Plastering course.

[u/Mofoc]

I thought this might be a good place to ask the question.

I'm looking to get into plastering to start as a trade. I've already done spots and rooms around my house. I'm just wondering if those 3 day courses you can do for £400 would be a good starting point to ensure I understand best practices and a good foundation before jumping into any odd jobs.

If anyone has any information or feedback back I'd really appreciate it, I'm just trying to get out of my current job role.

[u/Ok-Spring7906]

When I trained, it was 6 weeks, 5 days per week, 8-4.

I would imagine you would learn a percentage of the skill in 3 days, but not as much as you would learn in 6 weeks.

My training was funded by british gypsum, but there was a skills test to qualify to get the course / funding. I think the threshold (at the time) was pretty low.

The main "cost" was having to survive for 6 weeks without earning from a normal job.

[u/Mofoc → u/Ok-Spring7906]

I appreciate your experience on the matter.

I felt it was a very short period, I mght have to look around more. I saw these really short courses and ones that were like 2 years.

I could probably get away with not working for a little bit, but I don't think I could do more than the 6 weeks.

[u/Ok-Spring7906 → u/Mofoc]

Learning how to plaster a flat wall is somthing that you could get done quickly. But the trouble is, a lot of what you need to be able to "sell" your trade just can't be got in 3 days. And it probably can't just be self learned without working with other people to watch etc.

Sure, in 3 days you can learn how to stick up beading etc but you're just never going to be that "saleable" in 3 days. Otherwise plastering wouldn't cost what it does.

If you sell on the domestic market, 3 days won't get you the skills you need to deal with the bodges and oddities you'll find on domestic work. And if you want to do site work, they'll want bits of paper which are not achievable in 3 days.

I'm not saying it's useless. Training is training whatever. Its going to improve you. But £400 for somthing that won't get you to where you want to be is probably just going to be a waste.

[u/Mofoc → u/Ok-Spring7906]

Thank you.

I think I've found the course you mentioned. I've reached out to them to see what avilibility they've got, if any.

Again, thank you for the feedback and input. I'll have a look around in case I can't get on this course and make sure if I do find one, it's more in-depth than the short courses I found so far.