Hello all, I've just been perusing the AM2/E/S threads on here. Thought you might like a bit of a review.
If, like I did, you find yourself faced with the prospect of getting yourself an NVQ3 and AM2E - here's the low-down on it, peppered liberally with my opinions I'm afraid. I have waited patiently before speaking out because being disgruntled and not in the club wouldn't do at all would it
. Done it. Got badges and everything. Now it is time to vent.
I gave up my CP scheme for a couple of years (don't need it where I work). I decided to re register so that my parents don't have to have strangers doing their work etc. So nothing grand proposed, just a few bits here and there and maybe some third party inspection for the local council.
To my horror, I found that the criteria for membership had changed. As a lady of, well, some years, but with 25 years on the tools I was horrified. My beloved industry told me that I was not considered competent. I was angry but that wasn't going to get my Mum's DB changed.
I decided to bite the bullet. The NVQ3, well, the 2346-03 in my case, is OK, albeit tedious and time-consuming. I did mine on line using carefully positioned cameras for the zoom assessments. They expect to see you performing work on the site at which you are an apprentice though. Ooh kayyy, how does that work when all I'm trying to do is get my ability to notify back and I'm neither an apprentice nor am I on a construction site? Eventually, they agreed that so long as I showed all the jobs they wanted, I could do it anywhere.
I write from my loft den which now has a full steel conduit and trunking installation with daft bendy swivel lights (you wanna see conduit bending, I'll show you conduit bending....), running couplers and everything. Smoke alarms, smart switches, data, blah blah. The rest of it is the utterly over the top outside lights at my Mum's... and so on. You can do it, just prepare to lose any time off you have planned. It's kindof step by step through the portfolio work and you are not against the clock. As it happens I did quite a neat little install here, but it's not staying. Bad energy, and it makes me cross just looking at it and remembering.
My first written work was rejected. I'd looked at the things to do list and it asked about a job I'd done and what my considerations for it were. So I wrote all about how I arrived at my decision not to break the TNCS to an outhouse and why. Assessor man, who was really pleasant BTW, contacted me to say I was raising the bar too high for them and would I please stop submitting. We did the rest in question and answer sessions. All I needed to say was that 'I considered the earthing arrangement' doh.
In passing, the risk assessments required wouldn't save you from much - sooo basic. But it's what they want. They'll send you a template.
AM2E though - Where to start?
This flagship pinnacle of achievement which is the heart of the JIB/ECS requirement and similarly is these days the underpin for the CP schemes, is utterly flawed in my humble opinion. Here comes the vent...
If you came round my house to carry out electrical work and told me you were in a desperate hurry, I promise you I would turn you around and send you home on the spot. Why, I ask, would anyone expect their electrician to work in not just a hurry, but in a frantic rush? So strongly do I feel about this that if I meet anyone who passed it first time, within the time allocated, I would hesitate to have them on one of my sites. Info on my strategic fail and retake coming up for you.
I attended the preamble boot-camp for two days. Did you know that they are not permitted to tell you exactly what is expected of you in an AM2E/S on that boot camp? It is completely separate from the actual AM2E or AM2S (they're the same by the way). NET do actually disclaim the boot camp courses, but I didn't realise they were forbidden to teach the AM2E in that classroom. You get some good pointers though. When running couplers were discussed I spent a week working on them against the clock - there was no running coupler.
In that secret assessment room, behind all the cloaks and daggers, there were four bays. There were also grown men crying with the stress of it all and I don't blame them. The work we walked away from was shocking if you pardon the pun. All four distribution boards, and I include mine in that, were an absolute mess. They're not looking for you to produce a tidy, readable DB so don't bother using up time on that - just bung the cores in.
No work bench, you're precision cutting armoured cable and steel conduit on the floor.
I think I might have signed something to keep allegiance to the hush-hush so I can only talk about the parts which are already well publicised. YouTube will show you everything. But here are some;
Install a (mock) solar panel to a heating system. What? Unless I have a special extra qualification I will never be able to install solar.
Install a three phase motor using SY cable. What? did you say SY cable, that well known cable with all the standards and required acceptances for carrying power? To a motor???? You're having a laugh. I practiced that before hand. No, they're not asking you to do that so that you note it on the certificates as a derogation - that's a modern myth - which will become clear on the day. I reckon that was an error when designing the current bays and they've just left it in.
Bet you 50p that you turn over the ends of your cores before terminating? Not in there you don't, you don't have time. As before though - don't come work with me unless you do.
Install a 20mm plastic conduit with a bubble and a right angle bend (no inspection elbow) and pull 6 x (quite big mm) singles through it. I suppose it saves plastic and helps the polar bears but that is a tough ask. As before, when you come round mine to work - bring a suitable size conduit and I'd prefer to see you use an elbow please.
Wire up something in the wrong direction - read the drawings, no it isn't a typo, do it like the diagram.
So, realising that I was not going to have enough time and that there are certain modules you can buy as a retake. I started the module 'three phase motor and industrial socket, by putting in one single to the motor and screwing one saddle to the wall for the commando socket. I used that time on the other modules. I failed and it said ' not completed in the allocated time' for that module on the form. a few week's later I went back and paid the extra for that module only - effectively, I bought myself one hour 25 mins I think. I was glad of it.
I'm not bad with I&T and Fault finding so I did OK with those in the allocated time but you do know they're not real faults don't you? They're switched in with resistors hidden in the equipment. As such they behave a bit differently. Most of them are accessible to common sense but there are some that only tell you that it failed its inspection and test, so you have to find out what the fail was and then find the actual position of the fault. They come at you one at a time and I got confused by the heating one so I had to get a wiggle on with the rest. Yes, you can open up the heating control box - I thought we couldn't. The boot camp days are good for this part because there are only four (I think?) faults to use on the AM2E forms so it isn't like a normal fault find. If the breaker is tripping - it's a short to find and only a short. In our dreams?!
Online exam - revise your H&S before hand because you won't get books to refer to for those questions. The rest is regs and building regs, open book - you can do it. Loads of questions about prosumers installations in mine.
Inspection and test - just practice doing it in a stupid hurry, including filling the forms. Boot camp was good for that.
Safe isolation - learn it their way and leave your instinct and habits in the car. The GSH videos are really helpful. Re prove after your N-E test.
Talking of GSH and YouTube - they're helpful. I had them on loop for weeks. Triple the speed though!
No notebooks in the secret room, but you are allowed to leave and look at notes in your car. I didn't because I didn't want to waste any time. Have them there all the same in case you go to pieces.
So, that's about all I can tell you. I've previously said this on the IET forum, before it all started for me - Those who talk about this seem to be traumatised. It is traumatic. Bad enough being told by an algorithm that you are not competent, despite your years' of practice. Quite another thing being asked to produce rubbish work with neither hint nor intimation of good practice - and being rewarded for it.
Quite proud of this Gold card, that I don't need, though
Good luck - I did it - so can you.
Zs
If, like I did, you find yourself faced with the prospect of getting yourself an NVQ3 and AM2E - here's the low-down on it, peppered liberally with my opinions I'm afraid. I have waited patiently before speaking out because being disgruntled and not in the club wouldn't do at all would it
. Done it. Got badges and everything. Now it is time to vent.I gave up my CP scheme for a couple of years (don't need it where I work). I decided to re register so that my parents don't have to have strangers doing their work etc. So nothing grand proposed, just a few bits here and there and maybe some third party inspection for the local council.
To my horror, I found that the criteria for membership had changed. As a lady of, well, some years, but with 25 years on the tools I was horrified. My beloved industry told me that I was not considered competent. I was angry but that wasn't going to get my Mum's DB changed.
I decided to bite the bullet. The NVQ3, well, the 2346-03 in my case, is OK, albeit tedious and time-consuming. I did mine on line using carefully positioned cameras for the zoom assessments. They expect to see you performing work on the site at which you are an apprentice though. Ooh kayyy, how does that work when all I'm trying to do is get my ability to notify back and I'm neither an apprentice nor am I on a construction site? Eventually, they agreed that so long as I showed all the jobs they wanted, I could do it anywhere.
I write from my loft den which now has a full steel conduit and trunking installation with daft bendy swivel lights (you wanna see conduit bending, I'll show you conduit bending....), running couplers and everything. Smoke alarms, smart switches, data, blah blah. The rest of it is the utterly over the top outside lights at my Mum's... and so on. You can do it, just prepare to lose any time off you have planned. It's kindof step by step through the portfolio work and you are not against the clock. As it happens I did quite a neat little install here, but it's not staying. Bad energy, and it makes me cross just looking at it and remembering.
My first written work was rejected. I'd looked at the things to do list and it asked about a job I'd done and what my considerations for it were. So I wrote all about how I arrived at my decision not to break the TNCS to an outhouse and why. Assessor man, who was really pleasant BTW, contacted me to say I was raising the bar too high for them and would I please stop submitting. We did the rest in question and answer sessions. All I needed to say was that 'I considered the earthing arrangement' doh.
In passing, the risk assessments required wouldn't save you from much - sooo basic. But it's what they want. They'll send you a template.
AM2E though - Where to start?
This flagship pinnacle of achievement which is the heart of the JIB/ECS requirement and similarly is these days the underpin for the CP schemes, is utterly flawed in my humble opinion. Here comes the vent...
If you came round my house to carry out electrical work and told me you were in a desperate hurry, I promise you I would turn you around and send you home on the spot. Why, I ask, would anyone expect their electrician to work in not just a hurry, but in a frantic rush? So strongly do I feel about this that if I meet anyone who passed it first time, within the time allocated, I would hesitate to have them on one of my sites. Info on my strategic fail and retake coming up for you.
I attended the preamble boot-camp for two days. Did you know that they are not permitted to tell you exactly what is expected of you in an AM2E/S on that boot camp? It is completely separate from the actual AM2E or AM2S (they're the same by the way). NET do actually disclaim the boot camp courses, but I didn't realise they were forbidden to teach the AM2E in that classroom. You get some good pointers though. When running couplers were discussed I spent a week working on them against the clock - there was no running coupler.
In that secret assessment room, behind all the cloaks and daggers, there were four bays. There were also grown men crying with the stress of it all and I don't blame them. The work we walked away from was shocking if you pardon the pun. All four distribution boards, and I include mine in that, were an absolute mess. They're not looking for you to produce a tidy, readable DB so don't bother using up time on that - just bung the cores in.
No work bench, you're precision cutting armoured cable and steel conduit on the floor.
I think I might have signed something to keep allegiance to the hush-hush so I can only talk about the parts which are already well publicised. YouTube will show you everything. But here are some;
Install a (mock) solar panel to a heating system. What? Unless I have a special extra qualification I will never be able to install solar.
Install a three phase motor using SY cable. What? did you say SY cable, that well known cable with all the standards and required acceptances for carrying power? To a motor???? You're having a laugh. I practiced that before hand. No, they're not asking you to do that so that you note it on the certificates as a derogation - that's a modern myth - which will become clear on the day. I reckon that was an error when designing the current bays and they've just left it in.
Bet you 50p that you turn over the ends of your cores before terminating? Not in there you don't, you don't have time. As before though - don't come work with me unless you do.
Install a 20mm plastic conduit with a bubble and a right angle bend (no inspection elbow) and pull 6 x (quite big mm) singles through it. I suppose it saves plastic and helps the polar bears but that is a tough ask. As before, when you come round mine to work - bring a suitable size conduit and I'd prefer to see you use an elbow please.
Wire up something in the wrong direction - read the drawings, no it isn't a typo, do it like the diagram.
So, realising that I was not going to have enough time and that there are certain modules you can buy as a retake. I started the module 'three phase motor and industrial socket, by putting in one single to the motor and screwing one saddle to the wall for the commando socket. I used that time on the other modules. I failed and it said ' not completed in the allocated time' for that module on the form. a few week's later I went back and paid the extra for that module only - effectively, I bought myself one hour 25 mins I think. I was glad of it.
I'm not bad with I&T and Fault finding so I did OK with those in the allocated time but you do know they're not real faults don't you? They're switched in with resistors hidden in the equipment. As such they behave a bit differently. Most of them are accessible to common sense but there are some that only tell you that it failed its inspection and test, so you have to find out what the fail was and then find the actual position of the fault. They come at you one at a time and I got confused by the heating one so I had to get a wiggle on with the rest. Yes, you can open up the heating control box - I thought we couldn't. The boot camp days are good for this part because there are only four (I think?) faults to use on the AM2E forms so it isn't like a normal fault find. If the breaker is tripping - it's a short to find and only a short. In our dreams?!
Online exam - revise your H&S before hand because you won't get books to refer to for those questions. The rest is regs and building regs, open book - you can do it. Loads of questions about prosumers installations in mine.
Inspection and test - just practice doing it in a stupid hurry, including filling the forms. Boot camp was good for that.
Safe isolation - learn it their way and leave your instinct and habits in the car. The GSH videos are really helpful. Re prove after your N-E test.
Talking of GSH and YouTube - they're helpful. I had them on loop for weeks. Triple the speed though!
No notebooks in the secret room, but you are allowed to leave and look at notes in your car. I didn't because I didn't want to waste any time. Have them there all the same in case you go to pieces.
So, that's about all I can tell you. I've previously said this on the IET forum, before it all started for me - Those who talk about this seem to be traumatised. It is traumatic. Bad enough being told by an algorithm that you are not competent, despite your years' of practice. Quite another thing being asked to produce rubbish work with neither hint nor intimation of good practice - and being rewarded for it.
Quite proud of this Gold card, that I don't need, though
Good luck - I did it - so can you.
Zs
- TL;DR
- Doing AM2E? get a cup of tea, settle in and I'll tell you a story.
