Skills

[cliffed]

Can anyone be an electrician theses days,it seems all the old skills have gone & all we get is fast fix this & that.What happened to the conduit,trunking & pyro jobs,everywhere it just gets rougher & rougher,glad I've only got 7 years to go,god help us what's coming up behind us,hav a gud day.

 

[Thefailsafe2012]

No one will pay for things like galv tube and trunking, let alone pyro these days. But we're not the only ones who this kind of thing is happening to.


Plumbers now compete with plastic push fit stuff


Carpentry has divvied up and now you get that horrible kwik metal stud ****e


It seems like speed over everything else nowadays

 

[ipf]

Can anyone be an electrician theses days,it seems all the old skills have gone & all we get is fast fix this & that.What happened to the conduit,trunking & pyro jobs,everywhere it just gets rougher & rougher,glad I've only got 7 years to go,god help us what's coming up behind us,hav a gud day.

It seems so.

pvc and fp200/swa..... easy, quick and crap.

Me too....and keep yer eyes peeled.

Enjoy.

 

[cliffed]

No one will pay for things like galv tube and trunking, let alone pyro these days. But we're not the only ones who this kind of thing is happening to.


Plumbers now compete with plastic push fit stuff


Carpentry has divvied up and now you get that horrible kwik metal stud ****e


It seems like speed over everything else nowadays

Agree,it just seems there is no pride in their work,don't mention the foreigners.

 

[guest119]

Aye, 10 years to go and now im re-trained as a ty-rap technician!

Boydy

 

[Pete999]

Pay peanuts get Monkeys

 

[dingledong]

just give me a banana

 

[VoltzElectrical]

No one will pay for things like galv tube and trunking, let alone pyro these days. But we're not the only ones who this kind of thing is happening to.


Plumbers now compete with plastic push fit stuff


Carpentry has divvied up and now you get that horrible kwik metal stud ****e


It seems like speed over everything else nowadays

I'm a fairly new Spark. I started 8 years ago, and now am out of the contracting scene as I now do Public Lighting for the Local Authority.

However, I'd say that before I started my new job, 80% of what I did was steel tray, trunking, conduit etc..

Yes, all of the fire alarm systems have been superseded by FP200, that's life, just as digital TV has replaced analogue.

But I dispute your statement. There are plenty of jobs being specified with steel containment.

 

[Brightspark2]

I'm a fairly new Spark. I started 8 years ago, and now am out of the contracting scene as I now do Public Lighting for the Local Authority.

However, I'd say that before I started my new job, 80% of what I did was steel tray, trunking, conduit etc..

Yes, all of the fire alarm systems have been superseded by FP200, that's life, just as digital TV has replaced analogue.

But I dispute your statement. There are plenty of jobs being specified with steel containment.

Definitely, maybe the OP is talking about domestics but I dont see the work getting rougher and rougher or fast fix this and that.

About to start a job myself with galv tray, trunking, conduit the lot...

Again I agree with the pyro though, as good a cable as it is, FP200 is just the norm now...

 

[VoltzElectrical]

MICC has been out of fashion for so many years that it is now excluded from the AM2 exam in favour of FP200 and solar generation. That's the times we live in. It doesn't mean us newbies are rough.

 

[GMES]

I still do loads of galv conduit, trunking and traywork I must have some decent customers left, in fact I've got one big customer that would kick me out if I tried to use anything sub standard, but yes there are a lot of cheap customers out there.

 

[shanky887614]

I'm a fairly new Spark. I started 8 years ago, and now am out of the contracting scene as I now do Public Lighting for the Local Authority.

However, I'd say that before I started my new job, 80% of what I did was steel tray, trunking, conduit etc..

Yes, all of the fire alarm systems have been superseded by FP200, that's life, just as digital TV has replaced analogue.

But I dispute your statement. There are plenty of jobs being specified with steel containment.

Wrong. The guys were installing micc etc for fire alarms at national grid couple weeks ago

 

[Thefailsafe2012]

Definitely, maybe the OP is talking about domestics but I dont see the work getting rougher and rougher or fast fix this and that.

About to start a job myself with galv tray, trunking, conduit the lot...

Again I agree with the pyro though, as good a cable as it is, FP200 is just the norm now...

Yeah I mainly meant domestic where you do see more of a fast fix movement.

But the commercial stuff we've worked on does have tray, galv trunking but not so much metal conduit, haven't used that in bulk for a couple of years now and even the last time was just for cable drops buried in a wall!

 

[CTID]

It's the same with all trades, every trade has had to evolve, and I bet every trade has its moans about how things aren't the same anymore. How many heating systems are 90% plastic push fit, the stuff that is copper is crimp fittings. I imagine the older plumbers are moaning about the old days of mastering solder joints etc.
The likes of FP is an evolution just like any other, quicker to terminate, not really a dumbing down of our trade, micc still has its use, Petrochemicals, buildings of historic relevance, but where this isn't required, why use micc or any other cable for that matter when there is no need of it, just to try and hold onto times gone by. Would you use SWA where it wasn't required just because it takes more skill to terminate than T&E. Yes there has been a dumbing down of the domestic side of our trade, this allowed by a government that pays more attention to the dangers of gas and seems to think electrickery is a harmless thing. However in the commercial (where I do most of my work) and the industrial sectors, these Electrical Trainee's wouldn't last an hour, unless going in eyes open as a trainee/mate/improver.
A lot of the commercial stuff I do still involves the usage of proper containment, galvanised conduit, tray work forming our own bends, reducers, stuff that took time to learn and takes time and practice.
Granted some of the stuff done or seen nowadays will not be to the taste of some of the longer serving among us but it's evolution and things won't change apart from advancing further. I mean come on a lot of our stuff nowadays on commercial works is plug and play, click and connect, I don't like it but it's how times are changing. Our skills are most used in containment and fault finding over the installation itself but that's how it is now.

 

[Adam W]

It seems most of the commercial jobs I work on nowadays involve throwing in T&E in basket or plastic trunking and conduit, which can seem a little disheartening when you're taking out a 'proper job' (eg steel trunking and conduit), but is there really any need for steel containment above a ceiling?
I would agree it's the way things are going in every walk of life - savings are made in the name of 'efficiency' which often involve employing an army of lesser trained 'fitters' to do the 'donkey work', with a reduced number of skilled tradesmen to oversee or do the difficult bits.
Not just electricians, Kwik Fit style fitters instead of mechanics, PCSOs instead of policemen, teaching assistants instead of teachers, call centre operatives on the 111 line instead of nurses on NHS direct... The list goes on.