If the office life isn’t for you because you prefer working with your hands and learning practical skills you should consider learning a trade skill. These skills are in high demand here in the UK due to a countywide skills shortage. Learning a trade skill can be fun and rewarding and you won’t need to spend years in University before starting your career. Here are more reasons why you should start training with Access Training Academies.

Gain these qualifications and learn the practical skills required with Access Training Academies.

Access Training intensive courses are built to suit you, whether you are a beginner wanting to learn a new skill, or a professional wanting to enhance your qualifications, there is a course to suit you.

If you'd like advice about any of the courses we offer we are more than happy to help. Feel free to contact us today.

The UK is currently suffering from a shortage of trade skills. As these trade skills are in such a high demand there has never been a better time to train. Working a manual trade is a rewarding career choice and you don’t have to spend years in University to start. Learn more about why you should qualify in a trade with Access Training from our trade infographic.

You can complete the necessary qualifications and these specialist courses with Access Training.

Choose from Essential, Professional and Premier intensive courses – something to suit everyone whether you are a beginner or just enhancing your skills!

Contact Access Training now to find out more about any of the course packages we offer.

Has your job become stale and unsatisfying? Perhaps you've reached a dead end in your career, and feel that you aren't fulfilling your potential?

There are many reasons why your working life might have begun to feel dissatisfying, but many of these reasons can be resolved by taking action and becoming your own boss. Don't worry - you won't be alone!

Thousands of people in the UK alone have already taken the opportunity to change careers and work for themselves. Want to know why? Here are 5 advantages of being your own boss...

1. Choose your working hours.

Being your own boss means, first and foremost, that you can have full autonomy over your working week. This is a major benefit of becoming your own boss: you decide when you work and how long you work for, as opposed to spending most of your working day being told what to do and how to do it.

This autonomy means that you don't have to follow the orders of a nagging employer; furthermore, studies around the world have shown that the ability to choose one's working schedule improves general well-being at work, meaning you are more inclined to want to work harder and better.

2. Realise your full potential.

Having full control over your working pattern allows you to really push yourself and achieve your full potential. As well as having a flexible diary, you can also work as much or as little as you wish, without feeling confined or pushed to the limits by the standard 9-5 hours of your previous job.

This way, you can reach your full potential at your own pace, and being your own boss is the best way to achieve this.

3. Master your trade.

If your current career doesn't require any specific skills that you can develop or improve upon, you might begin to feel disengaged. The desire to have a skill or occupation that requires practice and patience - something that never comes to a dead end and is always giving you new goals and objectives to complete - is inherent in humans.

If you aren't working towards perfecting a certain skill, you might easily become bored and restless. Working as a tradesperson frequently brings up surprises or new challenges that allow you to keep enjoying and focusing on the work you're doing, meaning that you're always engaged.

Being your own boss means you can essentially choose what jobs you want to tackle, meaning each job is always different to the last in some way.

4. Gain a sense of purpose.

Having a sense of purpose is essential to maintaining your enthusiasm in your job. If you feel like you are easily replaceable and the work you do is of no great worth, you are more likely to lose interest in it.

Tradespeople are a vital, respected part of society and have been so since the beginning of modern civilisation. For as long as a population grows and needs houses built, repairs made and new appliances installed, there will always be a place for tradespeople in society. So there is little chance of feeling undervalued if you start your own plumbing or carpentry business!

5. Take the brakes off your income.

If you are employed by someone else and receiving a fixed income, then no matter how hard you work, it will always be a struggle to raise your salary. However, one of the greatest benefits of being your own boss is that you have more control over how much you earn. When you're no longer at the mercy of annual performance reviews, your earnings will depend entirely on how hard you work and the opportunities you are able to find.

As your career progresses, you will be the one to reap the rewards, which will not only be of huge benefit to you financially, but will also give you a greater sense of achievement.

Hundreds of Access Training students have gone on to do just this and use the skills and qualifications they learned at our training centres to start their own businesses and enjoy the freedom that this brings.

Browse Trade Courses >

If you've had enough of working for other people and seek the freedom that comes with being your own boss, enquire today about a course at Access Training or call us on 0800 345 7492. With the help of our course advisers, you're bound to find the right trade course for you.

The last few days have been a reminder that winter is well and truly here, with the temperature dropping and the country getting its first innings of both frost and snow. Even with energy bills on the rise, it's important to keep warm during this time of the year and make sure that your heating system is working properly. According to Government statistics, the 2012-13 winter period saw the largest excess mortality rate since 2008-09, with deaths coinciding with influenza, RSV and the cold weather.

The run-up to Christmas can be a busy time for plumbers and gas engineers, with consumers coming with all kinds of problems including broken down boilers and frozen pipes. For the tradespeople reading this it'll be good for business, but for the rest of us here is a few pieces of advice to keep away any unwanted costs as well as making sure your home stays warm.

The UK had a pretty good summer this year so it's likely that you haven't turned the heating on for a while, so it'll be good practice to check it regularly to make sure it's all in working order. Suddenly starting it up in a cold snap could result in it freezing up and potentially breaking down. Regular boiler checks by a professional plumber and gas engineer are important and should be done once a year, including servicing according to the manufacturer's instructions. Not doing so not only puts you at risk of forking out for repair costs, but in the case of gas boilers also puts you and your family at risk of possible carbon monoxide poisoning.

Another handy tip is to bleed your radiators. If you can feel cold patches on them it may be due to some air trapped inside that's blocking the system. It's easy to do and won't require the help of a plumber, but should that fail it might be blocked with something else. In this case the radiator might need a chemical flush and you will require a Gas Safe engineer to get the job done.

Most importantly, and this really goes for any sort of DIY maintenance work - KNOW YOUR LIMITS! If there's something you know that you can't do, don't try and do a botched job of it anyway as you'll end up having to pay even more to get it repaired properly.

----

With plumbers and gas engineers needed more than ever during these winter months, now if the perfect time to qualify as a plumber and/or gas engineer with an intensive Access Training course. We not only offer comprehensive training for beginners, but also ACS reassessment to those needing to give their qualifications an update. To find out more contact one of our course advisers on 0800 345 7492.

It’s happened to us all at some time or other, the job we have been putting off because it’s a little bit too big or we’re not sure how to do it. We bite the bullet and decide to get a tradesman in to do the work for us. Which tradesman? Where do we go to find out if the voice at the end of the phone is in fact a ‘quality’ tradesman and not John Wayne with a screwdriver?

You could go to www.trustmark.org.uk

TrustMark is a government endorsed scheme that regularly checks that the registered tradesmen are providing their customers with the quality service and workmanship members of the public expect and deserve (quite rightly). Trustmark registered firms have to;

1. A firm's technical skills have been independently checked through regular on-site inspections, as well as checks on their trading record and financial status;
2. Firms have signed up to a code of practice that includes insurance, good health and safety practices and customer care;
3. The approved scheme operator has checked and will continue to monitor the firm's quality of work, trading practices and customer satisfaction;
4. Firms are able to offer an Insurance Backed Warranty;
5. Deposit Protection Insurance is available for consumers in the event a firm should cease trading;
6. Firms will be able to tell you about any building regulations you must comply with and may also be able to provide appropriate certificates;
7. If you have a problem or disagreement with the firm, there will be a clear and user-friendly complaints procedure to help resolve the issue;
8. The scheme is fully supported by Government, the building industry and consumer protection groups.
9. All of these checks will give you - Peace of Mind.

When employing a tradesman TrustMark recommends you take the following advice;

• Be specific and set out a detailed, clear brief when requesting at least three quotes.
• Ask friends and family for a recommendation and check the TrustMark website to ensure that the tradesman is registered for the particular trades you require
• Use a firm that advertises using a landline phone number and be very wary of those only willing to give you a mobile number
• Seek references, speak to previous customers and if a reasonable sized job, visit previous jobs
• Don't just go with the cheapest, consider your ability to communicate with the firm and the quality of their work
• Only pay for work that has been done and not by advance payments
• If materials need to be bought in advance by the tradesman, it is reasonable that the customer is asked to pay a fair percentage of these costs as the job progresses
• Always use a written contract as it offers you protection if anything does go wrong
• Agree in writing any changes to the agreed contract value and ensure these are agreed in writing before the work is done.

If you use a TrustMark tradesman your work should be carried out to a high quality and if things go wrong (God forbid) you, through the scheme, have a means of recourse. That has to give you Peace of mind.

- Mark Jenkins

Mark Jenkins is the Electrical Course Development Manager at Access Training. If you would like to learn more about electrical work and maintenance, you might want to consider one of the many electrical training courses we offer. These are available for both DIY enthusiasts AND people looking to gain the vital qualifications needed to make the career change to become an electrician. To find out more give us a call on 0800 345 7492.

(Part 1 of this article can be viewed HERE)

Now that we know what causes brickwork to need re-pointing and how to prepare for it, it's time to look at the procedure itself for getting your brickwork back up to scratch!

POINTING PROCEDURE

You will require a hawk to carry the mortar, a pointing trowel and a soft brush

• Always start at the top of the walling to be pointed and work downwards to prevent dropped mortar marking the cleaned brickwork below.
• Make sure the joints are clear of any loose old mortar.
• Load the hawk with mortar flattened to about a 10mm thickness.
• Using your pointing trowel, pick up small amounts of mortar from the hawk and press firmly into the “perp” joints, (these are the vertical joints). Carefully fill each perp joint using a second filling if necessary.
• After filling the perp joints start on the bed joints (these are the horizontal joints)
• Carefully fill each bed joint with a second application if required.
• After completing an area of approximately one square meter, finish the mortar off with a pointing trowel. **
• Apply the mortar filling to the rest of the wall.
• When sufficiently dry, brush off with a fine brush to remove any excess mortar.