100,000 new sparkies

[ricardo123]

I was reading somewhere a month or so ago that currently this year alone 100,000 new sparkies will be trained up. 95% of those will be trained on the short courses , i.e. the 4-8 week courses, the other 5% being apprentices or those completing NVQ's etc. Does this spell the end for Domestic Installers, same thing has been happening with Driving Instructing, .i.e. its become very hard to make a living from it(I mean purely Domestic Installers here). Any comments anyone?

 

[ecclescake]

I'm in the same boat sausage this trade is going down the pan quicker than man utd but at least i find that funny. You can tell the state of the trade when the jobs unite section is full of " will work for free for experience or qualified but never done a tap on site".

 

[Johno]

There may be less experienced people out there charging less, but there are also many customers out there willing to pay a bit more for a reputable spark.

 

[Johno]

I wrote that on another thread! Don't know how it ended up on here!

 

[ricardo123]

In the latest issue of ECA (Electrical Contractors Association) magazine the new president Diane Johnson has issued a stark warning about "the impending skills shortage in the UK"!!!!!!!!!

 

[poppypiesdad]

And now you can be a meter swaper in 19 weeks paid course
Directgov jobs and skills search - Job details

Wonder how long you have to sell your soul to them to get on this course 5 years???

 

[kentster]

As i'm doing one of these 4 week 'fast track' courses I thought i'd add my say too, hopefully not to get shot down in flames.....

For some people (like myself) who work Mon-Fri in a current job its impossible to reskill in another trade any other way apart from these courses where you can study at home and then do a week at a time around your work commitments. The problem does lie with getting actual experience, which unless you are lucky and have a relative/friend who works in the industry to take you on as a mate, will have to be gained on the job. You can only get experience by doing the work and we all have to start somewhere.

I wonder how many sparks on here started out doing diy electics in their own home reading books from the library and continued getting experience by doing work and are now highly skilled??

This is the same in other industries as well. I've read on this thread the IT industry mentioned and the same thing is happening here - 4 week course in India for a similar price as i'm paying for the sparky stuff and I can come back with some high end Cisco qualifications (CCNA & CCNP/CCVP) but never actually seen any of the kit or installed it.

Anyway, at least i'll have had some training and will be putting in safe installations, a person at work just had a Polish spark do a load of work as "they were a lot cheaper than the other quotes" and now has a big bill from a proper spark to put everything right. I wouldn't be worried about people like me coming in with cheaper quotes so i can get experience, i'd worry about 'diyers' coming in even cheaper than that and potentially killing people......

Rant over ;-)

 

[oldtimer]

Kenster
I wish you well in your endevours as I have no axe to grind the only thing I expect (yes I know it is a strong word) is that you are comitted and professional to the job you are doing when you see comments regarding "5 weekers" and our "Polish cousins" the comments are not out of spite but frustration from guys like myself who spent 6 years not 5 weeks getting the skills and experiance to do the job right and remember all that is asked is a bit of respect because this forum was not started by 5 weekers it was started by the 6-10-20-30 years guys to share knowledge and sometimes blow a bit of steam off these same guys are not selfish because if they were this forum would not exist. Also remember this may sound hard but you cannot expect to be lifted and laid by guys who had to put up with (sometimes) a lot of crap to get here why ? because when I started there was 10 of us and at the end there was 6 who got qualified the other 4 fell by the way side. Yes we are serious about our trade because if we get it wrong people can die and we will go to jail not maybe go to jail but will because the law looks at us as technically cometent people ie we have no get out of jail card

 

[ricardo123]

oldtimer that was in the days when part 2 was a seriously hard exam, when I did mine many people could not pass it, I have heard its now multiple choice, I am sure people still fail it but I bet its nowhere as hard as it used to be. We all need experience and you don't really start learning until you have run your own jobs, however, how would doctors feel if suddenly anyone could be a doctor doing a 4 week course. To get to an approved electrician status used to take nearly as long as becoming a doctor. People will start to see the sparky trade as a lesser profession if they haven't done so already.

Kentster well done to you for having the get up and go for doing it, not having a go at you, it just annoys me when this part p domestic installer scheme was created it was meant to be about safety, you can't have someone doing a 4 week course and being a competent electrician, its not right, it takes years to know what you are doing that's why there are apprenticeships or nvq's if you are older to do.

They should have stuck with the JIB grading for allowing people to do electrical work and only sold electrical items to JIB graded electricians if they were concerned about safety.

 

[steve58]

"What will they know after 4 weeks"? easy how to undercut everyone else. no wonder i can't get decent jobs anymore

 

[oldtimer]

oldtimer that was in the days when part 2 was a seriously hard exam, when I did mine many people could not pass it, I have heard its now multiple choice, I am sure people still fail it but I bet its nowhere as hard as it used to be. We all need experience and you don't really start learning until you have run your own jobs, however, how would doctors feel if suddenly anyone could be a doctor doing a 4 week course. To get to an approved electrician status used to take nearly as long as becoming a doctor. People will start to see the sparky trade as a lesser profession if they haven't done so already.

Kentster well done to you for having the get up and go for doing it, not having a go at you, it just annoys me when this part p domestic installer scheme was created it was meant to be about safety, you can't have someone doing a 4 week course and being a competent electrician, its not right, it takes years to know what you are doing that's why there are apprenticeships or nvq's if you are older to do.

They should have stuck with the JIB grading for allowing people to do electrical work and only sold electrical items to JIB graded electricians if they were concerned about safety.

Ricardo your comment regarding they should only sell electrical fittings to JIB card holder a bit like gas fittings via a old corgie card well speaking to the Electrofix guys I asked why hive off the electrical and plumbing and they said in preperation for future laws/rules to bring sparks into line with the gas guys

 

[ricardo123]

Now if that were to be true then good news all round for safety and the business of being an electrician. I am often going to quote for jobs these days where the householder has done most of the work themselves and they just want it signed off, will stop that from happening.

 

[Essexboy7]

A mate of mine got made redundant after 20 years in IT and asked my advice about doing a 5 week sparkie course.I explained to him that once he has paid five and a half grand for it the fact that he knows nothing will only be the start of his problems.Then he has to go and buy a van and a couple of grands worth of drills and tools.If he goes on a private job and gets in trouble or comes across an unexpected problem he has no wide network of sparky mates to phone up for advice.He is not in the loop so sparks wont be phoning him up telling him where there is work.I asked him if he went on a site and needed help would he honestly expect someone like me who sees him as a mickey mouse spark and a threat to my own job to give him help and advice?After our conversation he binned the idea and now works as a mini cab driver.Loads of people who do these courses will find that they dont make any money out of it

 

[markc123]

Essexboy despite that the thread is over 2 years old...well said.

 

[GLENNSPARK]

just reading through some of this....
and i cant believe some of the soft/indifferent stance being taken by some posters in here....yes im know its an old thread....
so i just hope folk have toughened up on these 5 week courses by now....
i`d ban and do away with the lot of them i would..mark my words....

 

[telectrix]

but then the scams would lose a lot of their fodder and push up the subscriptions to maintain their gravy train at the level to which they have become accustomed