Retraining as electrician - EAL or C&G? Prospective employers opinions on course-trained elecs?

[Josh94]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of retraining as an electrician, but I'm weighing up my options and need decent advice from experienced electricians.


Bit of background:

1 - Just turned 27

2 - Currently working as a chemical engineer - Only way to progress my career is to move country to country now.

3 - Moving is not an option for me anymore - I have a family + a business that is established in my local area (Not something I can just up sticks and take).

4 - Business is running fine without me, so I have way more time now - I wanted to try this before I pick up even more commitments.

5 - Ultimately my aim is to open a second business, but I need the correct experience.


My plans:

Knowing something in theory is totally different to knowing it practically, so I would never 'just' do a course.

1 - Study my Level 2 and 3, along the way volunteering and scraping together as much work as I possibly can in order to complete the NVQ and AM2.

2 - Study my level 2, find work as an electricians mate (Or related) and then continue with the rest of my course before hitting the NVQ & AM2.


I'm weighing up courses with the following:

1 - C&G

2 - EAL

I'm probably too old for an apprenticeship, even if I do feel its the better route. Since my options are already limited, I need to be more picky.


Questions: Course trained electricians seem to get a bit of stick from people who favour an apprenticeship. Opinions shouldn't matter, but that's stupid thinking as opinions always matter so I need to ask this anyway:

1 - Of EAL and C&G, which one do you feel is superior content provider/held in higher esteem with employers?

2 - If you were a prospective employer and your only option was to hire a course trained electrician, would you lean towards an EAL or C&G trained electrician (Providing that they had achieved work experience sufficient to pass their NVQ etc)?

In total, I'm looking at 2/3 years of course directed learning, but I'll be conservative and say I probably wouldn't be qualified for NVQ & AM2 until I'm in my early 30s say. With that in mind, any direction and help would be really appreciated.

Cheers,

Josh

 

[nicebutdim]

The multiple choice one was easier, but you are absolutely correct in saying that isn't always the case. Especially when it's a well written one where there are answers in them that could catch you out.

Until recently, I'd always loved multiple choice questions

 

[Charlie_Don't_Surf]

Was it an easier exam? Multiple choice can be very straigtforward or can absolutely stink. We've done a combination of EAL and C&G exams and EAL have a habit of wording questions to make it appear as though more than one answer is correct, or none at all. I'm absolutely convinced that I've seen a couple of questions were their answer was wrong, but I would be inclined to think that way



Seems improbable, don't you think?

There's a reason why I don't accept bold statements from unlikely sources and my cynicism is correct on this occasion. NICEIC provide a list of acceptable qualifications for those wishing to join their scheme, which is available for anyone to view.

Hi thank you for this reply. For some reason I just took that as gospel, can't even remember who told me that now, but its a huge relief to know that I can still eventually get NICEIC registered as I've been told NICEIC is the gold standard in terms of accreditation.

My only remaining question in that case, is whether I could do level 2 EAL and then level 3 with C&G. Reason being, it would save me about 3 hours commuting per week for a year, which is quite a lot of time. Do you think anyone (potential employers / accreditation bodies I suppose) look unfavourably upon me if I had level 2 EAL and level 3 C&G? Or in your opinion, would it be better to stick with EAL and suck up all the extra commuting for a year?

 

[nicebutdim]

Hi thank you for this reply. For some reason I just took that as gospel, can't even remember who told me that now, but its a huge relief to know that I can still eventually get NICEIC registered as I've been told NICEIC is the gold standard in terms of accreditation.

My only remaining question in that case, is whether I could do level 2 EAL and then level 3 with C&G. Reason being, it would save me about 3 hours commuting per week for a year, which is quite a lot of time. Do you think anyone (potential employers / accreditation bodies I suppose) look unfavourably upon me if I had level 2 EAL and level 3 C&G? Or in your opinion, would it be better to stick with EAL and suck up all the extra commuting for a year?

I can see no reason why you should have any issue doing level 3 through C&G. While your level 2 was completed through a different training provider, NVQs are all awarded by the same body.

As for NIC being the gold standard? Many would disagree with that statement. The qualifications required to join NIC, or any other similar body, will differ depending on which of their schemes you wish to join. For their domestic installer scheme, requirements can be found on this page.