Hello everyone

I am 37 years old and have reached a point in my career where i feel its time for a change and I am looking to train to be a CNC operator. I am a carpenter and joiner by trade and i have also worked as an aluminium fabricator. I also have about 3 years AutoCad experience producing working drawings for the aluminium company. I have had 3 jobs in the last 18 months all of which have ended with redundancy with short time in between. I have now been out of work for 2 months have applied for over 40 jobs and not had a single interview. I feel the building industry is in taters along with many other industries at the moment and feel it is time for a change in career.

I have decided im going to look into a career as a CNC operator as this has been on my mind for a long time now but i have never done anything about it. I feel i have the technical ability to achieve this, and i am looking for some advice as to how to enter the profession. If anybody can offer me any advice on where to start i would be very gratful as i have trolled the internet and all i can find are posts for qualified CNC operators no trainee and opertunities for 16 - 19 yrs. I'm hoping that somebody may be able to advise me as a cnc operator or a potential employer what they would look for in a cnc operator so i know what i need to do to fulfill my abition, be it go back to college (which courses) beg to companies offering my services for minimum wage to get an opertunity to train. whatever is required any advice would be very much appreciated.

I fully understand that this is a very highly skilled job and i'm under no illussions that this will be a walk in the park, but I am prepared to put in the time and effort to get there, i just need pointing in the right direction.

Thank you

Paul