ESB Networks - Apprenticeship program

Hello all,


To give a bit of background on myself for some context - I am a 39 year old guy, healthy and relatively fit for my age. I graduated from college with a Bachelors degree in Business in 2004. From then up until April of last year I have being working broadly in Fund Administration (open office environment). Absolutely nothing wrong with the job but the role was changing considerably for me over my last couple of years in the job. Moving very much away from finance and moving to a much more techy type function - working ever more so with developers and programmers attempting to automate processes. I was getting very stressed also due to this and due in part to lack of management visibility and also because my role was changing so much week to week and to an extent only finding out after. Probably a fine job with good room for progression for the right person but just not for me.

Something I had being thinking with a while was moving into the area of Financial Advisor. I started my QFA course and made the move in April of last year. To be fair it was a good deal different to what I expected. At the start it was very much selling life assurance, mortgage protection and critical illness by telesales and over the last couple of months I am out on the road meeting Clients much more so and also working on pensions which there is a bit more meat to.
I do like the job and it does give a good buzz if somebody is appreciate of good advice you give and you make a sale. However, end of the day its very much about being a good salesperson rather than giving good advice, which an excellent salesperson I am not in fairness. Some of the conniving that goes on in the industry is spectacular. My problem is I'm possibly too honest and it is at times tough to give good advice on the phone when people seem to only have an attention span of 5 seconds and not much better at times in person. The job is very much commission based with a really small salary and to be honest I am struggling to make an anyway decent living at it and am now looking for other options. In a sense I am somewhat disgruntled with the whole industry and open to considering something new entirely.

I have in the past considered trades but at the same time have never delved too much into it. I'm strongly considering putting my name in the running for the ESB Apprenticeship program and would like some constructive guidance please.

I do like working outdoors and by no means afraid of a more physically demanding type job. I would have a pretty keen interest in DIY too and to see the results of my good work in that sense (if that is of any relevance).
The main thing I am conscious of is would I be viewed by the hirers as too old to embark on an apprenticeship?
Would anyone know the paygrades as you commence and through till end of the program when you have your qualification? I am lucky in that I am not paying a mortgage or rent, have fairly good savings and no other big financial commitments.

Any constructive guidance would be much appreciated here and thanks in advance.