I thought short courses were fine. Just done a week on site. Now i think they're not fit for purpose.

[Electrics]

This might be long so feel free to grab a brew.

So, as some of you may know, i'm a 34 year old who has been dying to get into the industry. I have fought for years to get someone to take me on and have been unsuccessful despite having a background in construction (I can basically build a whole house on my own) and can do the electrical basics.

I was so frustrated for years that I thought the only way I could get into the game was by doing one of those 16 week courses that promises to get your Level 3 C&G. I've actually signed up to one of the providers and then backed out on two separate occasions - one of them cost me a £150 deposit.

While I still think that sure, they're great at cramming and you get the exact same theory as someone on an apprenticeship route gets, it's become apparent to me that in the real world they're not worth the paper they're written on even if you get the same theory. Why? Experience. It's missing.

I thought, sure, once I can wire lights and sockets etc I can just apply it to any situation. I'm now not sure it actually works like that.

So what changed? I GOT A JOB. I'm on a 2 week trial for a potential traineeship/apprenticeship with a bigish (18+ blokes) firm in my area.

I like to think I'm alright at the basics already - I could rewire a house if I really needed to. But my it's been a shock and a real eye opener as to just how you cannot replace experience.

So day 1, I get sent to a massive factory which makes car parts and I'm helping put in 120 SWA. This stuff as I'm sure you know is the thickness of a 500ml coke bottle and heavy to boot.

I'm working in these two modules that have been unplugged and moved to a different part of the factory and then have to be connected back up again. They're in welding bays. It's absolutely manky. I came home looking like I'd been down a pit. Stuff isn't labelled up properly. There are cables missing. There are DB's all over the place in this factory, and also cabinets full of module switching, ethernet, and communication cables that all had to be sorted. There was electric shuttters. There was masses of massive cables that had to be tied properly and neatly. There was tonnes of unistrut and trunking as well as tray that needed to be installed and fitted correctly.

Day 3 I'm at a hospice doing emergency lighting tests. Then we go to a rented property and sort out some snagging - FCU's, light fittings, bathroom extractor, outside switched light.

Day 4 I'm at an airport putting in sockets and lights in conduit.

Day 5 I'm at a garden centre replacing lights.

This is just the first week. I now don't think it's possible to go from a short course into this big bad world of electrics with so many different kinds of jobs and be able to know what you're doing, qualified on paper or not. Putting in new cables is easy. Figuring out what someone else has done can be difficult.

If we ignore the technical aspect of the job there are just so many different fixtures and fittings available and they all get fit in slightly different ways. There's just no way. You cannot learn this from a short course.

I always thought those who poo-poo'd these courses were elitist jerks but I now realise why - they knew something I didn't. They're in the game, they're doing the work, they see it day in day out. Youtube house bashers make it look fairly straightforward and I still believe that when it comes to single phase domestic, it's still probably possible to do a short course and build up experience on smaller jobs.

But to be a proper electrician I now believe that you cannot become a proper well rounded electrician without actually DOING the job.

To those of you in similar situations to what I was - don't give up. I've been trying to get someone to take me on since I was 25 in 2012 and have had no joy. I'm now 9 years older and someone finally decided to give me a shot.

Keep plugging away and if you need to, enrol at college and try to convince someone to take you on on the back of that. Think twice about dropping thousands on short training which is going to leave you absolutely stumped at the first sign of a problem you're not familiar with.

Working on the job around other people who can show you the ropes is invaluable. I've already learned so much in my first week and I thought I knew most of it already. I knew jack. But I now have people to ask when I'm not sure, instead of trying to guess it myself.

Now the real learning begins.

Thanks for reading.

 

[brianmoooore]

I there is more to testing than pressing a button on an MFT and expecting to see the right numbers, with inspecting it is simple

Anyone else feel, like I do, that MFTs have become so computerised and automated, that the operator has become disconnected from what the actual test is, and how it is done?

 

[Gurnatronics]

@Lister1987 I'm not really disagreeing, a couple of comments:

Even on an EICR doing IR tests as late as possible with everything back together is good practise, so if I've put an accessory screw through a conductor at a light switch or socket or caught something in a metal trunking cover it's picked up by the test. It's very embarrassing if a stupid mistake while carrying out T&I actually makes something worse!

Tracking down faults requires skills and thinking processes that are simply not taught as far as I can tell..
A real life EICR example from this year....IR testing an older CU with an RCD main switch.
Circuit 1, L+N bar to cpc bar is 80 Mohm (pass)
Circuit 2, L+N bar to cpc bar is 40 Mohms (pass)
Circuits 3-7, L+N bar to cpc bar is 0 Mohms.
Circuit 1 again, L+N bar to cpc bar is now 0 ohms.
Circuit 2 again, L+N bar to cpc bar is now 0 ohms.
Does anything you learn at college help you know what to do next? At this point no circuit can be turned on without tripping the RCD, and the tenant is getting cold. I'm sure a lot of the members on here would know exactly what to do next but would an average newly-qualified person who has just passed 2391-52?

Agreed.

Out of curiosty what was the issue in the end? My gut reaction is faulty coil in the RCD?

 

[timhoward]

Out of curiosty what was the issue in the end? My gut reaction is faulty coil in the RCD?

Circuit 3 identified as the problem by removing all Neutrals and testing each circuit L+N to Earth on it's own.
Circuit 3 fed sub main to shed and utility room sockets. Splitting circuit traced the problem (to my surprise) to utility room.
Unplugging appliances one and a time revealed a faulty freezer gave up the ghost and was creating a dead short N to E.

 

[Gurnatronics]

Circuit 3 identified as the problem by removing all Neutrals and testing each circuit L+N to Earth on it's own.
Circuit 3 fed sub main to shed and utility room sockets. Splitting circuit traced the problem (to my surprise) to utility room.
Unplugging appliances one and a time revealed a faulty freezer gave up the ghost and was creating a dead short N to E.

We’re any of the MCBs tripping? I don’t get how circuit 1 and 2 passed and 3 + failed and then 1 and 2 then failed once IR tested again. Unless it wasn’t a true copper to copper N-E short and instead the insulation was breaking down and inducing voltage to E whilst testing?

Curious as to how those circuits were originally clear of fault

 

[timhoward]

Before I started everything was apparently ok, nothing tripping, whether MCB's or the single main switch RCD.
When I IR tested circuit 3 at 500v it seems that I changed a dying appliance to a dead appliance (low resistance test afterwards showed < 1 ohm) so the freezer was a dead short between N and E as long as it was plugged in. As it was a single RCD board all the N's are joined, so when testing any circuit L+N to earth the same result (0) would then come back. Hence 1 and 2 passed until the freezer kicked the bucket, then after the freezer snuffed it the whole N bar to CPC bar had a dead short.

 

[Gurnatronics]

Yeah that was my line of thoughts as well thanks so much for clarifying all these extra bits of knowledge and experiences sure help! Double pole RCBOs would certainly help narrow down global faults like that eh?

Did you buy her a new fridge after killing it off haha

 

[timhoward]

Did you buy her a new fridge after killing it off haha

No, but I did spend 40 minutes on the phone to the insurance scam she pays into on her behalf, and drive her frozen food to a friends house for her. (She was over 80)