It Worker Combats Credit Crunch With Electrical Courses
Enrolling on electrical courses has helped an unemployed former IT employee beat the recession blues.
Steve Hinds lost his job with Egg after seven years with the company but did not panic and decided to use his redundancy as a motivating factor to push him towards a career in the electrical industry, reported the Derby Telegraph.
Mr Hinds used his redundancy payment to finance a City & Guilds course after developing an interest in becoming an electrician when watching a friend carry out electrical work at his house.
He told the newspaper: "My colleagues found out that we'd be losing our jobs last summer so I started thinking about using it as an opportunity to start a new career. I wanted to do something completely different."
The 31-year-old said that he had become disillusioned with the IT sector because of the physical and metal demands of working in an office and staring at a computer screen for hours on end.
He told the Telegraph: "I wanted the variety of meeting different people, working inside and outside, rather than sitting in front of a screen in an office every day. After doing it for seven years my eyes were a bit tired."
Mr Hinds admitted that it was being made unemployed that gave him the impetus to research electrical courses as he was likely to see out the rest of his career in an unfulfilling desk job.
He told the publication: "It was something I got bored with but I probably would have kept on going if I hadn't been made redundant."
Mr Hinds had to work as a delivery driver in the morning for a period of six months in order to pay his mortgage while he used his free afternoons to study for the City & Guilds qualification.
The practical nature of life as an electrician and the ability to help people in need was an important reason why Mr Hinds decided to take the plunge and enroll on electrical courses.
He told the newspaper: "I knew that it would be a sensible career to get into because I could progress if I wanted to and become an electrical engineer."
Anyone who had been made redundant should use the opportunity to change career and do something they have always wanted, according to Mr Hinds.
Unemployed people who enjoy DIY tasks may want to take plumbing courses, green energy courses and commercial gas courses as this will set them on the path to a new career.
Steve Hinds revealed that his dream is to create his own company and employ other people who have passed electrical courses.