To think about quitting my WFH job to re-train as a plasterer?

[confusedlady10]

Would I be stupid or unreasonable to consider quitting my job and re-train in a new field as a plasterer? I am a 29 year old single mum WFH in a dead end call centre job. It’s quite niche as it involves investigating specialist fraud cases but is still mainly a customer service job. The pay isn’t that great (£2k pm after tax living in London) and I’m fortunate to be able to live in cheap accommodation through family, but it’s not sustainable.

I’ve had applied for hundreds of jobs to try in earn more money and elevate, even paid someone to re-write my CV and do an extra qualification in my field within finance. But I don’t have a degree and regardless, I’m struggling to stand out. Hundreds of applicants, countless ghosting's and unfortunatelys after an odd interview. Finance, admin and banking sectors seem to be too saturated whether remote, hybrid or office.

So I was thinking to quit my job, apply for universal credit of some sort (started doing research on what they can support me with) and then hopefully retrain as a plasterer in a course to try and better myself as I heard that there’s good money if you are a skilled labour and could hopefully work for myself or another company. I would hopefully be able to work it around my son and less competition for the jobs I am not getting. Am I wasting my time and dreaming? (I have no experience in this and trying anything to earn more at the moment, whilst still applying for jobs like crazy, pls be nice!) 😣

À lot of jobs which involve sitting in front of a computer all day are going to be taken by AI in the near future, so for that reason alone it might be worth looking around.

I listened to an interview with one of the founders of AI a few months ago and when asked how he would advise his children, he said 'Train to be a plumber'. Or maybe a plasterer?

It's hard to say. Do you know much about what being a plasterer entails and whether you would enjoy it? Is there something in particular that attracts you to it? YANBU if it's what you want, just make sure you look into it properly before you go for it. Good luck! Btw, do you mind me asking about your current job and how you found it, I'm desperately trying to move from an active job to a WFH job due to ill health so I'm the opposite to you really! 😄

See if a college near you does the city and guilds 10 week DIY home maintenance course or 10 week DIY plastering course. The DIY home maintenance covers building a stud wall, skimming it, tiling it, basic plumbing, basic joinery, so it would give you a feel for where your strengths lie. It's a brilliant course... Plumbing is NOT my superpower - ha ha!!

I did a plastering course many years ago when intending to flip a house to see how much of it I could do myself and I am just about 5 ft tall. It's very very very physical; from lugging bags of plaster around and mixing, to standing in one spot while shifting the right amount of plaster from hawk to trowel and then moving around to the next bit - and you could be doing that for a day in a standard room and then up and down ladders etc. I, because of those factors was very slow; and there is a knack to getting the layer of the right thickness all over, not letting the plaster dry out etc etc. The trainee laborers on my course had done 2 walls and a ceiling while I was still on one wall. I am in awe when I see 'proper' plasterers at work 😄
However! We do have a local female plasterer who is kept very busy, according to her facebook page - so I would say if you are physically fit with good knees (!) and good upper body strength then there is no reason why you should not go for it.

im surprised you say this (I’m from a family of sparkies). I do have to clarify/ reinforce that ALL trades are physical and physically dangerous. They all have a high chance of being out of work well before 65 due to injury (my dad was done by 50 with a frozen shoulder, my older brother at 56 with a similar career ending injury)

that said, I would not say it’s the most physical job. Electricians come in and do wiring, they wouldn’t, for example take down walls (certainly alone) in a rewire. There is a lot of loft work / floorboard work and a lot of squeezing into small places (dad used to take me to do this when I was little 😂) but I would argue it’s nowhere near the most physical trade.

the advantage of being an electrician is you are the highest paid trade- no one wants to pay you to do work a cheaper labourer, general builder or plasterer could do instead. The disadvantage is you wait around a lot for other trades so scheduling work can be tiring and irritating.

I would! I am trying to find out how to contact my old school and apply for my GCSE certificates that were lost years ago. They want 5-6 GCSES between A*-C so I am having to scramble to remember what I got and not sure if I did as I moved around a lot at that time. Also, education and exams were never my forte. Sigh. Thank you.

if it's what floats your boat

I have a feeling that was an unintended pun, but it made me smile. (A "float" is a tool used in plastering)

He’s clueless. Trades have been automating at speed, and are 20 years ahead of AI in that journey. I don’t know why people who work on computing are so clueless about building work.

I know British Gas are crying out for engineers and provide training- my friend’s daughter has just been taken onto a training programme and loves it. I think you would need some good reliable childcare support as I think there is initially some residential training. Good luck with your career change ambitions!

I was offered an job once to learn to be a plumber, I kinda wished I had. I did photography instead. I most certainly have earned more as a plumber..
I say go for whatever makes you happy OP. A good plasterer is worth his or her weight in gold too, but it is hard, dirty and physical work. Best of luck with whatever you chose and at least you've still all your admin skills to fall back on later in life.

Considering it, but now I'm thinking about my height and weight and some of these comments I didn't think about, so maybe plastering might not be feasible and I'd have to look into DIY, or basic plastering and DIY. Thank you.

Not quite the same but my DD19 is about to graduate as an Agricultural Engineer/Technician. She works on huge tractors and combine harvesters and has always had amazing strength, partly from riding horses and owning her own. However, she really had to up the gym sessions when she started due to women being smaller and having less strength. That's not being sexist at all by the way!

Also, I work in the Electrical industry and Electrician's are really beginning to be hit by COL. People do not have money to spend anymore so are not having work done unless absolutely necessary.

That said, good luck and I hope you smash it, I'm so proud of my DD and love seeing her thrive in a male dominated world.

A trade is a good idea, but only if you’re confident you’ll have either made enough money to retire, built a business where you’re not doing the hard physical work, or you are super fit and able to continue working past your early 50s. Most of the trades I know are knackered by the time they leave their 40s - bad backs, aches and pains, and just being bloody knackered all the time.

What about decorator? Lots of people would prefer a female decorator. You could do a pt interior design course as well and cater to the Farrow and Ball market to earn better wages?

I would look at apprenticeships near you Find an apprenticeship - GOV.UK

You get paid and time off for training and after a set period will be qualified & often times offered a job by the employer you are doing your apprenticeship with. My husband works in the motor trade and has an apprentice. He's paid about £15k for the 3 years of his training which includes 1 day a week at college. Once qualified technicians are usually on around £35-40k but can be up to £60k or more if they take on workshop management. It's physically hard and most are ready or need to leave late 50's so it's necessary to plan finances accordingly!

Thank you! I always worried about my age applying for apprenticeships.

Life’s short go and retrain, a friend’s son earns a fortune.

If by your own admission you're in poor physical shape and not of a technical bent, most trades would really not be for you, and many need a lengthy training period.

Do plenty of research and be realistic about your capabilities to get something that's a good match.

I'd employ a female tradesperson in preference to a male one, all else being equal, as they are probably less likely to get up to anything shady.

Surely your last sentence should read

“ I still look back occasionally and regret not taking the plunger.”

sorry.

Bloody hell, that's so ridiculous!😱

I got to do technical studies in high school years ago and got good grades for the work I did(DF is a retired joiner so learned loads from him). I enjoyed it but knew it was a lot of hard grafting involved so didn't choose any of these heavily male dominated vocations (went into a traditional one for women instead🤣).

My husband is an electrician and would completely disagree with you re fitness. Most of his work just now involved pulling huge bundles of wires through walls, crawling under floor boards, climbing up scaffolding etc. He's at the age now where it's really taking its toll on him. His knees are in agony!

Seeing the hours he needs to do I'm glad we don't have children as he wouldnt ever manage to be around for childcare and when on site usually can't access his phone so would be useless in emergencies.

If I had my time again I would definitely train in a trade and be my own boss. Funnily enough, I was walking past a college earlier today and wondering if I was too old to train as a decorator!!

Yes one of world's most renowed AI experts is 'clueless'. Sure.

I don't think he was saying that AI will never take over the trades. Who knows what AI wil be capable of 50 or even 10 years from now? What he was saying was that, for now, the trades are relatively safe. Whereas admin type jobs are already being lost to AI in large numbers and will probably be seen as a quaint relic 10 years from now.

Sorry I've only skimmed your post.

Absolutely go an re train, 29 is not old at all! But from everything you've said I don't think you'd be able for plastering. It's a very physical job!!

Have you looked into welding at all? I am in Ireland so not much help but the local boards are always running short courses and huge factories hire them all because they are in high demand.

My husband is a fitter and he is honestly amazing at what he does and can build so many thing, you wouldn't need to be that good. Just weld a few bits together.

Maybe a crane driver?

What about painter and decorator? I would imagine its not as physically demanding as plastering.