Understanding NVQ obtained, would it cover both Domestic Electrician and Electrical Engineering

[lew_mcc]

Hi.

Ive been training to be an electrician as a career change for the past 2 years obtaining my 2365 Lvl 2&3.

Ive recently been verbally offered a role as an Electrical Service Engineer and the company understand my current knowledge, experience etc.
They have offered to train me up, put me through my NVQ and progress with the company.

Whilst this is exciting, its also not the type of electrical work I had set my heart on, I wanted to be a domestic sparky mostly, however I was wondering if anyone could provide any information on the benefits of going down the engineering route and if the NVQ obtained would cover both Domestic and Engineering or if its a different NVQ.

thanks in advance for the guidance!

 

[nicebutdim]

You'll never know what you like without trying things. From an electrical perspective domestic work is generally more straightforward, but requires a greater understanding of building regulations and with a focus on keeping everything out of sight. There's no reason why you couldn't hone these skills while working in a different environment.

I work mostly on industrial installations with guys who have no idea how to go about wiring a house and guys who spend every evening and weekend doing just that, yet most were trained in the same sort of environment.

 

[UNG]

Having worked in the electrical industry for nearly 50 years there are not many parts of it I haven't worked in at some point. I can't say I have any particular preference as to the work / jobs / sectors I have got into over the years as they have all presented different challenges and enhanced the skills I still use today

My apprenticeship was 4 and a bit years working on industrial, commercial and healthcare premises with a little bit of domestic although when there was no weekend overtime I did a lot of rewires at weekends with the sparks I was working with which got me a lot of experience on domestic. Once I finished my apprenticeship the contracting company I was working for would often send me out on loan to local companies covering for the maintenance operatives holidays, made for a quick learning curve fixing machines and equipment you had quite often not seen before. I have always moved into different areas and diversified the company I owned with a business partner into many different things like intruder alarms, CCTV, wired and wireless data comms the latter getting us into rope access and rigging work, when I first started at 16 I never thought that within 10 years I would be using a computer to fault find and program kit I was repairing or installing

As I'm on the slide into semi retirement now I mostly do domestic and light commercial work these days although one job that I have coming up I might be tempted to do a bit of rope access work refixing the lightning protection system on a local church bell tower just to keep my hand in

My advice would be don't dismiss anything as you may unknowingly throw away an opportunity to do something you may really enjoy and whatever the outcome you will always pick up skills and experience that you may use elsewhere. I'm not one who likes to separate the domestic from commercial from industrial as they all provide complimentary skillsets with a common factor of all using electricity

Good luck with whatever you choose and most of all I hope you enjoy it

 

[lew_mcc]

Thanks for the advice.
Im keen to go for this role and continue my learning and qualifications, I will never turn work down, everything is an experience.

 

[Mike Johnson]

An NVQ is a vocational qualification and is based upon your work experience and what you put into your portfolio for your assessor to judge you against, however saying that I don't know if there is separate Industrial and Domestic NVQ's may be a question to ask the CIC as they oversee most of the construction related NVQ qualifications.