Apprentaship (sp)

[Dr Pirate]

I want to gain an apprentaship (sp) in computer repair or maintainance. I'm currently doing a Computer maintainance course at college and I'm finding it extreamly easy.

Thing is, I don't feel that the hour and a half a week I get working on the inside of a computer is enough and I really want to get into the industry.

Could anyone recommed anywhere I should ask?

Thanks;

Dr Pirate.

[Kentish]

Try this (http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/)

Is there a local computer shop that you could get a p/t job at?

[Dr Pirate]

Try this (http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/)

Is there a local computer shop that you could get a p/t job at?
Cheers mate, I shall be off down to connexions at some point this week :)

[Mist]

i'd get one in plumbing or plastering if I were you mate, more job satisfaction and pretty good wonga.

[Dr Pirate]

i'd get one in plumbing or plastering if I were you mate, more job satisfaction and pretty good wonga.
But I don't really want to be a plumber nor a plasterer. According to the guy who came over to fix the wenches computer, he gets around £45-£50 an hour, depending on the area he has to go to.

I think that wonga is quite nice :thumb:

[budda]

Last time I had anything done to my bathroom most plumbers I phoned said;

"I charge £60 an hour, I dont give quotes, its done when its done."

[Dr Pirate]

Last time I had anything done to my bathroom most plumbers I phoned said;

"I charge £60 an hour, I dont give quotes, its done when its done."
not exactly the greatest way to drum up business.

[budda]

Obviously works though, I ended up ringing 15 plumbers and all but 2 said that, one said his rate was £40 per half hour!!

[Dr Pirate]

trying to make himself sound cheaper. Plumbers are con-men pure and simple.

[budda]

And everyone in London knows it, but what the hell are you supposed to do?

[Dr Pirate]

Do a plumbing course, get corgi certified and do your own plumbing :p

[budda]

While putting a big bucket under your toilet?

[Dr Pirate]

yes. :p

[Wyetry]

You could try some of the big computer companies to see if they have any jobs going - I know dell only sell computers directly - when one of ours went wrong this lovely dell man came on a motorbike with a new part to come and fix it - he was really nice and looked like he had a cool job - or just apply to work in the IT department of a big city company - most of them are so large they have in house computer fixers - i have a friend who does just this...........

[Dr Pirate]

I'm only 17 tho ;<

[Wyetry]

Are you not going to finish your course first????

But I don't think that being only 17 is a problem for getting experience though - as long as you can show that your mature and know what your talking about then you should be ok

[Dr Pirate]

The thing is with my course, is that I'm going in 4 days a week to do 1 and a half hours of acctuall maintainance. It doesn't seem to make sence to me. The course is computer maintainance and we do hardly any.

[Zella]

Just stick at it. It will show future employers that you can stick at something. They dont want to be employing someone, putting loads of time and money into there education only to have them drop out 4 months before they finish.

[DG]

I want to gain an apprentaship (sp) in computer repair or maintainance. I'm currently doing a Computer maintainance course at college and I'm finding it extreamly easy.

Thing is, I don't feel that the hour and a half a week I get working on the inside of a computer is enough and I really want to get into the industry.

Could anyone recommed anywhere I should ask?

Thanks;

Dr Pirate.


Go to various charities in your area and volunteer to look after their PC's - I know loads of guys that do this and it often leads to full time work or great recommendations

[Dr Pirate]

Cheers, I shall do that after I've been to connexions and had absolutly no luck. :yes:

[DG]

Cheers, I shall do that after I've been to connexions and had absolutly no luck. :yes:


You can also put an ad in the local paper, I used to do that years ago, it costed £25 a week to put the ad in for computer services and on average I'd charge £25 an hour and maybe get 1 or 2 calls from it, .. not anywhere enough to live on but good experience and enough to pay for the ad.

Also try the Friday Free Ad's paper and loot

Also ads in shop windows cost about 50p a week and maybe if the shop keeper has a PC for you to fix it will be free in exchange for your services. If you need experience fixing PC's spend a day at your local dump yard and wait for people to drive up with Pentium 1 PC's they're about to chuck out and nabb them - they'll happily give them to you - we did a recent clear out and chucked away PC's, TV's etc if you want to learn to repair stuff it's a good place to gain experience.

[budda]

You really shouldnt just throw out PC's, monitors etc. they have LOADS of nasty chemicals in them which are really bad for the enviroment.

A monitor has about a 1kg of lead in it for example.

[Martin_Bashir]

I want to gain an apprentaship (sp) in computer repair or maintainance. I'm currently doing a Computer maintainance course at college and I'm finding it extreamly easy.

be careful with this one...i dont know if they do too many apprentiships in this and tbh the industry itself isnt the best one to get yourself into IMO...

i considered doing this when i left college (i was thinking about this back in 98/99) BUT by the time i left school in 2001 things didnt look as rosy...

back in 98/99 PC repair was specialised knowledge, and you could make a pretty penny from it...but as the amount of people who know how to build their own systems goes up so the benefit of such knowledge goes down...

that being said it could be a spring board into other things such as systems analysis and the like...of course if you enjoy it there will always be a market for people who cant be bothered or dont know how to sort certain problems...its not as if Windows is ever going to be faultless is it :rolleyes:

shoot over to Connexions Government Career advice (http://www.connexions.gov.uk/) for help finding placements

good luck:thumb:

[gladiator]

just a general question about Apprenticship, i am 22 and would not
mind doing another one something that is hands on

are their some apprenticships that you have to be employed in to do it.

[Martin_Bashir]

well most are the other way around...its work based training so you take on a position within the profession you are training for...

visit Conexxions (http://www.connexions.co.uk)