Apprentice Mechanic-advice

Im 19 and recently dropped out of college and want a job i can make a carrer out of. A freind of mine said he could get me a job in the garage he works in as an apprentice mechanic(hes a salesman) the only problem is i havent learned how to drive yet and i dont know much about cars! is there any point in going for the job? do you need to know a lot about cars before you start are will i learn all the stuff over time once i start like say a plumber would??

crosstownk

Go for the job if you want it. Being able to drive is not necessary to start with (depending on the employer), but you should start taking some driving lessons as very soon into the job you will be expected to shift cars about the workshop and forecourt - as well as sweeping the floor, getting parts, breakfast rolls, etc. Don't worry about your current automotive knowledge - the whole purpose of an apprenticeship is to learn. If you have the aptitude, and an interest in cars, engines, electrics, etc, then go for it.

Best of luck.

slipss

I agree with crosstownk, but if I was you I'd buy myself a motor theory book (theres dozens of very good ones out there) and start going through it at home, although starting of your apprenticeship you aren't expected to know much, I've worked with apprentices that couldn't point to the gearbox or tell you were the oil goes in to the engine if asked when they started but they had an interest and most people will pick things up very quickly when they are imersed in something they are enthusiastic about 5 days a week, but its better if you have some idea what your doing as far as terminology and basic understanding of parts goes. I know a 34 year old who started an apprenticeship in Limerick a couple of years ago after he inherited a few quid from his father, he wouldn't have been ableto change a wheel when he started, hes able to handle pretty much any thing thrown at him now, so its never too late.

E. Fudd

But just cause your mate is able to get you a job as a mechanic, does that mean you really want to be a mechanic?It's probably the lowest paid trade, and if your not a car lover, I definitly wouldn't reccommend it. Become an electrician or a plumber, loads of money in it, and after all, if you're not pushed on what you do, money, I'm sure would be a big deciding factor. But then again, I'm biased, I'm a sparks.

slipss

E. Fudd wrote: »

It's probably the lowest paid trade

I don't know any mechanics earning under 30,000 and most I know would be closer to 40,000 or higher, thats before nixers, and most mechanics will find they have more offers than they can accomadate, which can easily pull in 500 a week for a few hours work on a Sunday, its hardly a badly paid job.

Will you be doing your apprentiship with FAS ?

Healyc

slipss wrote: »

I don't know any mechanics earning under 30,000 and most I know would be closer to 40,000 or higher

Please tell me what garages these mechanics are working in :eek:. I was a senior tech in a high end garage and definitely wasnt earning that much.

OP- Do not go for an apprenticeship if it is just for the sake of a job. You will only end up hating what you do but if you do really want it be prepared for a bit of hard labour!

Lewe

I'm an appro mechanic at the moment and I love it....I was like you i had very little knowlege about cars but was always interested in them....Anyway you learn as you go along and then when you go to fas if you listen to them you will learn a hell of alot.....And when i started i didn't drive and i wasn't put under pressure to learn so don't worry about that.

E. Fudd

slipss wrote: »

I don't know any mechanics earning under 30,000 and most I know would be closer to 40,000 or higher, thats before nixers, and most mechanics will find they have more offers than they can accomadate, which can easily pull in 500 a week for a few hours work on a Sunday, its hardly a badly paid job.

Tell me an electrcian that doesn't earn more than that, and who also isn't inundated with "nixers".

Mr.Diagnostic

The Motor trade is in the early stages of some major changes due to it not having kept pace with technological advances within the industry. I suspect it will change dramatically in the next 5 years. To have a successful career as a Mechanic you would need to be prepared to put a lot of extra effort in to ensure you will be at the top of the heap as regards your skill level. Gone are the days when a young lad with little intellectual ability was sent off to be a grease monkey. The trade is a lot more technology based now and in time I think the money will increase to both represent this and encourage the right type of candidate.

As it stands now those at the bottom of the pile have poor prospects and hence poor remuneration. Those at the top do quite well and there is very little in between. I am not saying that very average mechanics do not make a living wage, they do. I suppose it depends on what you classify as a good wage. It is of course possible to make very good money doing nixers but should any man have to work all those extra hours to do well.

I don’t think you can compare wages to any of the trades associated with building as they are very much artificially inflated. Something which I suspect will change somewhat in the reasonably near future.

I ate, slept and drank cars from an early age so there was never a doubt about what I would do. Looking back with the usual 20/20 I wish my interests lay with Law or medicine or similar.

My advice to you, go back to collage.

maidhc

Mr.Diagnostic wrote: »

I ate, slept and drank cars from an early age so there was never a doubt about what I would do. Looking back with the usual 20/20 I wish my interests lay with Law or medicine or similar.

Interesting that, when I was about 17 a local mechanic called my father to one side and told him not to dream of letting me become a mechanic (I was very tempted by it at the time), but to go to college. I ended up a solicitor, and I feed my habit by pulling bits of old tractors and a Capri on a regular basis!

Plug

cactus mac88 wrote: »

Im 19 and recently dropped out of college and want a job i can make a carrer out of. A freind of mine said he could get me a job in the garage he works in as an apprentice mechanic(hes a salesman) the only problem is i havent learned how to drive yet and i dont know much about cars! is there any point in going for the job? do you need to know a lot about cars before you start are will i learn all the stuff over time once i start like say a plumber would??

I was in the axact same boat as you!
Im 19 aswel and I didnt come from a back round with cars. I just learned as a child through books and stuff. Im a first year apprentise and im getting on excelent.
i told them straight up i have no mechanic skills but I know the basic engineering and principal that went into cars. Also I might add I cant drive:D
You do a year and go to fas for 5 months and then go back to your employer. I recommend you go with the likes of VW or a good motor company, them type of people will look after you money wise when qualified;)
Best of luck!

Armin_Tamzarian

I'd appreciate it if anyone could send me details of any garages that would take on a lad as a 1st year apprentice.
The fella who's looking is 24 and he is based in Kildare so I suppose the job would want to be in the Kildare / Carlow / Dublin area.
Cheers...

Rory123

hellboy99 wrote: »

Will you be doing your apprentiship with FAS ?

As someone who is just over half way through doing an apprenticeship I'm just wondering how one does a properly recognized apprenticeship in Ireland without going through Fás.

Oilrig

Can someone in the know post the current process an Apprentice must go through in order to become "qualified"

In a previous life Oilrig lectured Apprentices in Bolton Street, I'd be very interested to know the career path now.

It used to be Junior Trade Cert, then Senior Trade Cert, you had the option of doing additional stuff like Auto Electrics, Maths, as "Endorsement" subjects.

What now?

Plug

Fas and work with your employer on and off.

newbie123

I am also in the same situation as this,
im 23 and looking for a job i can make a career out of,
i am interested in cars, dont know a huge lot about them but know bits and pieces,
how does it work? i go and apply to fas for an apprientship?
where do i apply online? or do i go in there?
will they try and find me a place that will take me on or do i find it myself?
im am totally clueless about this
does anyone know about the pay or anything?

Renegade_Archer

I was in a similar situation after my leaving back in 2001 - I'd done the previous summer helping out at the local garage, and was thinking seriously about becoming a mechanic - parents convinced me to go to college instead, and now I'm a coder. I tinker with an mx5 to keep the mechanical itch scratched. In short, more money and better prospects with (a useful) degree. My 2 cents.

groupb

Plug wrote: »

I was in the axact same boat as you!
Im 19 aswel and I didnt come from a back round with cars. I just learned as a child through books and stuff. Im a first year apprentise and im getting on excelent.
i told them straight up i have no mechanic skills but I know the basic engineering and principal that went into cars. Also I might add I cant drive:D
You do a year and go to fas for 5 months and then go back to your employer. I recommend you go with the likes of VW or a good motor company, them type of people will look after you money wise when qualified;)
Best of luck!

I know two ex VW mechanics. The reason for the ex bit was the crap wages and they told me that their friends in other garages were as badly off.

Rowley Birkin QC

Renegade_Archer wrote: »

I was in a similar situation after my leaving back in 2001 - I'd done the previous summer helping out at the local garage, and was thinking seriously about becoming a mechanic - parents convinced me to go to college instead, and now I'm a coder. I tinker with an mx5 to keep the mechanical itch scratched. In short, more money and better prospects with (a useful) degree. My 2 cents.

Basically the same story for myself. My advice to the OP is to go to a career guidance blokey and have a chat. If you are able for college and can find a course that you enjoy it's probably a safer bet in the current economic climate. Lots of apprenctices in lots of trades are now ex-apprentices.

That said, if being a mechanic is your burning ambition then by all means go for it. Just be well prepared for a tough 18 months or so as the "youngfella".

Captain Slow IRL

bigkev49 wrote: »

Lots of apprenctices in lots of trades are now ex-apprentices.

I'd say the builders more-so than the grease monkeys!

@Newbie - go to fas and register with them, tell them you want to get a job as an apprentice mechanic. They'll use the jobs database and inform you if anything comes up. This could take a while though. This will not register you as an apprentice in the trade - the employer has to do this before you are recognised as an apprentice.
Another way would be to approach a garage and try to get work as an apprentice or washing/cleaning cars and use the latter as a stepping stone to your apprenticeship. Having some experience around the mechanics will give you a good indication if the job is for you.

Pay is atrocious in the first phase - about €150 a week, this goes up at phase 3, 5 and 7 - qualified rates aren't much more than phase 7 rates. The money earned in relation to responsiblilty is poor to okay at best. You will always hear of other mechs complaining about wages, just comes with the job! €30k is the average wage; some garages operate bonus schemes that can ad to this.

newbie123

Where would i find one of these career guidence blokey?
and whats a coder? a computer coder?
i would like to be a mechanic, i think i would enjoy working as one,
also i was thinking bout being able to fix my own car when things are needed for it by buying cheap parts etc for it online and putting them in myself,
how do i register with fas?
do i go in or can i do it online?
thanks for the reeplies

Rowley Birkin QC

The career guidance service I used isn't operating any more but try the golden pages or might be worth asking the local secondary school if they know of anyone in the area.

Most of my mates who are tradesmen got their apprenticeships by asking local guys if they had any jobs going.

pburns

Someone above mentioned theory/car maintenance books. What are the good ones?

Captain Slow IRL

pburns wrote: »

Someone above mentioned theory/car maintenance books. What are the good ones?

This is standard issue for phases 4 and 6 of the apprenticeship.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vehicle-Engine-Technology-Heinz-Heisler/dp/0340691867/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220289897&sr=8-6

This is very good for the electrical systems.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Automobile-Electrical-Electronic-Systems-Denton/dp/0750662190/ref=pd_sim_b_5

carsey

Apprenticeships are impossible to get ive been trying for a while, i dont even know if im going about the right channels,
ive been ringing garages asking if they are looking for an apprentice mechanic?
is there anyway fas would help me look for one or any other way about going about this?
any advice would be much appriciated

ildivo

Any one out there know of any instructors from fas or otherwise that do grinds for t2 paper in motor mechanics....need to repeat and it last chance....would appreaciate quick response this is my last resort as have tried everywhere else.
exams in three weeks....urgent

thanks

Plug

ildivo wrote: »

Any one out there know of any instructors from fas or otherwise that do grinds for t2 paper in motor mechanics....need to repeat and it last chance....would appreaciate quick response this is my last resort as have tried everywhere else.
exams in three weeks....urgent

thanks

A lot of mechanics in the country are on a 3 day week due to the recession. Ask a qualified mechanic near you to help out and give him a few bob or something.

Captain Slow IRL

Are you not going back to fás for a fortnight to get some revision done? AFAIK, that's what you do wherever you're taking your exams. What phase and where are you doing it anyway?

Darragh29

Mr.Diagnostic wrote: »

The Motor trade is in the early stages of some major changes due to it not having kept pace with technological advances within the industry. I suspect it will change dramatically in the next 5 years. To have a successful career as a Mechanic you would need to be prepared to put a lot of extra effort in to ensure you will be at the top of the heap as regards your skill level. Gone are the days when a young lad with little intellectual ability was sent off to be a grease monkey. The trade is a lot more technology based now and in time I think the money will increase to both represent this and encourage the right type of candidate.

As it stands now those at the bottom of the pile have poor prospects and hence poor remuneration. Those at the top do quite well and there is very little in between. I am not saying that very average mechanics do not make a living wage, they do. I suppose it depends on what you classify as a good wage. It is of course possible to make very good money doing nixers but should any man have to work all those extra hours to do well.

I don’t think you can compare wages to any of the trades associated with building as they are very much artificially inflated. Something which I suspect will change somewhat in the reasonably near future.

I ate, slept and drank cars from an early age so there was never a doubt about what I would do. Looking back with the usual 20/20 I wish my interests lay with Law or medicine or similar.

My advice to you, go back to collage.

Couldn't agree more. The industry has for some time lacked a proper education and ongoing training structure for technicians, which has caused a lot of muppets to get into the game and management within the industry is known for being extremely poor.

It's a mugs game that I'm happily able to say that I recently got out of. It's also a thankless game and even if you are doing nixers, expect people to always be suspicious of work that you do for them, no matter how hard you try to please them. If you are doing a clutch for someone and the price is 450 Euro and when doing the job, you find something else wrong, for example a CV boot or a steering track control arm or an engine/transmission mounting, through being attentive and looking out for your customer, and it might cost another 80 quid to get that resolved, your customer at least 50% of the time will just immediately assume that you are ripping them off and next thing you know, you'll have some dopey friend of your customer down on your back within an hour checking that you are telling the truth, then when they have established that you were being honest with them, the messing starts over money, looking for you to do the job for nothing, them going off to get a part which is costing them the same price somewhere else as you can supply it to them for. No matter what you do, it's a thankless game, forget about it and go back to college, that's my advice...

Run a fu*king mile from it OP...

Darragh29

ildivo wrote: »

Any one out there know of any instructors from fas or otherwise that do grinds for t2 paper in motor mechanics....need to repeat and it last chance....would appreaciate quick response this is my last resort as have tried everywhere else.
exams in three weeks....urgent

thanks

I'd gladly help out there if needs me, I've a B. Eng, M. Eng and also have an SIMI. Tech Dip. and am fully qualified. Is it the senior trades you are having a problem with??? I qualified around 1998, back then it was junior & senior stage, I don't know what way it works now, module based or something like that was brought in just after I did the senior trades... PM me if your stuck for help...

Plug

Darragh29 wrote: »

Couldn't agree more. The industry has for some time lacked a proper education and ongoing training structure for technicians, which has caused a lot of muppets to get into the game and management within the industry is known for being extremely poor.

It's a mugs game that I'm happily able to say that I recently got out of. It's also a thankless game and even if you are doing nixers, expect people to always be suspicious of work that you do for them, no matter how hard you try to please them. If you are doing a clutch for someone and the price is 450 Euro and when doing the job, you find something else wrong, for example a CV boot or a steering track control arm or an engine/transmission mounting, through being attentive and looking out for your customer, and it might cost another 80 quid to get that resolved, your customer at least 50% of the time will just immediately assume that you are ripping them off and next thing you know, you'll have some dopey friend of your customer down on your back within an hour checking that you are telling the truth, then when they have established that you were being honest with them, the messing starts over money, looking for you to do the job for nothing, them going off to get a part which is costing them the same price somewhere else as you can supply it to them for. No matter what you do, it's a thankless game, forget about it and go back to college, that's my advice...

Run a fu*king mile from it OP...

Is it really that bad?:(
Im at it over a year now and waiting to go to fas in February, i like it but the money seems tio be sh!t for everyone here. Some of the lads in my place are earning about 800 a week.
I don't think that's bad.
Nixers ad a good bit to the wages and the savings you can make with your own car aswel.

I just want to get qualified and GTFO of this country.

Darragh29

Plug wrote: »

Is it really that bad?:(
Im at it over a year now and waiting to go to fas in February, i like it but the money seems tio be sh!t for everyone here. Some of the lads in my place are earning about 800 a week.
I don't think that's bad.
Nixers ad a good bit to the wages and the savings you can make with your own car aswel.

I just want to get qualified and GTFO of this country.

Well I think it is that bad. When you are at it early on, you are concentrating at picking up the trade and it's a bit like an extention of school with college, exams and all the rest of it, drinking, dossing and having a laugh with the lads. It depends on who you are and what way you deal with people. It took me some considerable time to work out that I personally wasn't suited to dealing with people who have to check for credibilty, everything that you tell them.

I ran my own indy garage and it was very well run I think, but no matter what I did, I could not overcome the 80/20 rule. This rule was always in operation where I worked and it basically meant that 80% of your customers were decent people with no hang ups or attitude problems, and these 80% of your customers took up 20% of your time. Their transactions were in and out, no messing, invoice presented, paid on time for the right amount, great, next customer.

Unfortunately you also have the other 20% of your customer base taking up 80% of your time with messing, time wasting, looking for credit, wanting to buy their own parts, wanting to get their friends to come up and check what you have just told them because they simply don't trust you, "I'll sort ya out next week" (this means you might get paid next year and will spend a lot of time chasing your own money).

If you are in a dealership, you are insulated from a lot of this, because the Service Manager/Advisor, or someone else will be dealing with all this crap but you will be on a crap wage if you are in a dealership. The absolute max I've heard any fully qualified mechanic (working in a dealership) on is around 570 before tax is taken out. Maybe a bit of Saturday work might bring that up to 700 Euro, for me, it just wasn't worth the hassle.

It's not really about the money in it's own right, for me, it was about the amount of messing and crap and hardship that goes with earning that amount of money.

Slidey

I qualified as a HGV mechanic in 2004.

Things are really slowing down in the motor trade and alot of garages are going to go to the wall in early 09.

The place I work has recently taken on a new apprentice and I was surprised.

The pay is lower than the building trades but it does pay off slightly when the buildings go to sh1te and in the winter when you are not getting rained off.

As said already, gone are the days when any thick handed cross eyed drop out could strive as a mechanic. You need an electrical knowledge above and beyond any normal sparky. There isnt many houses fitted with CAN-BUS systems yet!

From my own personal experience going down the truck route was always the better option.

The vehicles are easier (heavier alright) to work on.

You become competent in hydraulics, pneumatics, welding, braising, fabricating, making do and numerous other skill sets that you just wont get working on cars.

Truck mechanics can be car mechanics but generally it wont work the other way round.

HGV mechanics get paid more.

Of course if you really want to get excellent training, be a plant fitter for an independant plant operator, you will not get better hands on experience or money as a spanner mechanic.

Just my 2c of course

Plug

Darragh29 wrote: »

Well I think it is that bad. When you are at it early on, you are concentrating at picking up the trade and it's a bit like an extention of school with college, exams and all the rest of it, drinking, dossing and having a laugh with the lads. It depends on who you are and what way you deal with people. It took me some considerable time to work out that I personally wasn't suited to dealing with people who have to check for credibilty, everything that you tell them.

I ran my own indy garage and it was very well run I think, but no matter what I did, I could not overcome the 80/20 rule. This rule was always in operation where I worked and it basically meant that 80% of your customers were decent people with no hang ups or attitude problems, and these 80% of your customers took up 20% of your time. Their transactions were in and out, no messing, invoice presented, paid on time for the right amount, great, next customer.

Unfortunately you also have the other 20% of your customer base taking up 80% of your time with messing, time wasting, looking for credit, wanting to buy their own parts, wanting to get their friends to come up and check what you have just told them because they simply don't trust you, "I'll sort ya out next week" (this means you might get paid next year and will spend a lot of time chasing your own money).

If you are in a dealership, you are insulated from a lot of this, because the Service Manager/Advisor, or someone else will be dealing with all this crap but you will be on a crap wage if you are in a dealership. The absolute max I've heard any fully qualified mechanic (working in a dealership) on is around 570 before tax is taken out. Maybe a bit of Saturday work might bring that up to 700 Euro, for me, it just wasn't worth the hassle.

It's not really about the money in it's own right, for me, it was about the amount of messing and crap and hardship that goes with earning that amount of money.

Im fairly gutted I am now:(

what do you do now? Are they any jobs to be gotton from a mechanic trade?

Slidey

Darragh29 wrote: »

The absolute max I've heard any fully qualified mechanic (working in a dealership) on is around 570 before tax is taken out. Maybe a bit of Saturday work might bring that up to 700 Euro, for me, it just wasn't worth the hassle.

I find that hard to believe..

I'm no longer using spanners, Doe testing full time, but i work for a right tight fcuker and I know he is paying more than that to the qualified mechanics, and that is in the arsehole of Connacht.
Surely Dublin rates are alot higher

plug wrote:

Im fairly gutted I am now

what do you do now? Are they any jobs to be gotton from a mechanic trade?

Course there is.

Your trade will always stand to you. Even if you never were to use it again.

Mechanics are known to be handy with their hands and can adapt them selves to doing lots of different roles.

Darragh29

slideways wrote: »

I find that hard to believe..

I'm no longer using spanners, Doe testing full time, but i work for a right tight fcuker and I know he is paying more than that to the qualified mechanics, and that is in the arsehole of Connacht.
Surely Dublin rates are alot higher

Don't think so, but I could be wrong. But for me, it wasn't about the money, if you were paying me 2,000 Euro a week, I'd still have thrown it in, I didn't have the patience for dealing with people. I realised I'm much happier solving technical problems than I am dealing with people problems. For some reason, I've loads of patience with mechanical/technical problems because I have a good methodological approach, but that approach doesn't work with people.

slideways wrote: »

Your trade will always stand to you. Even if you never were to use it again.

Mechanics are known to be handy with their hands and can adapt them selves to doing lots of different roles.

If I was given the choice between motor mechanic apprentice or college, I'd pick college. I'm extremely lucky that I was able to do an engineering degree in the last few years so I have other options. Your trade will stand to you, but it can also obstruct you in life because it is not the ideal platform for career development. In the motor trade in this country, there is no real career progression or structure, it's all over the place, money is poor and generally people in the trade I would say are there because they fell into it somehow.

I might have a tainted view because I was doing two/three jobs in the trade for the last few years, mechanic, service manager, service advisor, which meant dealing with the customer (by far the hardest part!), and also the mechanical work and everything else that could go wrong as well.

Graham_B18C

newbie123 wrote: »

I am also in the same situation as this,
im 23 and looking for a job i can make a career out of,
i am interested in cars, dont know a huge lot about them but know bits and pieces,
how does it work? i go and apply to fas for an apprientship?
where do i apply online? or do i go in there?
will they try and find me a place that will take me on or do i find it myself?
im am totally clueless about this
does anyone know about the pay or anything?

You can go to Garages yourself and go to FAS to look for Jobs, make sure you get regestered with FAS if you get the Job yourself. For a Mechanic, the apprentice wage is incredibly bad, I'm in FAS now as a sparks and I'm earning about 340 after a tenner tool deduction, the Mechanics in there are earning 170.

But when you're in your 3rd or 4th year you could start doing Nixers and there is big money in that because unlike me, you can get a regular customer base, people need their cars serviced/fixed regularly, they don'y need electrics done in their house regularly! Best of luck with it whatever you end up doing

Graham_B18C

slideways wrote: »

As said already, gone are the days when any thick handed cross eyed drop out could strive as a mechanic. You need an electrical knowledge above and beyond any normal sparky. There isnt many houses fitted with CAN-BUS systems yet!

I don't mind when people slag what I do or anything like that...but would you get out of that! Cars have a bit of electrics but you make it sound like Mechanics are better saprks than sparks themselves!

Slidey

For sure, no doubt about.

Car electronics are a nightmare and a good auto electrician is very hard to find.

Houses dont vibrate and break wires, splash through mud etc

Darragh29

Grahamo999 wrote: »

I don't mind when people slag what I do or anything like that...but would you get out of that! Cars have a bit of electrics but you make it sound like Mechanics are better saprks than sparks themselves!

The guys who are working on the complex small signal engine electronic problems, you could put an electronic engineer onto the job and he/she wouldn't know where to start. You are very quickly out of the field of 12V circuits and into the field of signal processing and data handling when you get into it proper. This is why as Mr. D pointed out, the industry is going to have to get people involved in the technical side that are a better quality candidate, I don't know how it is going to be managed or undertaken but I know the industry in 5-10 years time will be unrecognisable from what you see now, thankfully...

Plug

Darragh29 wrote: »

The guys who are working on the complex small signal engine electronic problems, you could put an electronic engineer onto the job and he/she wouldn't know where to start. You are very quickly out of the field of 12V circuits and into the field of signal processing and data handling when you get into it proper. This is why as Mr. D pointed out, the industry is going to have to get people involved in the technical side that are a better quality candidate, I don't know how it is going to be managed or undertaken but I know the industry in 5-10 years time will be unrecognisable from what you see now, thankfully...

Makes me wonder, a mechanic is probably one of the most complicated trades to be in yet its one of the worst paid trades apparently.
Hopefully when electric cars come on the scene the wages go up.

Slidey

Just specialise in Diagnostics and the electrical side of things.

Also if you find some part constantly breaking on a vehicle, take one of them apart and see what is causing it. Challenge yourself a little.

Just to add, i think it is a good trade. Its the industry and the greed that has fcuked it for everyone

tdc

my advice is to go back to college, it would be one thing if you loved cars - even if you did i still wouldnt reccomend becoming a mechanic. the industry is going to continue to go down and jobs are going to keep dissapearing, not just because of the state of the economy, but because of the way technology is developing. i was offered a job as an apprentice mechanic and all i had to do was ask myself;

is there any promise that i will have a job for the next 4 years and if so is it something i want to be doing for the rest of my life?

ildivo

finglas.....no word of going back for fortnight for revision is this the norm...never heard of it...as it is my second time to flunk it may be this has something to do with it.

Honda the power of dreams

Hi my names Mark and i want to be a mechanic partically rebuilding the engine and modifing cars. I dont want to do mechanically engineering in college. How do i go about this? I dont have a garage to take me on so I dont k ow what way to go about it. I dnt have my junior or leaving cert either. but i've bin playing around with taking with cars all my life, I know a fairly good bit about them but i dont have any papers which i need?? any advice??