all,

I need to pick your brains regarding training.

I'm looking to have a change of career and welding is the path I have chosen, now the problem I am having is finding a training centre.
I live in the Surrey, London area, I have been on the City and Guilds website which was good and I managed to get a load of addresses from which I then proceeded to send e-mails to them all, I am still waiting for replies, having said that one college sent me an e-mail today letting me know that my e-mail has now been sent to the relevant department and they will e-mail me back in due course.

Also I have been in touch with a company called ATL, I don't know if anyone has used them or you have any info on them, but it has been arranged for this thursday for one of thier guys to pop round to speak to me, now I was looking more closely at thier website and there are a few things on there that I'm not to sure about i.e.
Can you attend a college for up to 4 or 5 years part time or 2 to 3 years full time?
Join a work-based apprenticeship, at the bottom rung of the ladder receiving minimum or low wages and dealing with nothing more than menial tasks to begin with.
Take a chance and give up your job and invest in a franchise for £20,000 - £30,000+ with all the attendant risks of a new start-up (and where the business might not be able to pay its way for several months).

We recognise the difficulties and it’s one of the reasons we supply an interest free repayment option as part of our package. Of course, you have to ‘factor in’ the monthly commitment and it’s why we recommend thinking long and hard about your career choice. If you consider your future is worth an investment in the order of £35/week then this could be the right move. The important thing is to choose an option which allows you to continue earning whilst you study so that you can maintain your family as well as support your chosen career path.

I don't know is this the way I will have to do my training? When I looked at the City & Guilds structures they were nothing like this.

So if anyone could shed some light on all this for me I would be more than greatful.

Anyway thanks to all,

M

P.S. Great forums by the way.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Welcome to the forum

What sort of franchise?

£30K at £35 a week interest free?

I may be reading the post wrong but those figures don't equate to normal business practice.

My experience with training involved apprentice welders, they began the trade working with platers and sheet metal workers for their first year, this allowed them to understand steelwork design and construction and have some basic skills in those trades, very valuable to have in my opinion.

They then worked with qualified welders for 2 years, attending day release at college for two days each week.

The last year they were classed as semi skilled and allowed some freedom whilst being kept under a watchful eye, this also included some college work and secondment to other firms with specialist welding operations.

Times are a changing though and with NVQ's and other available college based skill sets it seems possible to 'move' faster towards being classed as skilled, that's fine until future employers ask how many years 'on the job' experience you have.... bit of a catch 22 situation.

It does not help with the present unemployment situation, if a good vacancy appears the firm can probably choose from a few applicants with lots of experience and not bother with freshly skilled individuals they may have to help along a bit at first, it's a shortsighted viewpoint but a fact of life.

Sorry I can't advise in greater depth and good luck