Whats the future hold for the electrician

[AP Electrical]

As the title says what's the future hold for electricians in general, reading today about the new 2397 Di nvq which in my mind just puts an even greater split in the electrical industry, there's talk of a jib card for this nvq also, is this the straw that will break the camels back, does this just make Di's actual recognised electricians ? Not looking for a slanging match just thought it could make an interesting debate as to where the general electrician will be in say 5/10 years time.

 

[AP Electrical]

Think there are a few mores years for commercial/industrial as a Electrical Trainee will be found out very quickly in this environment.

Not just for the containment part as this area is mostly done by mates/teams now but technically. They will have to get a grasp of 3 phase systems, motor circuits, alarms, etc etc.

Rewiring an house is perhaps the most "technically" demanding and perhaps the most expensive installation in a domestic situation where a typical rewire would be 3-4K.

On commercial/industrial a lighting installation alone could be double that and training, knowledge and experience would all come into the pot of design, cost and implementation

I know from my experience in all domestic and mostly all light commercial I would not need to do any deign calcs at all, my training and experience pretty much carries me for this.

But even now in many instances I do have to calc things and unless you have been trained first and then acquired the experience to do these calcs, you could easily either over price and not get awarded the project or worse under price and lose thousands

With the advent of plug and play systems and factory manufactured modular systems I don't think it'll be to long before 95% of the job is downgraded to installer electrical trainee or not.

 

[malcolmsanford]

Are we not a few years off of that though AP for any kind of smaller installation.

Before I came back over here in 2010 I tested a new hospital in Kent and that was plug and play and I was chatting to the lads there and they were saying the same as you. I just felt though listening to what they are saying that it was good for larger designs where similarity was assured. But as soon as you had to "Bespoke" something as in say an individual factory you were having problems

I agree though mate, I'm fast becoming a dinosaur, where you now have software costing less than 100 pound that will do any cable calcs you want, and as you say plug and play will become cheaper and more versitile

I can see me sitting in a pub somewhere muttering into my drink .............in the good old days