In closure;

As you said, you were considering other options and other types of course, that’s the right thing to do. They will all have fees so that makes it all about 1) How much 2) The format and 3) What you get at the end for your money.

However I would say, take about £100 of that ten grand, and borrow and then buy as many of the books as possible before you go near anyone’s course.

Only after you’re happy that you couldn’t get a good grounding for the basics just by reading and practicing alone, should you consider taking up the BTSC place and even then delay to the new year like I said.

Books are as follows when you pay for them as a share of that ten grand; some might have changed but this is what I received;

-Safe Start Safety Handbook from the HSE, Reference GE707 (small, spiral bound and falls apart in a few weeks compared to properly bound books)

-Plumbing Mechanical Services Books 1 and 2 by G.J. Blower, Pearson Prentice-Hall, 5th Edition of each (b/w sketches)

-Plumbing by R.D. Treloar, Blackwell Publishing, 3rd Edition (black green and white outlined artwork for tables and diagrams, very concise)

-Plumbing Encyclopaedia by R.D. Treloar, Blackwell Publishing (2008, we got the 3rd edition in the bundle, but the 4th ed is out now in 2009 with colour pix not B/W sketches)

-Water Regulations Guide by WRAS, 2nd Edition, ISBN 0-9539708-0-9 – since there is no author name included the ISBN on this one, all the others you can search on Amazon.

Also there are the books recommended from 1st-3rd mods or Mods 1 to 6 in old money:

-Plumbing NVQ and Tech Certifical Level 2, JTL (John Thompson Limited)/Heinmann 2nd ed (1st ed still in libraries) – average £19-25 from Amazon

-Plumbing Revision Guide, also JTL/Heinmann

-Plumbing Heating And Gas Installations, R.D. Treloar 2nd Ed, Wiley/Blackwell (2000 – seems rare now, Amazon marketplace sellers only)

…so read all those, and see whether you want to go ahead – let your mates tell you some more about their course, they won’t want to see a mate go through it if it’s no good. All I know is, I’ll seriously considering going somewhere else for my level 3 because BTSC doesn’t care about you trying to keep a job and do the course at the same time to the quoted timescales – unless that job is in the trade already.

I can’t specifically comment on Manchester but if it’s going to be run like Chessington where 95% of all the trainers and staff are great if you’re able to click with them (specially the two Johns, Steve and Dave Clacy), but they don’t run the place, then forget it.

The most important initial in the company’s title is “T” for TRADE, if you are in some kind of trade already and you just want pieces of paper for plumbing and gas you have a head start on the practical side so complete newcomers with little more than DIY experience who’ve never seen a pair of pipe benders, will struggle when the learning curve dives off the cliff as I did. Maybe the change to 1st/2nd/3rd mods will cure this, maybe not. Frankly you get three chances to pass the exams and everyone had to do that at school, so for me personally the tests are like riding a bike even when you have to retake and the practical stuff was my weakness, even now the principles have finally stuck.

I am actually not bothered about some of the fees because I have a job, I can see where they are coming from with retakes, it’s £20 (exam)- to £350 (multiples of £50 per half-day up to a full mod) now, or if you screw up out in the real world, the next guy that fixes it takes your wages if you’re working in a firm – they’re trying to encourage right-first-time plumbing practices, can’t fault them for that. I AM bothered about the “you are trying to weasel out of your contract” standard reply you receive whenever you raise any issue or problem because you were specifically told to appeal in writing!

Also the admin staff are barely polite when taking your money anymore (and that’s the only time they were polite!) and since they make it clear from their attitude on the phone that they don’t want to be there until 7pm when you call in the evening, why bother staying open that late in the week is my view.

So for me, I’m just sad at all the little things that will never change about the place because management believe everything is perfect and they do F-all when you fill out your comments at the end of a mod, they seem to hunt for excuses to fire the trainers when they’re the best thing about the place.

For all the money I’m paying, why are students still saddled with right-facing plans in left facing bays? I had to scan, flip and reprint them myself so they made sense, like their photocopier is made of glass if it’s something to help out the paying students.

Why don’t they sell you ALL the books for ALL of Level 2 if you split it, and make even more of a cut for the centre? Fed up getting every new TCM and seeing a different new book staring back at me each time that I had the cash to buy when I started, but not later since it went on travel, overalls, tools and a week’s worth of packed lunch to stop getting ripped off by the centre’s food machines! I know you can wing it without some of the books, but as usual, you want to read everything they recommend and make up your own mind, and you can’t wait a month or more for the library to order it in!

I have been careful to avoid that much personal stuff about the staff because it’s a combined factory and college environment so you’re not going to click and connect with every trainer and every other student even if you’re all in it together. Again, I’ve had nothing but help and encouragement as a total amateur from people much more naturally qualified and confident than me. There is just about the right degree of your needing to be able to do it yourself after a while – if you wanted to be shown how to do everything without doing it yourself, you could watch Youtube vids or DVDs and not make a career of plumbing.

The guy told me the cost would be around 10k, for the fast track route. It seems like a lot of money and after reading a lot of negative comments here I’m doubting this will be a wise move.

I hear a lot of people saying the trainers are good, and the facility is good, I atchually think this is probably true. There have been a lot of complaints about the office salesmen being ‘pushy’ I found this to be true too.

I feel like they want my money quite badly. I’m looking deep into the various options out there. I would say to everyone hold your horses before signing up anything, for any of these private firms..

A government funded scheme would be useful, which im looking into. Anyway, I’ll be going back to the BTSC in Manchester with backup to find out some important facts and see what the deal is with them.. I’ll post any findings on here to help out..

At the end of the day its a lot of money. I’m an honest person looking for a career change, and my money has been hard earnt over a minimum wage job, 6 days a week.

The sales pitch was quite engrossing and fact filled. Take a step back and use your instincts. If alarm bells ring, which they should be, then theres danger. As far as I know there is a shortage of plumbers in the UK, so I thought the logical move is to enter this market..

I’m exploring angles now and questioning everything, dont part with your cash yet, lets find the right company first!

I’ll start my research I’ll post any decent findings on here…I hope this blog hasn’t become inactive or anything…

I’m a teacher and thinking about cganging careers, to Plumbing. It’s my second hobby. I am thinking about joining BTSC. Has anybody actually finished and got a really good job from them? Can they really guarantee you a job? Or is it just sales talk? Anybody?