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Thanks for the info. I think its prob a case of having the balls to make the jump but I am currently feeling sitting in front of a screen for 8 hours a day is not something I can carry on doing forever... I know it's wildly different to doing anything professionally but I feel enormous satisfaction when doing DIY projects at home, much more than anything I do work related, even personal work.
I don't mind starting at the bottom as an apprentice, if it was part time I could still work my regular job to keep some income. Is there anywhere/site where I can hunt out folks after apprentices? I have a few mates who are trades too so might ask them but mixing friends/business is always a bit of a tough one.
I am also acutely aware that every overweight middle aged media-working prick in Shoreditch wants to "work with their hands" and that I very much fall into that category.
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chrisbmx116
Plumbing is worthwhile but it takes time to qualify and costs money. The best deal I've found so far for gas safe qualification was £6000 and 6 months working for free. The electrical course I took was £1800 and you can go from zero to 3 c&gs in 4 weeks, give or take scheduling. Of course it's only a small part of the trade, mostly focussed on designing and testing new circuits. Not cable pulling etc.
I started so long ago it's a faint memory. Probably the best way to start is as an apprentice/helping out a mate, if you feel you're too old for that then you can take on work for less money than market rates and take a bit longer over it until you get experience and tools together. I still spend at least £1500 a year on tools to make life easier/improve the end result. I've never really worked on building sites, mostly domestic and that's the market most trades want to avoid. It's very hard to recommend as an occupation except in terms of job satisfaction, that part of it can be rewarding.
Doing a course is a good introduction to the whole process though, if you can get all the way to gas safe qualified then there's good money to be made and you're working in a trade with some protection.