Are you though?
In the case of inspections, you're being paid to assess the condition of an installation - how might one go about this if the intention is to learn as you go? Should the first fifty customers be offered a discounted rate as no guarantee can be given about the thoroughness of an inspection? What use is a report if no one can stand over its findings?
How do you tell the customer that they are getting a discount because you are learning on the job
The intention is always to learn as you go, but others in here are saying competency isn't gained until several years of shadowing some other guy who has the same qualification as you.
I think that's nonsense for reasons i already outlined.
Everyone in the trade is always learning something new no matter how much experience and knowledge they have as things are continuingly changing
The thing with inspection and test you need to have a reasonably broad knowledge base of installations as you could be tasked with producing EICR's on installations that could be 50 -60 years old and in some cases even older, it isn't acceptable to just tell the customer that the installation needs rewiring to the 18th edition when the installation could be perfectly ok for continued use with or without some minor upgrade works
I know a few guy's who don't have the 2391 who can inspect and test every bit as competently if not better than some who have a 2391 ticket, would you pull rank on those guy's because you have the 2391 rather than learn from them
The qualification proves the competency otherwise you wouldn't pass it. Those who want to gate keep electrics think otherwise but that's fine because they only live on the internet.
Do you understand what you are doing when you sign an EICR
I despise this sweeping type of comment. I mean I served my time well within your "good days range" eg much more than 20 years ago.
But - The type of post and statements such as not as skilled/competent/up to standard as they used to be ? Does that mean that all of us who passed our apprenticeships in the 70's and onwards are ---- teachers ? Or are we all of a sudden bringing up our kids to be stupid ?
It's not a zero sum game this point im making, If all the kids coming through trades are not up to standard then who the hell is teaching them ? Who is bringing them up ? Who is making them entitled ?
Might be bigging myself up a tad but thinking back I have had maybe 10 apprentices that I taught from start to finish all of them passed their respective trade tests and completed full apprenticeships ? Does that mean im some sort of god tradesman who can impart knowledge onto pimply teenagers where the rest of the country according to some/many cant ? I don't think it does to be honest.
Too many tradesmen give it "kids these days" "I haven't got the time too...." not like the sparks who taught me who obviously had all the time in the world to get the job done while taking the time to show us how and why.
As for the thread itself ? Obviously testing and inspection is rocket science and not one person would be able to spot the issues with the pictured socket or the poor resistance in the other example listed....OR it could actually just be basic stuff ?
@OP If you do a decent apprenticeship with someone who has at least half an intention of teaching you and on top of that you pass your 2391 and/or whatever other requirement is in place that particular year then you can test and inspect to a reasonable quality.
If you are new you will be slower, but if you are on a fixed price then nobody dies, nobody loses anything. As with anything in life the more you do it the more experience you pick up. Good luck charging much extra for that experience from your typical customer who wants and EICR, Although if you work for a company you might just earn yourself an extra 10p per hour.
But how many of those 10 apprentices have you taught in the last 20 years, like you I have trained a good number of apprentices around the tail end of the 90's and into the 00's I employed 3 apprentice's 2 were average and one was useless and only interested in what he was paid on Thursday and didn't even pass the AM2 after a number of attempts
Talking to a college lecturer I know who was an electrician before going into teaching around 15 years ago and he was counting down to retirement as the quality of the apprentices attending college was consistently falling with a good number having little interest in the trade other than the pay packet
The last 2 lads I mentored back in 2005 / 06 one has become a good electrician the other one who would probably made a better electrician unfortunately suffered a large number of mini strokes before being diagnosed about 12 years ago at 30 years old and was confined to a wheelchair and only has limited speech
So as much as you may despise the comments finding the right guy or gal who really has the commitment to make the grade is a rare find as playing games seems to take precedence to studying these days
