Darren

[mexico97]

Hi My name is Darren, I am a Mechanical Engineer, with a Mechanical Maintenance served apprenticeship. I live in the southeast area. I have 18 years served as an engineer and a further 15 years as a cost engineer.
I want to become qualified as a plumber / Heating Engineer. Can anyone help me with ways of completing this? Obviously I am not a school leaver and I am looking at the fastest way to become qualified.
I have looked at Fast track courses, but a lot of these look terrible to be honest.

Any help and ideas would be great.

 

[gmartine]

At your age and experience a Fast track course is probably your best bet. Give them a call to get a feel, talk to trainers, visit training center and ask to attend a class for 10 mins to make sure it isn't a sham.

 

[Jehannum]

A lot of "fast track" courses are indeed garbage. I know this because I often deal with the fallout. I run a gas training centre where we have completed training for many students left high and dry by their original college or training centre. Some paid out £6K+ and were left with nothing.

There is a list of centres approved by EU Skills to run gas foundation courses here: Training Provider Directory - Energy & Utility Skills - https://www.euskills.co.uk/training-provider-directory/

If a training centre is not on this list, beware. Only centres that have independently demonstrated that their courses align with IGEM/IG/1 (Standards of Training in Gas Work) can go on the list.

 

[Chuck]

This is a question that comes up quite frequently. Use the search box at the top right of this page to search for, e.g., 'retrain as plumber' for previous discussions of this topic.

The executive summary is: it's possible but it's going to burn through your savings and the grass may not turn out to be greener once you're qualified.