HV Training

[madmac]

Forget the issue of cost and how you attain this training for a moment and think about the parameters of just who this course is offered to.
This is a hot subject right now in the HV sector and this is also where we believe the semi-skilled grades are slipping in through the back door!
Now I'm not saying the course isn't a good one but surely they must stipulate that you are coming from some sort of engineering/electrical background experience before sending men out into the field to work on High Voltage cables???
I mean to quote a comment #13:

"Suitable For

Those who will be required to make Joints or Terminations on 11kV cables connected to the 11kV network" Pretty vague??? Who are "those" and what previous training/experience have they had??? The HV sector is fast becoming the worst area of industry for allowing semi and non-skilled operatives to work on the HV system!!!

 

[Knobhead]

It does make you wonder what the newly trained jointer will do when confronted with an old system. There must be 1000’s upon 1000’s of miles of old cable out there. An out of the box kit isn’t going to join an old imperial PILC to a new XLPE cable easily.

The company I worked for didn’t have specialised jointers the system wasn’t big enough for that. Having said that there was over 150 miles of UG and OH. But we had a very old system, some of it dating back to the 1930’s, we needed on site skills to maintain and repair it. All the time the system was being altered and updated, so a 1940’s cable could find it’s self connected to a brand new VCB. It was both challenging and fun.

 

[Engineer54]

To be honest E54 jointing is a difficult one. You can do as many joints as you like in a workshop, it’s only when a joint or termination is under real load that the skill can be proved. A joint / termination can be tested in the workshop, but you can’t simulate the electromagnetic shock that a real life situation will impose.

I'm very aware that jointing MV cables can be very difficult, even at the best of times... But that was my point, What level of competence is this training centre actually training these jointers too?? An ''Attendance certificate'' isn't worth the paper it's written on, if it doesn't stipulate a recognised level of attainment. I don't know if today's jointers are still certified for different voltage bands, type of cables, type of joints etc,etc as they once were.

I just thought that this particular Training centre (given the information they have provided) is just another set-up, to give the most basic of training for top money!! ....As you noticed ....''excluding materials'' ...lol!!! Well we both know that a standard Raychem 15 KV heat shrink termination kit, can easily cost 400 quid!!! So one has to ask, ...just how may joints/terminations are these trainees going to be making off during this training ...lol!!!

Apart from anything else, 8 Days training for a complete beginner with no previous experience, is just a complete joke to my mind, and WHY they are only issuing ''Attendance'' certificates....