Cheers mate. I emailed JIB who got back to me with the following:
"... if you are interested in applying for an ECS card to do electrical work on site in order to apply for a Electrician grade you are required to send a photo copy of City and Guild 2330 Level 2 and 3 & NVQ Level 3 along with reference completing section 10 on the application form, along with the above requested your employer or sub contractor if you are self employed, which can be downloaded from our website www.ecscard.org.uk. For more information regarding card types please look on our website."
Does this mean I'll have to do C&G
2330 Level 2 or will my Irish qualifications be equivalent to this?
Also, do I need to have an employer before getting the card? I was hoping that getting the card would help me find employment, not the other way round. I'll probably need a UK address too. I hadn't intended moving until I'd sourced a job. I was hoping a JIB Card would help in that regard.
Hopefully I can avoid going through NARIC. I sent the same query to the SJIB and they said they only ask people to do this if they qualified through a language other than English. Apart from the obvious, is there much difference in having the JIB versus the SJIB? Can you use JIB in Scotland and/or SJIB in England?
Long term, I would like to work offshore but to build up the necessary contacts and experience I'm trying to get a job in the Oil & Gas industry onshore for a year or so first. That will most likely involve working in an oil services company in Aberdeen or working in a petrochem facility like Mossmorran or Grangemouth. Apart from the money I'll have to spend on courses such as CompEx, I've noticed that many of the jobs I've seen advertised look for a JIB or SJIB Card so that's why I'm here! It just seems like one ticket after another and nobody seems to know exactly what's needed... JIB, SJIB, C&G, 17th Edition, CCNSG, ECS Health & Safety, IPAF, NARIC... No doubt I'm missing a few.
Thanks for the help guys.