There’s often a skill that seem interesting, but I can’t see doing anything for me in my day-to-day life. What have you learned that was a lot more effort than the payoff was worth?

  • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I’m a trained electrician. Despite taking and passing a reputable school for it, I can’t get licensed to do it in my state because you have to have 2 years apprenticeship. You get an apprenticeship you have to go through a school supported by the union. The only school supported is the one they own.

    Despite being fully capable of wiring a building to code, installing a solar array or electric car chargers I can’t do shit with the information and it way a year and $2k fucking wasted.

    • Tehhund@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      That is fucked. Aren’t apprenticeships usually paid? They expect you to pay for it instead?

      • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        If I’d taken the time to call around and figure this out beforehand or picked a school that arranged the apprenticeships, wouldn’t be out the time and money.

        I’m not upset about it, I know more now and there’s plenty of dubious electricians that will inspect my work and sign off on it if I need to do anything. Plus I’m in mental health now which is my real passion.

        • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          The local schools exist, so why would anyone really think to check if a school is locally applicable? It’s a type of problem I see often, in general: you wouldn’t have known what precise things to research until you’re faced with the actual problem. Sometimes kind and scarred souls will blast their warnings across the relevant initial source of information, but most people just move on.

          But, that being said, that’s not a terrible amount of money for, presumably, a ton of relevant knowledge to any homeowner or home owning friends. I’d love some electrical knowledge and confidence, spent all my point son automotive. But I’m glad you found more passion in a different path, too.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Any chance you could get licensed in another state using what you know (without an apprenticeship) then seek licensing in your own state via some kind of reciprocity agreement with your home state?

      • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Unfortunately my state doesn’t recognize it unless you have work history in that state. If I had the ability to move to another state to work for a year I wouldn’t come back to this hell hole.

    • HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Anyway to get credit via past knowledge? Like, test out of apprenticeship if you can? You may be able to prove experience via hours worked on timecards.

      • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Unions are fantastic. The problem here is that after spending 2k and a year learning, I was told that the only way I could get the apprenticeship hours needed to get licensed is to spend another 2k and another year going to a different school for the exact same class using the exact same books because no one in my area will take you on unless you use this school.

        I cannot test out, I cannot transfer credit, I cannot skip it. Because this is the standard in place and going against it violates their agreements with the union, I cannot work in my city. I’m all for unions, but any organization can be corrupted and this is exactly what it is.