Apprentice At 29 ????

KLADNUD76

HI ALL,
I have been seriously thinking about going back and doing an electrical apprenticeship, but at 29 I'm not sure if I am too old to start one. PLease....anyone who has done this or knows of anyone else who has any input would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

KLADNUD76.

uberwolf

haven't practical advice on this one.

But the theory is grand. If you want to do this, because you're unhappy or this would make you happier then go for it if you can deal with the financial hardship in teh interim period.

Enii

If you are worried about the fact that you are 29, don't! Sure you are only a young wan! I'd find out how much the wages would be for the first few years while you are training though and see if you could to afford to live on them.....

fred funk }{

i know plenty of people in their thirties that have started and finished apprenticeship's so your age isn't a problem, The only problem(s) you might have is Living on the low wages but it isn't as bad as it used to be.
You also might have a problem with people much younger thank you being above you in the chain of command.

If the above doesn't bother you then go for it.

BigCon

If you can afford it at all - go for it!
You'll probably find that you'll be able to earn money doing nixers in no time as you obviously have an interest in being a sparkie and you'll probably pick it up quickly with the life experience that you have?

IronMan

A relation of mine was in his early 30's when he took a plumbing apprenticeship, after leaving a job in the bank. He got in with an excellent boss (alot of apprentices are exploited, 11 hour day's etc, not being released for their FAS block release etc). Money was tight for the first 12-16 months, then he started doing nixers on a saturday/sunday, used to make 20-25yoyo an hour doing small jobs. Never looked back. I wish I had become a plumber.

FX Meister

I'm 27 and I started an electrical apprenticeship three weeks ago. The money is ****, €200 a week, but you are getting paid to be trained. I'm being taught by a 23 year old but it doesn't bother me. I can see how that might bother some people though. If you look on the FAS website you will find a section with the rates they pay when you are in tech training with them and this reflects what you get with your company. At the moment I'm fortunate enough to be able to work another job which pays quite a bit more than my apprenticeship rate so I've had no problems money wise myself.

sovtek

Nice to see I'm not the only one considering something like this.
I've been working in IT for years and I can't seem to get a job anywhere.
I'm either not skilled enough or too skilled ( I can't even seem to be able to get a tech support job).
Anyway...IT jobs seem to becoming "McJobs" anyway...the more time goes by.
I was thinking about plumbing as well.
Any websites to guide you on how to get into this?

FX Meister

Plumbing wasn't an option for me. A mate from Aus was over here for a year working as a plumber, one night he had to sort out a pub where the toilet floor was 4 inches deep in urine and crap. No way I would deal with that kind of stuff. Get in touch with FÁS and they send you a bit of info but your best bet is to talk to a plumber or someone who is already an apprentice.

Scruff

hmm.. have toyed with this idea myself, but have a couple of years left till i'm 29

let us know how you get on if ye decide to go for it

KLADNUD76

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I suppose I'm just a bit pissed off losing out on jobs to guy's who are "trade" qualified. I was working as a maintenance technician until I was layed off for the second time in three years now I'm working aa **** job with low enough wages anyway. I'm going to seriously look into this so I will let you all know how I get on. Thanks again to you all for your responses.

KLAD.

xern

I feel your pain. I'm 27 and in I.T. and I hate it. I want to do an Electrical Apprenticeship also.

according to FAS Entry Requirments "You may qualify if you are over 25 years of age, have had a minimum of 3 years work experience relevant to your chosen occupation and are successful at an assessment interview."

AS your working in maintenance you should be OK.

I'm trying to get into a security installations job, Alarms, CCTV, etc and then in september enrole in the electrical services engineeering course in DIT if i can't get an apprenticeship. hopefully they will run it!

Although previous the posters in this thread have given me hope of getting an apprenticeship:)

mad m

Well dont be put off with your age,in Dublin City Council the GO's(general operatives) can get apprenticeships and one bloke in our section is over 40 years of age and only finished his last exams.

As FX Meister said the money can be crap at start but it can only get better,but FX Meister you only started three weeks ago at €200 a week i think thats more than first years rate.So your doing good there.

Yeah as Xern said you could qualify in three years.I remember when i was serving my time one bloke who was alot older than us went and did his apprenticeship in three years instead of the normal four.Imagine if it was like the older system than one i went through.You had to serve seven years before qualifying

Goodluck

FX Meister

I think the first year rate is about €190, he said he gave me €200 as I had a car.

As for what Xern said about the requirements.

"You may qualify if you are over 25 years of age, have had a minimum of 3 years work experience relevant to your chosen occupation and are successful at an assessment interview."

This only applies if you do not meet the minimum requirements which states; " Apprentices must be at least 16 years of age and have a minimum of grade D in five subjects in the junior cert or equivalent."

StupidLikeAFox

Yeah my dads an electrician and he took on a 32 year old about 3 yrs ago. He was glad to see an older person rather than young school leavers applying.

And no hes NOT looking for apprentices!!

mad m

ColHol wrote:

And no hes NOT looking for apprentices!!

Sorry but got a giggle out of that.

RicardoSmith

I used to work in the building and left when it crap to work in IT. Sometimes I wonder would I have been better staying in the building. I had no trade though.

xern

FX Meister wrote:

I think the first year rate is about €190, he said he gave me €200 as I had a car.

As for what Xern said about the requirements.
This only applies if you do not meet the minimum requirements which states; " Apprentices must be at least 16 years of age and have a minimum of grade D in five subjects in the junior cert or equivalent."

great, Sweet as a nut

Right I think I better start actively looking for an apprenticehip.
I think Mercury are looking for Electrical Apprentices.

Anyone know if mercury are a good company to work for, or know anyone working for them?

mad m

xern wrote:

great, Sweet as a nut

Right I think I better start actively looking for an apprenticehip.
I think Mercury are looking for Electrical Apprentices.

Anyone know if mercury are a good company to work for, or know anyone working for them?

Doesnt matter what company are like get yourself the apprenticeship first and get registered in Fas,get your log book(thats if they still do this these day).Just get yourself on the foot of the ladder.Ten weeks block release to Kevin St Dit for training every year as well for training.

xern

mad m wrote:

Doesnt matter what company are like get yourself the apprenticeship first and get registered in Fas,get your log book(thats if they still do this these day).Just get yourself on the foot of the ladder.Ten weeks block release to Kevin St Dit for training every year as well for training.

your right, mush get my ass into gear so. have to wait until after may before i can starting working though, will be getting some redundancy which will pay off my loan!

Banjo013

Interesting thread !

I'm 29 and work in the IFSC as an accountant, but to be honest I much prefer being under my car at the weekends covered in oil and doing something that I consider to be more like real work !

So I've given some serious consideration to becoming a mechanic recently, and again was worried about the age thing. Now that I see others have done it the prospect had become far more of a possibility.

Is this a signaling of Ireland wanting to return to the days where it wasn't just IT and finance that people aspired to ? While I don't exactly regret what I've done, I do think I may have been carried away in the current of people all wanting to get into these fields - even though it may not have been the type of work that suited me best.

xern

Banjo013 wrote:

Is this a signaling of Ireland wanting to return to the days where it wasn't just IT and finance that people aspired to ? While I don't exactly regret what I've done, I do think I may have been carried away in the current of people all wanting to get into these fields - even though it may not have been the type of work that suited me best.

Great point, the only reason I went into IT was because it was the thing to get into at the time, and when I finished college the dotcom thing had gone to sh1t. Like you said I don't regret doing it, I'm made some great friends in this industry, but its time I got doing more hands on work!

FX Meister

A guy I work with told me that in bigger companies like Mercury you do a lot of donkey work the first year or two.

Headshot

hey lads just 2 months to go and im out of school thank god any way im going to be a electrican apprenticeship i did 2-3 months working last year during the summer holidays i really loved it

but im not the best at school i quite hate it but my mother keeps saying you need a good leaving cert

i know i need a c in maths but if i do bad in the leaving cert will that effect my chances in the future

FX Meister

Your 2-3 months experience will look good.

Headshot

FX Meister wrote:

Your 2-3 months experience will look good.

in college what are the exams like

FX Meister

I've only started so haven't gone in to tech yet. I've been told that as long as you put in the work through out the college part you shouldn't have any problems.

Lenny

Yea, try and avoid the big companys. get get treated badly in certain ways, and mercury tell a lot of people to **** off after their 3/4 years becaseu they don't want to pay them the decent wage and out of all their qualified sparks, they only keep 1 or 2. try looking for family/friends, you will learn much quicker working with someone who has their own company and you might be looked after a bit better, don't worry about your age. I am 20 years old and I am thinking of doing a trade too and I'm thinking I'm too old aswell! i dont know how I could survive on the low pay, but I suppose I have no overheads(car/rent) to look after. go for your course, compleate it then deciede if you like it not. after all a trade on your shoulders can't be a bad thing

mad m

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote:

in college what are the exams like

Exams from when I went have changed alot i think.Dont think they do the city&guilds/advanced anymore but i could be wrong.

If you get a crap maths in your leaving id say you could always just do that subject again in evenings while doing your apprenticeship.When I was going through tech I was going to bolton st(linen hall) for one day a week.There was two blokes in my class who couldnt read and there writting was not great.

The tech made allowances for them,when they were doing the exam they brought in tape recorders for them and they had someone read out the questions and they said answers into the mic.They made every effort to make sure they got there qualifications,which looking back now was really great.