Fancy A Change Of Trade..

[tony.anderson1987]

A question that i have been pondering on for a while now but havnt been able to find the right answers. Well here goes..

I went to college straight after school to start a course on electrical installation (c&g 2351), during this time i landed myself a job in a factory as an operator and progressed through the ranks and become a maintenamce technician.. i have decided that i would like to go back down the route of becoming an electrician.

The reason that i am asking is that i cant get any straight answers as to what courses i need due to the qualifications that i have gained whilst on my apprentaceship as a maint tech such as btec 1st diploma/ btec national diploma (which both have electrical installation and testing credentials), 17th edition to name but a few?!?

The bloke i spoke to at the college was clueless and said "just start from scratch".. can anyone shed some light on this situation?

 

[Doc Hudson]

Welcome to the forum. there is no one simple answer to your question. The phrase electrician covers a broad spectrum of work. It also depends upon what area of work you are looking at going into. Employee working for a different company, in which case you would need to know what that company require. Have a look at your local job vacancies for electricians, What qualifications are they asking for.   Self employed, you may then be looking at joining one of the electrical contractor bodies, Napit, NICEIC, Elecsa etc. in this case you would need to have a look in their websites for the entry requirements they specify. The City & Guilds website gives an overview of numerous options you may want to consider. Click on the electrical installation option from the building services page;  http://www.cityandguilds.com/qualifications-and-apprenticeships/building-services-industry#fil=uk

Doc H.

 

[tony.anderson1987]

Doc, i would like to be self employed and id like to be involved in domestic installations and b able to sign all work off. Thanks for the info

 

[Doc Hudson]

Doc, i would like to be self employed and id like to be involved in domestic installations and b able to sign all work off. Thanks for the info

 

[tony.anderson1987]

The route of setting up my own business is way way down the line.. i realistically want to gain experience/ certs working for a company first.

 

[Evans Electric]

I have no idea about what courses are required these days ...   I find the attitude of the college bloke pathetic.    They are the guys who should know .

Back in the day a basic City & Guilds A  cert. was  the minimum requirement for a  JIB Electrician Grade card. 

 

[eodneil]

Hi Tony

At the end of the day to be 100% sure you are a qualified Electrician you really need to meet JIB's grading requirements for installations Electrician JIB website (<----Click here). Your 2351 if completed would have given you the equivalent to today's level 2 Diploma in Electrical Installations (2365). I understand where you are coming from when getting a bit peeved of with the Lecturer's not knowing how to handle your situation and its not completely their fault, 95% of lecturers I have worked with wouldn't understand. One of the reasons is being that there are ways of mapping older electrical qualifications over to new ones, but there seems to be no guidance of mapping engineering qualifications over to electrical installation qualifications.

The only way to truly to understand at what level you are at would be to interview and assess you, but there are still requirements set by City and Guilds where a person should start and unfortunately you wll not be able become a qualified electrician without having the 2357 NVQ and you can not achieve this without either doing 4 years at a college or completing the level 3 Diploma in Electrical Installations 2365 first. I understand that you have installation skills from your Engineering qualifications and it maybe enough, but from some of the Engineering BTECs and Diplomas I saw my former colleagues teaching, I wouldn't say it was enough time spent on the Electrical installation practical and theory subjects.

At a bare minimum I would say you needed to be properly interviewed, have your skills assessed and then if you are up to standard, start the Level 3 Diploma in Electrical Installations 2365 then progress onto level 3 NVQ. 

I will however just re-iterate what Doc said and most of the Part P schemes will accept someone who "they" think is competent even if they do not have the correct qualifications and training, but you will always limited to domestic installations and if you chose to be employed by a contractor you will struggle to find someone that will recognise your current qualifications.

Good luck

Neil