Hi

I'm retraining as an electrician. It's quite interesting, pretty mucky and occasionally horrific. I love it. 20 years wasted. At least I'm here now. 

RBK electrics said:

I'm retraining as an electrician. It's quite interesting, pretty mucky and occasionally horrific. I love it. 20 years wasted. At least I'm here now. 

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Hello..

what's your previous background experience...?

A reasonable understanding of Maths & Physics will go a long way to grasping most of the fundamental design calculations needed to evaluate correct cable sizes & protective devices..

No two electrical installations are identical and there is no simple idiots guide saying what goes where.. 

And the practicalities of terminating & fixing supplies & accessories really needs to be leant hands-on on real jobs..

Books / Colleges / On-Line courses, etc..  can't really do much justice to the non-theoretical aspects of electrical work..

I wish you well with your retraining..   

and I hope you have realistic expectations of timescales to acquire your chosen skillset.  

Guinness

I have a physics degree and worked as an instrument engineer for a long time in the semiconductor industry. Working on tools used by intel/samsung/tsmc that are no longer made or supported in this country. 

I passed the 18th ed 6 months ago and the 2391 4 months ago thinking I could start immediately by myself. I soon bottled it and scrapped that idea. I phoned local sparkies, explained where I was at, offered them a few weeks free labour in return for seeing if they liked me, hoping to get a start. So far so good- loads of work, finding my own work, getting help when needed, splitting the big jobs, being busy. Finding new clients all the time- bit having to commute anything like what I was used to!

If you dont click with the guys in 5 mins consider hard walking away. Yes it might be a missed opportunity but your instinct is usually correct. I walked into a busy firm and we all get on really well. There's a trust and safety thing going on as well- everyone needs to get it and get along.

So have you done any electrical theory courses?