"John Stumbles" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 17:03:26 +0200, David Wright wrote:

What are you planning on doing when you qualify?

Honestly? Getting the hell out of this craphole of a country. To a place
where not only do you have to prove they need YOU, but once you're there,
they appreciate the givers more than the stealers and overall life tax isn't
70%.

Would you be looking to work for a local business? If so I'd suggest
talking to them from that
POV. If I were running such a business and looking to take on someone new
in the near future

Wouldn't qualify until next May/June (tbc).

Likewise some will be ungracious, unfriendly etc

Oh yes!

You might also ask the staff in some of the plumbers' merchants if they
know of any of their customers who might help.

What I've done so far is:
Drop round piles of leaflets to plumbers and builders merchants.

I'd go at a time when there
are other customers around but not when it's heaving

Ah, OK. It was mid-afternoon when I did the rounds!

(I picked up from another part of this thread that you're Reading based.
BTW where are you doing your training?)

Well, if I tell you that most of the others there make moo-ing sounds and
consistantly fail key skills level 1* and are mostly there because they've
been told they have to be, could you guess? Actually, that's a bit
disingenuous - year 1 is like that, year 2 is an entirely different barrel
of prawns.

*Sample question:
What usually belongs at the end of a sentence? A full stop or a llama?
(Everyone knows it's a llama - and still they fail).

If your tutors are prepared to be flexible about the work experience you
get I could offer you some general P&H including gas work & boilers, but
not unvented or Part P. However I'm a one-man band so you'd get a wider
range of experience more quickly with a bigger outfit.

That said, you're a one man band who can form a sentence, and in English
too. From my experience and others, this is fairly unique in this area.
Half my problem is that because I talk proper like and my knuckles don't
drag on the ground, a lot of plumbers think I'm one of these toff city
types, when in fact I'm a reliable hard worker. Bottom line is that I've
been offered experience from a large outfit, but they pay nadda. Zip. Zilch.
Which is fine for a couple of months, but I can't self-sustain on weekend
work alone much more than that, so ideally I'd have end up somewhere where I
could gain experience but also been of enough use to them to warrant at
least enough pay to live on.

Good luck, and please let us know how it goes.

Well, it's going! Thanks for your help and suggestions - I'll see how this
outfit works out and let you know.

"Dave Baker" wrote in message
...
Up a plumber's crack?

Oh no, stop, stop now before my sides split.
How do you do that? I mean, just come out with stuff straight off the top of
your head three days later?
That's really good - I'll have to remember that one...

(that reply was straight from "How to endear yourself to the plumbers in a
group you're trying to get help from", Volume II).