I was working in the building maintenance sector for many years which involved working with locks at the time I wasn't sure what I was doing and when the building closed and sold by the city council I decided to look further into the locksmith trade and decided to look for training  back then this was not easy to find but after doing some research on the online forums I found a local trainer who insisted that I provided a full police discloser and when this was completed I engaged on a 10 day course.

The trainer was very much focused on non-destructive entry (NDE), and I was taught with many specialised tools, including picks for both cylinder and mortice locks, both curtained and non curtained and specialised British Standard mortice locks  (BS)  On day 10 I went on the road with the locksmith which was known as the warrant run this was described as work experience. I came away with a lot to think about, as well as a basic tool kit. This was back in 1999, over the following year, I acquired more tools and secured a position in another building maintenance role, and was lucky enough to collect a lot of disused locks which I learnt to pick and invested more money in decoders. 

I relocated from Nottingham to Coventry and started to trade and after a little advertising. I managed to get some work from that and a local key-cutting shop, but I needed more, so I decided to get into warrant work.  This kept me going for many years. I then relocated to Hertfordshire, which got me a foothold into London, and then moved once again closer to central London. And within 6 months, lock-down came, and I was stuck, and I decided to retire.

That's my journey. Would I do it again? NO, if you want some advice on getting into the industry, ask me. But in all honesty, it is not easy. I subcontracted for a few companies and was working on a 60% cut, which was quite good as it was normally 40% so they were financing the advertising, and I was reaping the benefits, but going out at stupid o'clock in the morning on a lockout was not my idea of fun. Looking back, I enjoyed the warrant work; it was a 9-5 day and not bad money, and yes, it was quite stressful, but I liked it.

In this day and age, you will find a trend that goes something like this: a person does a course and is sold a dream after around 6 months to a year, that dream becomes a nightmare, and they then provide training and resell the dream, and that's about it. As I said, it's not easy, but there is a way, just ask me, and I have 2 options, but they are not cheap. But my advice is free, it's then up to you.