Builder looking to gain electrical quaifications

[ElSteenio]

Morning!

I'm a 39 year old female who has been working in the building industry for 15 years running a small successful business with my Dad. We do extensions, loft conversions, kitchens, bathrooms etc. I have done plenty of first and second fix during that time and i am looking to expand my knowledge. Our electrician has moved on so I would like to be able to confidently wire up consumer units and conduct testing etc.

I'm not looking to set up as an electrician in my own right, just to learn all the testing, regulations and about consumer units. I guess I am at an advantage over many others who are completely changing careers as I have practical experience of rewiring, chasing out for wires and boxes and fitting lights, sockets etc.

I have researched a lot online and on these forums, unfortunately doing a college based course one day a week would not suit my business. I did a BTEC in construction a few years back and it disrupted our work quite a bit! I can't find a college evening course in my area (south london)

Looked at the short term courses and wondered if that would be something that would suit me?

The course I looked at is the bronze domestic installer provided by one of the forum sponsors (trade skills 4 u) but all the reviews seem to be from a few years ago.

Is there anyone on here that has been in a similar situation and successfully learned enough knowledge off of one of the short term courses?

Any good advice welcomed :icon14:

 

[Paul.M]

Welcome to the forum El. An online course may suit your needs like the one you mention above, although these are looked down upon by full time served electricians. But if it is only for domestic extensions, think this could be the correct route for you.

 

[Andy78]

Browsing the below thread about the same package from the same training provider could give you an sight from both the forum and the training provider themselves. You can do a search of the forum too to find similar threads about the training provider, or the package of courses, or the individual courses.

http://www.electriciansforums.co.uk...s/82462-domestic-installers-course-ummmm.html

 

[ElSteenio]

Thanks Paul and Andy, had a read and will do some further research.

I can see that, in general, the short courses are a bit of a bone of contention. Can see why when someone is retraining from scratch and then claiming to be a fully qualified electrician within a few weeks. A 2 storey house i am working in at the moment looks like the wiring was done by complete novices. We have uncovered wires that have been drilled through, a wire from a fuse spur going to a double socket that was just sitting in the metal back box live, connector blocks wrapped in masking tape and parcel tape, no RCDs and a very poorly labelled consumer unit such as the back half of the house being labelled "upstairs sockets" and the front half labelled "downstairs sockets"...... Hence my desire to learn all about testing etc!!

It will be just for the purpose of domestic installations and mainly in properties that we are doing contract work on and for our other clients.

Are there any other qualifications you can recommend taking a look at? Would like to make sure that any qualification i get will make me competent enough to safely carry out work

 

[Guest77]

Question= you press the upstairs light switch and the lights in the house trip out=why?
question= the ZE of the premises is 1.4 ohms, what system do you think it is?
question= if the system is not what you expected what would you do now?
question= the R1 of a ring main is 0.94 ohms, the Rn is 0.60 ohms, why and what would be your next plan of action?

now regarding qualifications, experience is the main qualification you can get so good luck regarding learning just testing alone.

 

[ElSteenio]

I'm not planning on learning testing alone, but it is an area that I would like to expand on more over and above any domestic installer course. The only thing that concerns me is testing in older properties more than likely wouldn't be a core part of any current course.

I realise that experience is the most vital part of the job, as it is in many parts of the building trade.