Kelly's BT Openreach Engineers

[Its_Me]

Hi all , im new to the site , had my telephone interview with Hays for Kellys last week , pasted that, now ive got my 11 day training at Dudley West Midlands, can anyone tell me more about the traing day and what its like to work for Kellys, Ive heard a load of bad things so looking for some good points lol,

Cheers.....

[Scubaboy]

the bad things about kellys are mostly a few years whilst on vm contract.Ive just finished the course with kellys and they teach you well.i am now doing a week buddied up with someone.its a bit daunting going up the poles but you are completely safe.

[Its_Me]

Originally Posted by Scubaboy

the bad things about kellys are mostly a few years whilst on vm contract.Ive just finished the course with kellys and they teach you well.i am now doing a week buddied up with someone.its a bit daunting going up the poles but you are completely safe.

I should be alright with the poles , ive been doing aerials and satellite for the last 10 years lol, whats involved in the first weeks training apart from the pole work ?...
do you get payed £40 per day training?

[stabilo]

I joined Kelly's a few weeks ago, Got trained near Coventry by a company called PQMS. Lots of building work going on. You get put up in a hotel and share a room with a stranger! I have to travel 60 odd miles to get to the first job. I thought it was going to be local. You are not fully insured on fault accidents to your van. First £1000 is paid by you. You can be sued by the general public/local authority so get public liability insurance. You are classified as self employed but pay tax upfront to be claimed back via a tax return. The umbrella company take £12 a week for the privilege of paying you. You are expected to do 5 jobs a day at £25 per completion. OK if they were pre-wired which hasn't been the case for the most this week. You wait a long time on the phone for a tone or another e side. Your jobs get audited by BT and if a fault (untidy wiring, green cabinet not cleaned out, no 'I was here' label on pole etc) is found in your work you loose the £25.

if you leave within a year you get your pay docked by £500. There is no holiday pay as you are self employed. Apart from that your van is outside your house and you use a fuel card but careful not to put the super diesel in as you will pay for it yourself.

[Scubaboy]

( Your jobs get audited by BT and if a fault (untidy wiring, green cabinet not cleaned out, no 'I was here' label on pole etc) is found in your work you loose the £25).
makes sure you do job properly though dosnt it
(You get put up in a hotel and share a room with a stranger! I have to travel 60 odd miles to get to the first job. I thought it was going to be local.)
try gettin a job with quinns where you have to pay your own hotel upfront.And try and even get a job these days

---------- Post added at 20:07 ---------- Previous post was at 20:04 ----------

you get £60 a day for training mate.and believe me ladder work and pole work are completely different

[andyb4828]

Its Me: Is your course on the 15th April?

---------- Post added at 11:09 ---------- Previous post was at 11:04 ----------

Stabilo: I've been put on the training course for the 15th April, is there a 'shadowing week/weeks' or is it a case of...there's your van, off you go? Alot of the other posts I've seen are from people who got laid off by Kelly's so naturally they are going to portray a bad image for them, just wondering if you could give me an idea of how many jobs you do in a day ect and what the management is like?
Cheers
Andy

[stabilo]

Hi Andy,

If you had no previous experience as a overhead installer (ie going up poles) you get buddied up for at least a week. You get a smart phone you use to get your jobs off. In order to get the completion recorded you need to do an Eclipse Test at the customers premise. I did my first drop wire with my buddy I think it should be priced up accordingly but its still only £25. Today was a bad morning (no jobs completed because of
bad routing/ no e side) the afternoon completed 2 with no problems and that was with an experienced engineer. In theory you can do 6 jobs a day if you are lucky. We haven't hit that lucky day yet! Your day starts around 6ish when you receive you jobs for the day on your phone and as I said before you may have to travel 60 odd miles to get there for 8. Its not the easiest way to make a living but every day is different and if you like people and doing a service type job it can be quite rewarding (mentally that is).

Apparently at Quinns they give you £60 a night for accommodation and food just to reply to Scubaboys comments.

[andyb4828]

That's brilliant mate thank you, I'll be getting buddied up then i guess as i have no overhead cabling experience. What does the 2 week course cover? Is it designed for complete beginners or is it expected that those there have some idea what they are doing?

[stabilo]

12 day course (saturdays included). First 4 days is with Kelly. going over Admin and H & S. Remainder with the training engineers and one day doing your New Road Street Works Act training. No previous experience required.

[andyb4828]

Oh right fair enough. Where about's are you working in the country? I'm looking forward to it...like you say not the easiest way to make a living but until my numbers come up in the lottery I'm happy with that!

[stabilo]

Lets say I'm south of Birmingham

[Scubaboy]

Yeah with Quinn's you have to pay for it first but with Kelly's they pay for the hotel upfront.

[dico]

hi all

i wouldnt mind getting into this my self in the yorkshire area. any ideas how i would go about it???

thanks

craig

[andyb4828]

Craig, I'm at the stage I am now through a company called Hays who gave me a call asking if I would be interested. However if you wanted to join someone like Kelly then I seem to recall them advertising on their website:
http://www.kelly.co.uk/careers/view-roles

[dico]

i dont really want to be working for a agency,
i suppose i could ring them and find out what the crack is

your based in the midlands arnt u andy?? im wanting yorkshire work