To ask for some career advice?

[WithLotsOfSprinkles0]

Not for me, for my DP. Hes hit a brick wall.

He is in his early thirties, on minimum wage in a dead end job (no chance of promotion) and with no GCSEs or qualifications.

He wants a new career ive been nagging him but no exactly sure where to start.

He went to an opening day at a college to be gas/boiler engineer but it is apprenticeship based and they're few and far between.

Trouble is, he needs to earn to pay the bills. So apparentichip which are hard tinfind and very low paid.
He cant get certain days off each week to attend college class (he does 4 on 4 off)

Does anyone know of any entry level jobs/companies were you can earn while training? Or courses to help get another career?

He has tried network rail.
BT openreach (hes been on file for a year)
Scottish power

Any ideas?

If he's on minimum wage what about going for an admin/assistant level job at a company with room for growth? I work at a small management consultancy and lots of people with no qualifications start in our Ops room (packing materials for training courses and posting them and organisating diaries...not very exciting) but most get promoted within 6 months and the company is good at offering training opportunities. My cousin actually worked here straight out of school and went from ~18k at aged 18 to ~£30k by 20 via two promotions...then went off travelling!

Alternatively could he look at doing something business related to grow his knowledge (e.g. accredited Project Management/Business Analysis course) out of pocket and looking for an Assistant/Junior role?

Or what about retail? Some companies better than others - Glass Door will give you some insight into room for growth etc.

He can still do GCSE or Functional skills which are an equivalent. I would start there and while he is doing that look into further options. Don't forget he can get student finance for MANY courses level 3-6! It's called advanced learner loan.

Sounds like he needs to get his GCSE maths and English first (unless I misunderstood), he can do this via OU.

I think he needs to start with English and maths.
Consider an nvq in his current role with a view to using to help look for work else where. You can also get technical qualifications ie if your not working in the area you do a shorter course of the same level which covers the knowledge required to do the job, he could then use it to open up new opportunities and then finish the practical side once successful.
Maybe keeping courses generic like business and admin, customer service etc.

Civil service. I recommend it to loads of people who don't know what they want to do. I joined 10 years ago as a career change and now work for a different government department on double the salary. Once you're in it's a career for life with many different options depending on preferences.

What is he really good at?

Can he apply for an entry job in NHS? Something like porter or records department? They have good benefits and he can work on some qualifications in the evenings. You can also go up the bands. I recommended this to a friend's dh in a similar position and he's been there about 6 months and has gone up a band already. He's also very happy and sees long term he could likely move forward another band or two. He has good work ethic which has been recognized.

Thanks for the replies.

He is meaning to do his maths and English, in fact hes got an appointment at the opening day on the 10th of January.

He seems to be good at admin, he does that side of the job good but says he doesnt want a job sat behind a desk.

I think he would be at anything like installing internet etc, maintenance. But then again beggars cant be choosers.