Barry
Hello, my name is Barry, I’m 45 years old and I live in Gosport in Hampshire. Recently I qualified as a domestic Electrician, having done the training with a company called New Career Skills Limited and I’ve always wanted to learn one of the trades and have a real skill that I can call my own.
I have a company now, I’m qualified and I offer domestic electrical services all over Hampshire.
I contacted New Career Skills though an advert in the paper and one of their representatives came to visit me and it is because of that visit I think that he was able to explain everything on how the course worked and the prices and the costs of the course and he put my mind at rest.
The first week’s training I did, I was sent straight in there with a set of tools which I’d been given by New Career Skills, all the tools that you need are given by them, the electrical tools you need are provided, you may keep this toolkit and you are straight into putting sockets, lights and various other circuits in, getting practically trained. At the same time they are preparing you for your theory exams as well, which is usually in about the third week of training. All the staff who trained me are ex-electricians who have worked in the real world of the electrical contracting industry and so they really do know their stuff, not only about the electrics, but the actual industry you’re going to go into and New Career Skills also help find you work, whether you’re training or whether you work when you’ve finished.
I found work through agencies as electrician’s mate while I did my training, which gave me a great deal of practical training, practical experience, while I was doing the course. Overall I found New Career Skills - I would use the world ‘holistic’ because they are helping you not only to become electricians, but to understand the law that is needed to understand how to get a business set up and how to market your business as well. They aren’t one of these people that say, the training is over, thanks very much, we don’t want to know anymore. Even after the training has finished, if I have a technical problem or I’m unsure about something, if I’m out there in the business, they will offer support and that’s part of the course as well.
Everybody dreams of having their own business but I’ve made it a reality, so the driving force for me was to be my own boss. I didn’t exactly know where that would lead me that dream, but it’s led me to be an electrician. And I also was told that we have a shortage of something in excess of 35,000 electricians countrywide shortage, therefore I knew there was a very good opportunity for work. I have what I can call marketable skills which are available and needed and therefore I have work and that’s been the main driving force of my business. I don’t want to be a wage slave anymore.
A 42 year old former fisherman. He is now running his own successful plumbing business.
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