Was today talking to a ''self employed'' electrician

[matt1386]

Evening everyone, been round at a friends house tonight, where another mate of his called over

Anyway, got chatting and he told me he was a self employed electrician, as Im looking to start college next september I asked him the route he went down to get his qualifications etc... and was quite surprised with his answer

He simply did a 17th edition course, part P course and inspection and testing 2392, after this he registered with a competent person scheme to self certify his work

Surely this cant be right ? If so im not surprised the proper qualified and experienced electricians are out of work !

All he said was he didnt bother going to college and instead did the courses as he had 3 years on site experience

Look forward to reading your replies

 

[matt1386]

Well having looked around the net it seems it is possible to simply do a part p course and 17th edition regs and be able to register onto a scheme, mad !

 

[matt1386]

Forgot to mention inspection and testing aswell

 

[fuel]

Aka "five week wonder" or "Electrical Trainee". I bet if you search the forum you will see several examples of this. Not the way to go at all, no way. May be quick and easy, but you will learn nothing to become competent, and getting any experience after will be hard. This is why apprenticeships last 4 years. These Electrical Trainee are part of the reason the trade is going down the drain...

 

[Dave 85]

If the guy has 3 years experience I see absolutely no problem with this.

If I was in the same situation, knowing what I know now (I spent 3 years of night college doing the 2330 L3) I'd probably do exactly the same. Im gonna get torn to shreds for this, but personally I think large parts of the 2330 are completely irrelevant to a domestic electrician and I remember thinking at the time (started 8 years ago) "why dont they do a bloody domestic electricians course?"

Of course if you want to be employed by a large company, proper qualifications are vital but if you are planning to go self employed, doing domestic/light commercial straight away (which I was) then its a waste of time.

OK lads....
Fire away!

 

[D Skelton]

Ok, I'll fire away first:

Are the fundamental principles and regulatory requirements of domestic electrical work any different to that of large scale commercial/industrial electrical work?

IMHO, no, they are not.

Having myself started in the industry with my Electrical Trainee badge and realising at the time that I wouldn't have been competent enough to wire a plug let alone a house that I ought to enroll on a full 4 year apprenticeship at my local college, that's what I did and I am so glad!

I carry out all sorts of electrical work, domestic probably the least, but even when we take on domestic work there are still so many things to take into account when designing and installing circuits that simply aren't covered in a five week or even five day course! In fact, they don't even begin to touch on some of the most fundamental principles we as electricians need to know before we even think about pulling a length of cable off of a reel!

 

[Dave 85]

Ok, I'll fire away first:

Are the fundamental principles and regulatory requirements of domestic electrical work any different to that of large scale commercial/industrial electrical work?

IMHO, no, they are not.

Having myself started in the industry with my Electrical Trainee badge and realising at the time that I wouldn't have been competent enough to wire a plug let alone a house that I ought to enroll on a full 4 year apprenticeship at my local college, that's what I did and I am so glad!

I carry out all sorts of electrical work, domestic probably the least, but even when we take on domestic work there are still so many things to take into account when designing and installing circuits that simply aren't covered in a five week or even five day course! In fact, they don't even begin to touch on some of the most fundamental principles we as electricians need to know before we even think about pulling a length of cable off of a reel!

To be fair I can't say I know a great deal about what they actually teach on the short courses, having never done one. A mate I do a lot of work with did one and he seems reasonably clued up.
My main gripe at the 2330, and I'm sure it varies massively depending on college/teacher etc (mine where mostly pretty poor) is that we spent a huge amount of time learning things like the working of 3 phase motors and power factor correction.

Now without bragging too much, I had a better understanding, at the time, of power factor correction than anyone in my class and helped teach it to quite a few of the lads...but I can't remember any of it now, 5 years on, and in my opinion, I have no need to.
I know that if I'm calculating ccc for a florescent lighting circuit I multiply load by 1.8 to allow for inductance (i think) and as far as I'm concerned that's all I need.

Anyway, my point is, that people tend to assume that having a full qualification automatically means the person is experienced and having a short one means they aren't. Well obviously this isn't always the case and if you ask me its the experience that makes the difference not the qualification.

I'm not trying to argue that a short course is as good or better than a full apprenticeship....of course its not but apprenticeships aren't for everyone.

 

[Thomas123]

Evening everyone, been round at a friends house tonight, where another mate of his called over

Anyway, got chatting and he told me he was a self employed electrician, as Im looking to start college next september I asked him the route he went down to get his qualifications etc... and was quite surprised with his answer

He simply did a 17th edition course, part P course and inspection and testing 2392, after this he registered with a competent person scheme to self certify his work

Surely this cant be right ? If so im not surprised the proper qualified and experienced electricians are out of work !

All he said was he didnt bother going to college and instead did the courses as he had 3 years on site experience

Look forward to reading your replies

We'll if he did that route he's not a self employed electrician, he just a Electrical Trainee with a license to kill.

 

[flyingsausage]

It seems these days that anybody can go round calling themselves a spark as there is no law against it.
The ones I feel sorry for are the poor customers who are left with death trap houses and they don't know it.they think they have a spark in but don't know about the Electrical Trainee and all the other cowboys out there.

I think when my current job ends I will try out gas fitting for a couple of weeks.