Job Prospects

[kev3869]

I am looking at doing the 15 day Refridgeration and Air Con Training with HAL (In Doncaster)
I have just left the Armed Forces and have no prev experience in the field.
Just wondering if anyone knows what my chances of employment will be upon completion of this course?

[taz24]

I am looking at doing the 15 day Refridgeration and Air Con Training with HAL (In Doncaster)
I have just left the Armed Forces and have no prev experience in the field.
Just wondering if anyone knows what my chances of employment will be upon completion of this course?

Hi Kev.

Unfortunatley the fridge game is governed by experience. If you have no experience except for the short course you may struggle to find somwhere.
Normally the minimum requirement by the industry is a level 2 NVQ.
You may get lucky and find a company that will set you on if you can bring other skill with you.

Cheers and all the best taz.

[frank]

Hi Kev and welcome to the forum.

Lots of friendly 'Faces' on here so I'm sure someone will be along soon with good advice.

To be honest though, no matter what the trade, who is really ready for skilled employment after only 15 days training?

I'm quite sure that even you had more than 15 days training in the armed forces for your job, whatever it was.

My advice would be to save your money on this course and talk to the local Employment Exchange (I think they call them Job Centres now ) about joining a local college where you will end up with a recognised qualification. The college will also be more in touch with local firms where you can get hands on experience

Good luck anyway.

[eggs]

Hello Kev.

Another way is to earn while you learn. Get in touch with a few local companies and ask for a job as a fitters mate. This way you will start at the bottom and learn as you go. You might only start on £6/hr or so(with the working hours available it will be more than your Army pay), but get stuck in and show initiative. Hopefully if you are suited to the trade you can progress from there.

eggs

[declan simmonds]

Hello kevin
Well the fridge game is not a easyone but if your willing and keen to learn and are serious then its a great job. I have found you never stop learning, you need to be able to think on your feet it involves lots of jobs all rolled into one electrics calcs plumbing are just a few, health and saftey paperwork being arcticlate, being a good communitator, but a 15 day course is not going to be much good apart from grapsing the basics, personally i would train for nvq level 2 full time like i did,
or possibly parttime at nights, Your fees would be paid as you are unemployed after that you could contact companies and tell them that you are attending college doing your nvq level 2 you might have a better response,

but the nvq level 2 requires that you working for a frigde company in order to complete the course, best thing to do is find the college that does Nvq level 2 and take it from there. and also enrole in a electrics course also,
as companies these days also like you to have 16 th but now its changed to 17th from july this year, and if you fail as a fridgie then you could become just a plain old sparky. no offence to sparkies intended
good luck in your quest
cheers dec

[jdunc2301]

as everyone said above experience!!!
i started in 3 years ago and have had to do all workbased training and private courses due to the lack of colleges doing ac/ref near me and now three years on my wages are only going up. try contacting some local companies see what they say!

[Latte]

Kev,

Once again its all about experience, but having said that, all of us on here started somewhere.
Have a look on the jobs board on here, Even though there may not be companies advertising for rookies, it will show you those who are looking out for engineers. Contact them and tell them youre situation, you may strike lucky, lots of companies have now taken on contracts and maybe one of them will be prepared to give you that all important start up experience.

Good luck

Fatboy

[Grizzly]

Welcome
You are not alone there are many of the guys on the forum that are ex forces.

In fact the forces seem to be the main suppliers of trained Engineers nowadays!

Anyway welcome to the forum and maybe the help provided will be 2 way.

As I am sure their are many of us that will have IT. questions from time to time.

I bet you don't struggle with some of the electronic controls, like us mere mortals?
Cheers Grizzly