Outspoken, I do understand, and agree completely that the short courses aren't going to give the training that a '70s/'80s full aprenticeship would.
The thing is, it's not the '70s or '80s, and the type of electrician required then is (sadly I agree) no longer, or only in rare instances, required. The cutting down to areas or specialising has allowed similar cutting down in both pay and training required. The electrical trade is one of the few which covered such a wide range of subject areas that it could be broken down.
I'm sort of in agreement with everyone on this which is awkward - the merits of having 'full' (whatever that is) training to probably go on to work in only a few areas -v- starting out that way to start with and specialising (and I use the term loosely!) in the training.
Here's a thought for us all, though: I'm going to use Tony as an example, and only as an example, not because I'm in anyway trying to take a swing at him.......as I understand it his electrical background (which is significant and to be respected) pretty much centred from the earliest days as an apprentice in heavy industry. How much of his training was spent doing 'light' and buildings related installs, rewiring the burnt-out pub, running in new office lights, ripping up Mrs Jones' floorboards..etc? Because that's almost entirely what mine consisted of - and I couldn't even have told you where the nearest big factory was, let alone a foundry or similar. But both of us spent our time in the classroom, learning the same theories, doing the same maths, wondering who on earth would ever actually need to calculate flux losses in the real world (or whatever was the stupid lesson of the day).
So you've two apprentice trained, experienced sparks (albeit Tony has a few more years on me) with completely different backgrounds and skill-sets. Both equally fulfil the 'time served -v- Electrical Trainee' debate, yet we might just as well be from different planets. And I'd quite like to live on his.
(Tony - hope you know me well enough to get the sense of what I mean!)
I have quoted both posts as what I am about to say relates fully to both as I possibly have an insight that many others may not due to my careers path, and in essence any of us can only really speak about our own personal experiences with an definitive in depth knowledge.
Please bear with me on this an it is all relevant to my story.
When I was 8 my Dad bought me a pair of binoculars in one of his lucid sober moments due my absolute fascination with aircraft. using them to watch planes at night soon took me into a wholly different direction as I became fascinated by stars, and this is how my interest in Astronomy grew (bear with me). I began writing computer programs in 1980 with the Sinclair 80 blar blar, and eventually via my Astronomy connections and few cheeky letters I had written (no emails back then youngsters) I made contact with an Engineering Director at British Aerospace, by the time I was 12 I had taken and completed their aptitude test for an Engineering degree apprenticeship in Aerospace Engineering, the position was dependent on my successfully completing A levels at school.
For lots of reason I won't bore you all with here I bunked off the majority of the last two years I spent in normal education, however I still completed 4 A levels a year early (A- in Physics, B in Maths and English and a B- in Geography) not to mention 10 O levels all grades A+ to B-. However i needed to get my results to Bae by the 27th August 1983 for intake that year (and the intake only happened every 2 years). I was busy enjoying the Summer of 1983 and spending time with friends playing cricket or my grandfather taking about WWII and his time in the Army up to his retirement in the late 1960's. I ****ed up, I got my exams late because the School was closed when I finally went there and Bae did not receive my results until the first week of September, so I had to get a Job...
I contacted a local Electrical Contractor via the Job Centre and had an interview on the Friday at 15:00hrs, started on the Monday at 07:30hrs. This was what drove me into this industry..and I feel this is important because the motivations for being in the Industry can sometimes determine the Electrician or Engineer we become.
I was determined not to make the same mistake again I had with Bae, so I through myself into the work. I studied hard, I ensured I got 100% for all homework and as near as damn 100% in classroom work. I spent as many hours as I could working with as many different electricians as I could, most were self -employed back then, and whenever the company took on work that was different to the normal, I would volunteer to go to the Job...not always successfully.
I completed my 236 part, Part 2 and the company paid for me to do the 236 C certificate (what is now the Level 4 NVQ I believe). I also paid for myself to start a HNC in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the local polytechnic. I was fortunate, due to my desire to work and abilities I was always helping sparks with their private Jobs, I was earning my £28 per week from my fully Indentured apprentice pay, but my bosses were paying me overtime out of their pockets by the back door, and the sparks were paying me cash to work with them out of hours when I was not at College/Poly. I was earning up to £500 a week from around mid 1984 as an average.
The company worked on Domestic, commercial and Industrial, and made sure all the apprentices spent time working in all areas of the Industry to give us a fully rounded experience and training. By the time I was in my third year and doing my part 2 course I could easily have rewired a house on my own, although I never did, could do all the tray, ladder rack and conduit work asked of me, was often left to terminate SWA's, Pyro's and mains intakes. I had spent time in the Office on the management side of the work, because it was deemed important to learn, and often given new apprentices to complete simple installs that initially were verified by the qualified sparks, but eventually they gave up and simply tested them along with everything else.
Family problems meant I needed to get away in 1989 and so I went to Canada for a holiday to stay with a family friend who had taken on his Dads business following his death about 10 years previous. Instead of staying for 3 weeks, I stayed for 5 years, and worked for Bill all over the US and Canada. I worked on Oil Platforms, Oil exploration Platforms, ships, boats, marina, dockyards, lumber mills, foundries and in temperatures that ranged from +50°C in the desert areas to -75°C in Alaska (below -50°C we had to stop work!). Visa problem with the US meant that work had to stop for a while and I returned to the UK...and have been back ever since.
Since being back I have worked in Domestic installs, rewired numerous Land of Leather and similar shops. undertook work in France for Lord Harris, repaired generators in Africa and worked on the ESO sites in Chille's Atacama desert at some 2400m altitude. I spent a number of years as a building services engineer maintaining buildings in London, getting to know all aspects of the built environment and adapting my skill set to suit and to learn new tasks and roles. I now work in the specialist area of Critical data centres and get involved in the commissioning and IST testing, and hope soon to move into the design side of things.
Now I suspect your all thinking, "
Great Jim, but relevance..." The relevance is that I completed a full and complete apprenticeship, I was taught all aspects of the Job as part of that learning process because it was all relevant Without the level and standard of training I received I would never have been able to move from one industry to the next with such ease, would have struggled to understand how many of the systems worked and were integrated and why such integration and control is important. This is the point with the fragmented industry we are faced with today, and the serious dumming down of the skill set many are being stuck with. You are effectively forcing people to only work in one area of the industry, domestic or commercial or industrial. It should not be a forced issue, but one where people feel most comfortable for their interests and abilities. If we start to pigeon hole people so they are effectively trapped then they will lose interest in the job, they will do sloppy work and they will leave the industry, causing a potential further loss of skills and experience.
This is why we need to return to full, in depth and structured apprenticeships that give people a high quality and voracious training regime, weedle out those who are not up to standard, encourage and support those with the ability to progress and ensure that the training for all is broad ranging, academically and vocationally because that way we can justifiable say we will bring standards back to were they should be.
This is a dangerous industry that the authorities, the regulators and public have developed a complacency for, sooner or later people will die in a way that will cause a kneejerk reaction, as happened to bring in Part P"rescott" and whilst we in the industry just bend over and accept this we will continue to see this dumming down and salaries falling as a result.
The decision is yours ladies and gentlemen.
