Quiet August upskilling: qualifications that pay back fastest

August is quiet for a lot of trades, and a quiet week is the cheapest time to be off the tools.

The mistake is booking whatever looks interesting. A course costs the fee and the days you do not earn, so it has to bring work back.

Two questions sort it out: what am I turning away, and what is about to run out?

• List the jobs you turned down this year because you were not qualified or registered.
• List every card, ticket and registration you hold, with its expiry date.
• Renew anything that lapses in the next six months.
• Then pick one new course that opens up work you are already being asked for.
• Count the full cost: the fee and the lost days.

A lapsed ticket does not just cost the renewal fee. It can stop you working, or stop you signing off your own jobs.

Put every expiry date in your calendar with a reminder three months before. Some assessments book up weeks ahead, and autumn is a busy season for them.

Examples to check, depending on your trade:

• Gas: Gas Safe registration is renewed every year, and the ACS assessments behind it every five years.
• Electrical: your scheme membership and its regular assessment, and whether your wiring regulations qualification matches the current edition.
• Plumbing: unvented hot water and water regulations tickets, which run out.
• Site work: cards such as CSCS, plus any access or plant tickets.
• Everyone: first aid, which normally lasts three years, and asbestos awareness if you work in older buildings.

Your scheme or awarding body has the exact dates. Check with them, not from memory.

Go back through this year's messages. What did people ask for that you had to pass on?

If the same request comes up every month, that is your course. You already have the customers.

Good signs:

• You are asked for it often.
• It fits the jobs you already do, so it adds to a visit you were making anyway.
• Fewer local trades hold it.
• It lets you sign off work you currently hand to someone else.

Bad signs: nobody has asked for it, it needs kit you do not own, or you would have to find a whole new type of customer.

Manufacturer courses are often cheap or free, and short.

The payback is practical: faster fault-finding on the products you fit most and, with some brands, an accredited installer status that lets you offer a longer guarantee.

One day on the make you fit every week is usually worth more than a general course.

A two-day course costs £400. You normally earn £220 a day, so the two days off cost another £440. The real cost is £840.

If it lets you take one extra job a month at £180, it has paid for itself in five months.

If it lets you take a job you are asked for every week, it has paid for itself in five weeks.

Run that sum before you book. If you cannot name the jobs it will bring, do not book it.

• Write the turned-down list from this year's messages.
• Write the expiry list from your cards and registration letters.
• Book any renewal due before February.
• Cost one new course with the sum above.

To a customer whose job you cannot yet take:

Thanks for asking. That is not something I am qualified to sign off at the moment, so I would not want to take it on. I am booked on the training in [month]. Shall I get in touch once that is done?