Best apprenticeship to do

Dunedin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118430657#Comment_118430657

Good advise there.

Kevhog1988

I did a sparks apprenticeship after college when the recession hit but never finished my time. Loved it. If going for sparks make sure its commercial

Jd310

Shuttering carpenter/concrete finisher definitely a big one nowadays, not to be got and can name their price. Either that or blocklaying if I was to do a trade myself.

Digger drivers in big demand now too if it was something that interested you, I hear of €30/hour available in the capital!

Mechanic...always plenty work,but theres no easy money in it

Id do instrumentation/refrigeration,these will be massive in future as will eventually come to include the repair/maintenance of air-water heating in houses..or else the re-wiring of electric motors

An utter lack of plasterers too,only like 6 or something registered this year (i was talking to one of lecturers for phase 2,over xmas)

tabby aspreme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118430861#Comment_118430861

Shuttering is ok in nice weather, working with wet timber and rebar on a morning like this is no fun, and most concreting subbies are the thickest yolks you could work for.

The Nutty M

Instrumentation would be my pick. I did it and I'm in instrument commissioning for a long time since. Easy job and the money is good.

kerryjack

I supose it depends what skill sets you have all ready, you could plod along with the rest of them and do construction related trades, but if you need to get the heart racing and a bit of excitement , you could become a paramedic, have a relative at it, he loves it, love the shift work, never boring and the shift fly by.

Outkast_IRE

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118430643#Comment_118430643

I was coming on to give the same list as yourself . I am a plumber by trade originally and did a related degree and progressed to consulting engineering.

What i would say though its one thing completing the apprenticeship , its another story to become really excellent at your trade. If you become one of the best in any trade you will be snapped up for opportunities in the future. If plumbing or refrigeration, learn everything you can about heat pumps, maintenance and repair because there is a massive shortfall in that area now and its only growing.

Cavanjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118430657#Comment_118430657

Yeah do something you’ve an interesting in. Electrician is a good trade but can be very monotonous depending on the line you go down.

The building trades are tough on the body. Roofing a house is grand for a couple of weeks in the year when it’s not too hot or not too wet. A mechanic is a thankless trade if you are working for someone else. Tractor mechanic even more so.

I’d recommend a trade that could take you into maintenance in the future if you wanted to go down that road. Fitter, electrical, calibration or plumbing. Also if you could hack it a teacher it is the ideal job to go with farming.

Easten

An apprenticeship is great, you are getting paid while you learn. The only problem is every leaving cert student out there would give their right arm for one. The reality is most young fellas can't get into one, they are all very closed shops to outsiders so unless you know someone you are heading to college.

Son of mine got into an Electrical engineering apprenticeship specialising in Robotics and control about 8 years ago, at the time the company only looked at students with straight A's in honours Maths, physics and applied Maths and even then they had there own set of interviews to weed out those on the spectrum. same young fella couldn't get a look in to do any apprenticeship locally.

It would be easier to get into the wet trades (plastering, blockwork, stone mason, tiler), but avoid blocklaying if possible as too many surfs get on the ryanair and get off in Dublin airport as a blocklayer. Plus it will wreck your back in 10 years. Plastering would be the best of them as you have a good bit of inside work.

Carpentry is ok, but doesn't pay that well unless you go contracting, too many carpenters about, plus it suffers from the surfs with questionable training too. I've seen skilled labourers who would be good at pipelaying or finishing concrete been paid more money.

Plumbing is a good trade, its easy plus most of the work is like putting together lego these days. Problem is it's another closed shop to the outsider.

If you are determined you'll find a way in, be it taking a job labouring on a site until you get to know someone willing to take you on.

bogman_bass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118429850#Comment_118429850

Chances are if you are on the buildings you’ll be travelling to Dublin anyways.

PoorFarmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118431318#Comment_118431318

Ah you must have been with a few of the lads I did time with. Nothing like flaking the bundles of rebar on a frosty morning with a sledge to try to break them apart.

OP try to get going with a builder for a while or for the summer if you're still in school. A lad that is at one-off housing or building a few houses will likely be doing alot of the different trades themselves and you might get an idea of what you like. IMO avoid all wet trades or anything to do with concrete. Alot of it is heavy work and even though the pay might be good how many lads do you see blocklaying or plastering into their late 50s or 60s?

Chippies can't be got around here at the moment, have been approached by 4 different lads in the last 6 months seeing if I'll go back at it (I never did my trade just years of experience) because they can't get anyone. It's all nice on a fine summers day but a different story when you're rained off for most of a week in November.

Do whatever interests you and it will only be half the work of something you don't like.

Purecuntish

I would go for plumbing and ensure you become RGI registered, there is a never ending amount of work all year round servicing/fitting boilers and it is generally indoor clean work. Like other trades if you are self employed you can name your price. Friend of mine is registered and is generally on the way home by 2pm everyday with his money made. I served my time as an electrician which was great, it also opened further opportunities, i returned to college in 2015, the course i studied was targeted at Plumbing & Electrical trades men. I'm now qualified and working in a much handier office job earning a lot more money than i ever could of working on the tools. Best of luck with whatever you choose.

Limestone Cowboy

Any of them are paying well now. One thing I will say though is that every plasterer I know is crippled from it young and old. Puts an awful lot of pressure on the joints. Wouldn't be overly struck on mechanics, costs an awful lot to get kitted out for it if you want to go self employed down the road and the rates in garages are nothing special. Tractors and cars are getting more specialised all the time too. Most important thing I'd say though is that you like doing whatever trade you pick. I don't think I'd have lasted a week as an electrician but wouldn't have minded blockwork or carpentry but everyone is different.

JohnChadwick

Solar Panel and heat pump installer

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118430861#Comment_118430861

Motorway constuction 2000 - 2008 gave lads a great break around here, they were basically hired if they were prepared to sit in a diggerr for 12 -14 hr shift, there was weeks of rough work to train them, and a lot of of them now are sought after and on great money

They're sitting now in a nice warm cab and outa the muck.

tabby aspreme

Welding and pipe fitting is another good trade, especially if you are at the higher end of it, where it's licenced

cute geoge

I think you propably could get easier then mechanic/electrician/any building .What about refrigeration seems basic enough

farawaygrass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118431370#Comment_118431370

What exactly do you do and what kinda companies do instrument trades people work for?

The Nutty M

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118434505#Comment_118434505

Anything that is automated has instrumentation in the process somewhere. Well, we come along and make sure the instrumentation is got up and running. That instrumentation could be a flowmeter measuring the amount of fluid dispensed into a vial of vaccine to a vibration sensor on a GE gas turbine that is not too far away from what is on the wing of an airplane.

The company's vary depending on the industry. Offshore oil and gas is where I spent most of my time but recently pharma is the new kid on the block. And the newborn is battery plants.

timple23

What about a mechanical fitter/welder? It really depends on whether OP wants to be farming part time or be farming with a part time job. Also need to consider do you want a paycheque or be chasing people for money.

Base price

OP would you consider something completely different like a Funeral Director/Undertaker including Embalming. There is serious money to be made once you complete the necessary courses. I know of a young lad that started working for a funeral director in Dublin a few years ago. He completed some courses and now runs his own successful business in the county where he came from.

JustJoe7240

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118435197#Comment_118435197

That's one of the most left of field answers to a question I've seen on Boards.ie

patsy_mccabe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118435197#Comment_118435197

And a very reliable lad from what I hear. He'd be the last person to let you down.

Base price

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118435234#Comment_118435234

It's not a job that the majority of people would ever consider and for that reason it is lucrative vis a vie the hours worked.

I don't mean to be flippant but you ain't going to run out of stock.

Esel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118435197#Comment_118435197

There is serious money to be made once you complete the necessary courses.

Read that as

There is serious money to be made once you complete the necessary corpses.

😀

funkey_monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118430273#Comment_118430273

Auto electrician would have high start up costs as you'd need to have the diagnostic equipment to cover each of the brands.

Plumber/Electrician opens up the small scale domestic market - fixing stuff and one-off installations. If you want to increase/reduce work its easy done. But all that's in the future when you've got your time done and experience. Downside is having bookkeeping for that business as well as the farm.

I would agree with avoiding brick-laying/plastering etc - look like pure misery of a job in majority of Irish weather.

I'd avoid mechanicing too - never seen anyone who was a mechanic in great shape after 10+ years on the job. Going it alone is prohibitive in terms of costs too.

maestroamado

artist... draw the dole...

dh1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118435829#Comment_118435829

Have to agree. Mechanic was always the worst paying trade unless things have changed in the past decade. Can be dirty work in under cars and drops of water running down the back of your neck. And the way things are gone the small garage at the side of the house is been done away with and you will then be working for someone else. Ideally I doing a trade the end goal should be.to work for yourself and be your own boss.

Blockading is hard on the body and plastering is even worse. I think its the toughest trade of them all. Anything to do with cement or working concrete is hard going,.slopping around on wet sites for the majority of the year. Pulling boots out of mud in wet cold conditions and the hands falling off you.

Other lads have mentioned welding/fitting. Can be decent money if coded welder with lots of work but there is nothing handy with working with steel compared to wood. Must say second fix carpentry is one of the handier trades with good money at the minute. Big tool cost however.

Tiling could be an option. Good money too at the minute and very low set up cost compared to carpentry, plumbing or fitting. Can be hard on joints too but nothing compared to plastering.

Plumbing would be my own choice if I was to pick a trade but it really comes down to whatever you have an interest in. No real point picking something you don't have an interest in because by the time your finished your apprenticeship you will be pissed off with it because you will be doing the work no one else will want to do for the first few years.

tommybrees

Is there any training courses like weekends or evenings that would train people up in trades? I'm in my 30s and would love to have some trade to my name