Gas & Oil boiler service engineer training

Kealyboy

Hi, I'm wondering with regards to qualifying as a competent gas & oil boiler service engineer is there any proper apprenticeship in place in Ireland. I'm not talking about the mickey mouse 12 day courses that some providers run or a plumbing apprenticeship for that matter but specifically an apprenticeship in gas.

It appears over in the UK it's a proper apprenticeship and qualification but there seems to be notting of the sort in place in Ireland apart from a over priced 12 day crash course.

I'm a qualified plumber and interested in this area of work but I'm not interested in undertaking a mickey mouse course. Is it worth going to the north to train if there's no proper training available down south.

Advice needed thanks

roy rodgers

But at the end of the day either doing the apprenticeship or courses in the UK you still have to do your 12 day mickey mouse course to be able to work on gas in the Republic.
You should do the course and see about working for a company that does servicing all the time. You will be more employable with your gid done

K.Flyer

You will be required to have qualifications as a Plumber or one of the other allowed trades before being able to do the GIS or GID courses. Here is a segment from one of the traing centres..

Target Candidates (pre-requisite information):

For Gas Installer Safety (GI/S), Advanced level 6 craft certificate in one of the following – Plumbing-Refrigeration-Electrical or Pipe Fitting. Evidence must be provided prior to attendance at the centre.

For Gas Installer Domestic (GI/D), the candidate must hold a current GI/S Certificate issued by an approved body and any one of the craft certificates listed above. Note: (If you hold a plumbing craft certificate issued since 1996 you will not need to provide a GIS cert). Evidence must be provided prior to attendance at the centre.

Kealyboy

Kealyboy wrote: »

Hi, I'm wondering with regards to qualifying as a competent gas & oil boiler service engineer is there any proper apprenticeship in place in Ireland. I'm not talking about the mickey mouse 12 day courses that some providers run or a plumbing apprenticeship for that matter but specifically an apprenticeship in gas.

It appears over in the UK it's a proper apprenticeship and qualification but there seems to be notting of the sort in place in Ireland apart from a over priced 12 day crash course.

I'm a qualified plumber and interested in this area of work but I'm not interested in undertaking a mickey mouse course. Is it worth going to the north to train if there's no proper training available down south.

Advice needed thanks

There is no training to be had if you wish to be a qualified service engineer here, it's all pretty much a self taught trade.

I served a four year gas service engineer apprenticeship to get a City and Guilds qualification and funnily enough the 10-12 day GID course is pretty much the same syllables, which makes me a very very slow learner:).

If you go to the North the most basic gas course to get a qualification is a 12 months course (6months college/6 months on the tools showing what you learnt)

There are a lot of very good self taught RGI's if you could hook up with one of them you'll be flying but be careful as there's a serious amount of spoofers:mad: who talk a good game as RGIs but their work practises are dangerous(one recently who has decided not to use his U-Guage for soundness testing in hot weather because they don't work)

Kealyboy

gary71 wrote: »

There is no training to be had if you wish to be a qualified service engineer here, it's all pretty much a self taught trade.

I served a four year gas service engineer apprenticeship to get a City and Guilds qualification and funnily enough the 10-12 day GID course is pretty much the same syllables, which makes me a very very slow learner:).

If you go to the North the most basic gas course to get a qualification is a 12 months course (6months college/6 months on the tools showing what you learnt)

There are a lot of very good self taught RGI's if you could hook up with one of them you'll be flying but be careful as there's a serious amount of spoofers:mad: who talk a good game as RGIs but their work practises are dangerous(one recently who has decided not to use his U-Guage for soundness testing in hot weather because they don't work)

I have my GIS done as part of my apprenticeship and I've my GID done aswell but that as you know the GID teaches you notting really with regards to to servicing and repairs of boilers and I am reluctant to fork out over a grand to do the domestic servicing course cause I know by the end of a 12 day course anybody is going to be left well short to be able to out and work confidently servicing and repairing and I want proper training and guidance in this area. There is no point in going out there and being able to work on gas safely but as soon as I take the boiler cover off I'm scratching my head.

As you said if I could hook up with a competent RGI that would be ideal but I'm from Kilkenny and most RGI are a one man band and I suspect that many would be very reluctant to give me work experence because why would they want to train someone up that will be competition for them in the future.

If any know knows anyone that would be willing to give me some work experience in the kilkenny Carlow area that would be a great help, you can PM me. If not I presume my best option would to be just to do the domestic servicing course and as many manufacture courses as possible and just go out there and learn as I go along.

Kealyboy

Kealyboy wrote: »

I have my GIS done as part of my apprenticeship and I've my GID done aswell but that as you know the GID teaches you notting really with regards to to servicing and repairs of boilers and I am reluctant to fork out over a grand to do the domestic servicing course cause I know by the end of a 12 day course anybody is going to be left well short to be able to out and work confidently servicing and repairing and I want proper training and guidance in this area. There is no point in going out there and being able to work on gas safely but as soon as I take the boiler cover off I'm scratching my head.

As you said if I could hook up with a competent RGI that would be ideal but I'm from Kilkenny and most RGI are a one man band and I suspect that many would be very reluctant to give me work experence because why would they want to train someone up that will be competition for them in the future.

If any know knows anyone that would be willing to give me some work experience in the kilkenny Carlow area that would be a great help, you can PM me. If not I presume my best option would to be just to do the domestic servicing course and as many manufacture courses as possible and just go out there and learn as I go along.

The route to becoming a boiler service engineer for you is difficult as its reliant on your ability to self teach.

You can make it easier by joining gas/oil forums and reading old posts.

Keep a little black book and put every question(even the silly ones) in it that arises from your day to day service work.

Join Oftec

Talk to Calor/Flogas see if they have training days or try to register with them.

Think about working for BG, they can get a lot of bad press from fellow RGIs but I know BG works hard at up skilling their engineers.

Go on line and get a hard copy of viper gas training manuals(which are a God send to new and old RGIs).

Do the servicing course(cos it's all you got) do other courses like power flushing, solar, unvented,oil servicing, etc... which will give you little bits of the puzzle,


Go to the North and do a Part P electrical course, this is a very good course for gaining electrical knowledge but I did find it hurt my head, originally aimed at plumbers/gas fitters, it allows UK plumbers to do all aspects of domestic wiring and sign off on it.


Fit a few boilers and annoy the baJesus out of the manufactures technician(Technical God) till you understand their product.

Kealyboy

gary71 wrote: »

The route to becoming a boiler service engineer for you is difficult as its reliant on your ability to self teach.

You can make it easier by joining gas/oil forums and reading old posts.

Keep a little black book and put every question(even the silly ones) in it that arises from your day to day service work.

Join Oftec

Talk to Calor/Flogas see if they have training days or try to register with them.

Think about working for BG, they can get a lot of bad press from fellow RGIs but I know BG works hard at up skilling their engineers.

Go on line and get a hard copy of viper gas training manuals(which are a God send to new and old RGIs).

Do the servicing course(cos it's all you got) do other courses like power flushing, solar, unvented,oil servicing, etc... which will give you little bits of the puzzle,


Go to the North and do a Part P electrical course, this is a very good course for gaining electrical knowledge but I did find it hurt my head, originally aimed at plumbers/gas fitters, it allows UK plumbers to do all aspects of domestic wiring and sign off on it.


Fit a few boilers and annoy the baJesus out of the manufactures technician(Technical God) till you understand their product.

Thanks Gary that is some sound advice thanks. I'll take all that onboard.

Fun times ahead I suppose. If someone could PM me with regards to gaining entry to the RGI forum it would be much appreciated.
Thanks

pablo128

My brother is a Central heating engineer. He started off as a plumber, working for a contractor for the council, so he was pretty much doing full domestic central heating installs every day. He then trained as an engineer. From memory it was much more than a 12 day course. Part of the reason for getting further qualified was the fact he could put a complete system into a house, but wasn't allowed to wire it up, in essence stopping him from going it alone.

I'll get further info from him tomorrow if you like.

pablo128

pablo128 wrote: »

My brother is a Central heating engineer. He started off as a plumber, working for a contractor for the council, so he was pretty much doing full domestic central heating installs every day. He then trained as an engineer. From memory it was much more than a 12 day course. Part of the reason for getting further qualified was the fact he could put a complete system into a house, but wasn't allowed to wire it up, in essence stopping him from going it alone.

I'll get further info from him tomorrow if you like.

All RGIs are allowed to wire all aspects of a gas heating installations:).


It would be interesting to know where he got his engineering qualification from for those who might want to follow him.

pablo128

gary71 wrote: »

All RGIs are allowed to wire all aspects of a gas heating installations:).


It would be interesting to know where he got his engineering qualification from for those who might want to follow him.

I think when he was just a qualified plumber that he couldn't wire up the system, although i'm open to correction. I'll be speaking to him soon enough today, and I'll grill him!:)