Vocational plumbing courses are run in your local technical school or colleges – and often include options to allow you to attend evening classes (so you can carry on with your current job before you switch career!).

Vocational courses normally require a school record (but not normally a particular school rank or grade). This is great if you’re more practical than academic!

These courses are excellent value for money – but they do tend to run for longer than an intensive private practical course. If you’ve already done a theory-based home-study course, you might be able to skip some modules and go straight in to the practical element.

There are some grants to help with your study fees – the school should be able to help you apply or visit a specialist website.

There are hundreds of courses in local colleges in every county, so use one of the big search engines to find your local college. For example, Ocean County Technical School has a range of vocational courses covering plumbing.