domestic installers course... electrician in 4 weeks??

[ze bonitinho]

This is not me btw but a friend of ours has recently enrolled on a course to become a solar installer and after ringing round a few trade schools has found a course that will let him set up his own company installing pv systems and working on peoples houses in under 5 weeks. he has been saying that he will become a domestic electrician with niceic accreditation and mcs accreditation
is this possible and if so....why
this has got to be one of the most harful ways of diminishing our trade i`m a time served electrician that studied for 4 years and have worked my way through the 2391 and other courses to get a job and struggle looking for work when its very thin on the ground at the minute and people like this can waltz in and get a job after 5 weeks :censored:

 

[bikeman01]

I`m sick n tired of this. I went down the apprenticeship route as i think its the right way to go (learning from people who have been at it for years). Its about time that the route was made clear to those wishing to join industry as a QUALIFIED COMPETENT ELECTRICIAN. No more scam 4 week "be a sparks" courses and the backup from government on this. I know its all about choice and those who wish to waste their cash on such "courses" can do so for all i care. But i know this: when i have done my college studies and served my time i will be considered an electrician and not until. NO ONE will be able to deny me that

Trouble is there are no more apprenticeships - there is a system which exploits the young and unemployed that goes under the guise of apprenticeship but the days of a 3 year apprenticeship with college and on the job training at a rate just above min wage have long gone. Nowadays the term apprenticeship is a byword for paying below min wage. My local car dealer even has an apprentice on his parts counter so he can avoid paying min wage.

You probably benefited from a 'proper apprenticeship' yet are now reluctant to take on a trainee yourself - true?

So how can you condem people who have no other option than to self fund their training to get onto your ladder?

My mate and I were made redundant from our cushy white collar jobs a few years ago (that's got your back up already hasn't it) and we decided to enter the electrical game. He did an evening course in elec saftety, took no more than a year, did a few jobs that he got inspected and now has his part p. We both knew the job having done a bit of diy and we now re-wire demostic/commercial properties, change consumer units etc. It's not rocket science and I didn't need 4 years to learn it.

Lets face it an appreciceship is usually only 3 years because a) it's nice to have some cheap labour and someone to make the tea and b) your average 17 year old has a very short attention span and is apt to arseing about.

 

[millwall ken]

Trouble is there are no more apprenticeships - there is a system which exploits the young and unemployed that goes under the guise of apprenticeship but the days of a 3 year apprenticeship with college and on the job training at a rate just above min wage have long gone. Nowadays the term apprenticeship is a byword for paying below min wage. My local car dealer even has an apprentice on his parts counter so he can avoid paying min wage.

You probably benefited from a 'proper apprenticeship' yet are now reluctant to take on a trainee yourself - true?

So how can you condem people who have no other option than to self fund their training to get onto your ladder?

My mate and I were made redundant from our cushy white collar jobs a few years ago (that's got your back up already hasn't it) and we decided to enter the electrical game. He did an evening course in elec saftety, took no more than a year, did a few jobs that he got inspected and now has his part p. We both knew the job having done a bit of diy and we now re-wire demostic/commercial properties, change consumer units etc. It's not rocket science and I didn't need 4 years to learn it.

Lets face it an appreciceship is usually only 3 years because a) it's nice to have some cheap labour and someone to make the tea and b) your average 17 year old has a very short attention span and is apt to arseing about.

I don't remember reading that Glennspark SAID that YOU have to be under 18 to be an apprentice. He only stated that the apprentice route (whatever age you do it) is the best option. Your serve.

 

[focusphil]

Not this old chestnut again:ban:

 

[ze bonitinho]

the time scale thing is completely irrelevant, whilst doing night courses or apprenticeships you are studying and applying the information you have been taught over a long period of time. plus, it is not one day a year for 1 year the college goes on for 3 years and the night course is 2 years 2 nights a week. the course he is on is only 2 or 3 weeks electrical, the rest is filled up with pat testing manual handling coshh and then a PV course, the nic one not the C a G one, there must be a tonne of information that is missed out on these courses surely

 

[Acer]

Without wishing to denigrate anyone on this forum I don't think that a 4 year apprenticeship necessarily makes you a better sparks than someone who has entered the industry through an alternative route. In fact a close colleague of mine, with a background in electronics, is someone I regularly consult whenever I have a technical or regulatory problem. Over the years I have worked alongside time served sparks and those with little experience at all but it did'nt always follow that those with the most experience were the most competent.

My apprenticeship was in the mid 1970's and was nic/jib approved..something I later found out to mean nothing much at all..! It was a small firm based in a market town in the south east employing 9x operatives. For the first 18months all I did was fetch and carry with sweeping up as an added bonus. If it had'nt been for the one day a week I spent at college my electrical experience would have amounted to nothing much at all..in fact I can honestly say that I did'nt learn very much at all going to work..any knowledge I gained was via college and from my fellow apprentices.

Two years after my apprenticeship finished I became self employed...and thats where the learning curve really started, where the work experience really began...so do I think it is possible to turn anyone into an electrician in four weeks...yes I think it is, but only if the candidate had aptitude beforehand... and even then the scope is limited to domestic only. Of the four electricians at the firm where I served my time only two had any formal training, the other two learning on the job...but still able to later qualify as approved..albeit rubber stamped by the powers that be...