skills centres!!should i???

[mikeyjonjo]

Hi, hope someone can help me with my problem,,,I recently got made redundant from my media job i had for 4 years and decided its time to retrain,,ive been looking at courses and have come across Building Trade Skills Centre, now i know there gonna ask me for shed loads of money for their course, which they say will gain me a city and guilds cert!!but my question is will it be worth it and has anyone in the know heard of these guys??? Thanks alot..

 

[l00ki]

its worth finding some on the job experience while you gain the qualification. Dont get drawn in by these firms that promise to teach you in a month or whatever. Oh and make sure you get a recognised qualification out of it, a lot of firms want people who are time served with at least nvq 2/3.

 

[david williams]

it is not a matter of time served ,the few companies that are still looking to employ plumbers know that it takes longer than 6/8/12/25weeks to train a plumber.they can not afford to employ people who realy can not do all the work a plumber has to undertake,and an employee constantly phoning the office does not look good to clients.that is why most of them ask for 4 years post training experience,and there are very few jobs around and not the 30,000 vacant plumbing jobs these training firms say there are.

 

[l00ki]

agree with you 100% david, the same adverts that say earn £100,000 a year! Its just not realistic.

Ive been at college for the last 4 years, very soon to complete.. worked for a few firms also and i know first hand how hard it is to find work having been laid off from one of them.

 

[migstrike]

Hi Mickey, I recently had a similar issue with access 2 trade careers, in the end I didn't go with them, the hard sell regarding sign today or never just put me off! In the end I hung on, looked else where, viy training looked great but traveling from midlands was an issue and ultimately the deciding factor. Whilst waiting I went on an open day workshop with uk one training. They are small in comparison with just one centre, but its a cracking centre with cracking trainers and the course was 60% cheaper!(than access2tradecareers) The only issue was uk one could not offer a finance package and required payment by end of course, but at £2995 all in inc vat i did manage to get the funds upfront and the experience was both personal and rewarding. The central heating training in particular was just great!!! If you're in the birmingham or west midlands area it may well be worth giving them a look.

 

[danrogers29]

Dont do it just dont do it, these companies take thousands of pounds from you and give you nothing but worthless paper for your time. in my experience i signed up for a plumbing course with The Skills Centre who i think have gone into receivership and become ATL. the training was poor and to maintain a high pass level they simply gave me the answers to the exams as well as most of the other people in the class (so employers know even if people have the certificate they may not have known any of the information needed) i completed 2 weeks of the 6 week course which cost me about 7000 but 10.5 grand after interest on the loan. now im in a dispute with the company and guess what, they dont care that theyve ripped me off they just want their money. if you want to learn to do somethin you will need time and lots of it you will never become a good plumber from doing a 6 week course and anyone who thinks they did or could are wrong. also if anyone has any advice on my situation it would be greatly appreciated

 

[Renewable M]

so the message is...... just because you have managed to spend enough money to go to college for three years, does not mean you get three years education.