Would you encourage someone to be a sparks?

population

I have bumped into loads of people that I used to work with lately (served my time principally in a large house-bashing firm) and to a man they all have the same story.

Once qualified was let go, went out on own made a bit of money, construction collapsed, they now get by on about a days work a week. Cant sign on because self employed for last few years. Granted one or two of them were useless but some were exceptional. Hard workers and multi skilled.

I think this industry is actually proper screwed. There are just so many contracters out there and not alot of work. Also it costs alot for an electrician to employ a qualified lad who he might not get a lot out of so invariably people are pushed into doing it for themselves.

A friend of mines son approached me and asked would I recommend him to get into this (get an apprenticeship) and I actually have to say I was stumped on what to tell him.

Would people here say yay or nay to him????

Stoner

I'd say that with the big overload that FAS had to deal with (and did so reasonably well i think) that there must be a huge amount of electricians available for work.

So there will be and is competition for work. I don't know what the situation is in the UK, but I know that for a long time we were producing a lot more electricians than them. There are other factors at play here, electrical contractors in the UK have been changing practice WRT apprenticeships as they have found the employment law was an issue, so they were avoiding direct labor.

I'd say that a trade is still very good to have, but maybe not for someone who plans to stay in Ireland.

Davy

I dont think the uk is much better. I heard lately that sparks were gettin £13-£14 an hour over their.

I dont think its the best time to be starting an apprenticeship. He the guy reallys wants to be a sparks and is confident in that fair enough. If he can get someone to take him on that will give him the four years then be the time he is qualified things should be a little better. But as stoner said, Fas were qualifying about 7000 apprentice electricians a year, so their is a lot of them out their. Plumbing might be a slightly better option, i think around 4500 of them each year.

.G.

Electrical phase 2 classes are still filling up however the waiting list for phase 4 is now very small considering there was a minimum year and a half waiting list last year.I rang a couple of weeks ago and there was 20 on the list which is good news for my waiting time.

As Davy says though plumbing might be a better option.Fas have actually been closing down plumbing classrooms due to lack of demand,same with Chippy's.

Jnealon

Coming from a different angle I would encourage this guy to go to college and do some sort of engineering degree. Things might be better in 4 years time when they graduate

Randyleprechaun

Country is flooded with sparks.......keep away would be my advice.I'm not going into it all now but thats my advice.

chrismon

I wouldnt recommend it personally.
Im just after getting qualified and i was lucky to get qualified.
If he does manage to get someone to take him on theres no way someone can tell him they will have 4 years work for him. I have alot of unlucky friends who are finished phase 4 and cant get work, therefore unable to get to phase 6 and get qualified. Most of them are giving up the apprenticeship out of pure frustration.
College would be a better option in my oppinion

fishdog

Speaking as a sparks, that is trying to get out of sparking I would agree with all of the above.

eire-kp

Im currently in phase 6. The amount of lads in the class with no work is shocking. The chipies are the same if not worse. When i did phase 4 last january there was chippys out of work. The company i served my time with have just put all their apprentices on a week on week off basis. I could see tthem geting fed up of that quickly.

fishdog

Im currently in phase 6

At least you dont have too far to go.

The amount of lads in the class with no work is shocking

I have heard this. The ESB has kindly taken on a few hundread apprentices for the remainder of their time just so they can qualify. They can not keep any of them once the finish.

Many electricians are returning to college because they simply cant find work. On the 25th next I am involved with an open day in DIT with several courses aimed specifically at electricians and apprentices.

RoundyMooney

That's right.

Personally, its probably a field I wouldn't go into if I were starting again. There are simply too many out there.

romunn

On the 25th next I am involved with an open day in DIT with several courses aimed specifically at electricians and apprentices.

What kind of courses are on offer at the open day?

hobochris

Randyleprechaun wrote: »

Country is flooded with sparks.......keep away would be my advice.I'm not going into it all now but thats my advice.

yep.. get a taxi plate instead

fishdog

What kind of courses are on offer at the open day?

I dont know to be honest. I am a student that will be involved with recruting my course only. All of the undergraduate programmes that can be done in school of electrical systems can be seen here. Some are full time, some part time and some are quite short (1 night a week for10 weeks). Some offer "advanced entry" for electricians which will mean that they can start in the 2nd year of the course.

Davy

hobochris wrote: »

yep.. get a taxi plate instead

Id advise to become a sparks over taxi driver. Least when you are qualified things might be looking up.