New Skilled Trades
Aug 9th 2006, 5:23 pm
#1
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Location: Toronto. ON
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New Skilled Trades
Has anyone come to Canada and decided to leave the "corporate" world and train to be an electrician, plumber etc. I am thinking of taking this route myself, however its a daunting thought starting a 4 year apprenticeship in my 30's and coping with a minimum wage.
Any qualified trades think its worth the risk and will it pay financial dividends in the long run?
What do ya think?
SAW 04
Any qualified trades think its worth the risk and will it pay financial dividends in the long run?
What do ya think?
SAW 04
Aug 9th 2006, 5:33 pm
#2
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Joined: Jul 2006
Location: Brighton
Posts: 341
Re: New Skilled Trades
Originally Posted by SAW 04
Has anyone come to Canada and decided to leave the "corporate" world and train to be an electrician, plumber etc. I am thinking of taking this route myself, however its a daunting thought starting a 4 year apprenticeship in my 30's and coping with a minimum wage.
Any qualified trades think its worth the risk and will it pay financial dividends in the long run?
What do ya think?
SAW 04
Any qualified trades think its worth the risk and will it pay financial dividends in the long run?
What do ya think?
SAW 04
Then you need to get experiance all this could take a few years but depending on who you get as your employer depends how well you progress.
If you don't have a job right away it will pay you the same as retail if not more and it has a lot of potential of booming.
It also has a lot of potential of going wrong you need to judge yourself honestly
Aug 9th 2006, 5:36 pm
#3
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Re: New Skilled Trades
Interested to know why you believe it has the potential of going wrong. Are you referring to the liability side of things?
Originally Posted by Lees147
I've looked into becoming an electrician which obviously is a lot harder in canada as the circuitry is technically more difficult (perhaps due to my training) but ultimatly you can get a technical cert in about 3 months if you go for an intensive course. The college is expensive though.
Then you need to get experiance all this could take a few years but depending on who you get as your employer depends how well you progress.
If you don't have a job right away it will pay you the same as retail if not more and it has a lot of potential of booming.
It also has a lot of potential of going wrong you need to judge yourself honestly
Then you need to get experiance all this could take a few years but depending on who you get as your employer depends how well you progress.
If you don't have a job right away it will pay you the same as retail if not more and it has a lot of potential of booming.
It also has a lot of potential of going wrong you need to judge yourself honestly
Aug 9th 2006, 6:41 pm
#4
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Joined: Sep 2003
Location: Upstate South Carolina
Posts: 30,768
Re: New Skilled Trades
Depends what "financial dividends" are.
To make real money you need to run your own business. A guy I sort of know set up as a sparky, sold the business for about $1M, schlepped about the world for a while until he was bored, then came back and set up a new (similar) business, rehired most of his old staff and carried on as before. BUt he put in his time working for other people first too.
As a sparky working for someone else, you might do "OK", with overtime etc if you are lucky, but to really coin it in you probably need your own business, and that I guess is where the risk is.
I dont know, but I suspect a lot of people only go it alone after working and making contacts for years that will keep them in business once they branch out on their own. It will possibly be hard to get started and get a client base, and of course its hard work, and you have to solve all the problems that come up on your own, theres no buck passing in private enterprise, and if you take a holiday, you lose income.
On the other hand you arent the first 30something to head of in search of a new challenge.
To make real money you need to run your own business. A guy I sort of know set up as a sparky, sold the business for about $1M, schlepped about the world for a while until he was bored, then came back and set up a new (similar) business, rehired most of his old staff and carried on as before. BUt he put in his time working for other people first too.
As a sparky working for someone else, you might do "OK", with overtime etc if you are lucky, but to really coin it in you probably need your own business, and that I guess is where the risk is.
I dont know, but I suspect a lot of people only go it alone after working and making contacts for years that will keep them in business once they branch out on their own. It will possibly be hard to get started and get a client base, and of course its hard work, and you have to solve all the problems that come up on your own, theres no buck passing in private enterprise, and if you take a holiday, you lose income.
On the other hand you arent the first 30something to head of in search of a new challenge.
