Not Registered To A Scheme

[madeinengland]

hi guys. haven't been on here for a while. quick background/recap. i work for a small family firm in the manufacturing industry where my father is the boss. a few years back the firm was struggling and looked like it may (worse case scenario) fold. my father suggested that the company would pay for me to go college to learn a trade just in case the company did go under. this was all about 6-7 years ago. in this time i have got all the qualifications as in C+G 2330, 17th edition and even the dreaded 2391.i completed the 2391 about 2 years ago-ish.

here's where my problem lies. the family firm that looked to be going under 6-7 years ago is still going and going well. although i have all the qualifications you need i haven't really got any on site experience other than 2 rewires and the odd extension work i have done with sparky mates. i would like to get into sparky work a lot more but i literally can not take the wage cut and be a 36 year old apprentice which i feel i would essentially be due to my lack of experience. so what i want to do is get some weekend work as some extra cash and experience.

obviously if i were to go on my own i would need to be part of a scheme as in NAPIT, ELECSA and NICEIC.

if you are not a part of these schemes can you still do installations and call out the building control to certify your work?? also how do you go about doing this???

 

[Evans Electric]

Regards Building Control signing off your work ,   the charges vary over the country but on average  they charge around half the yearly fee for NICEIC, ELECSA, NAPPITT  etc .    Some charge more .  

3rd party  signing off is soon to be inflicted upon  us  but nobody knows how this will work exactly , yet .  

If you as well paid as you say , not knowing what your business is, why would you want to become an electrician ? 

  In the great scheme of things  you are already a well qualified electrician on paper and that would impress the Competent Person's Scheme Operators if you enrolled , although  in fact you no experience .     

 

[OnOff]

You would do well to have a good read of "Approved Document P" here:

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/approveddocuments/partp/

 

[Zeespark]

Made, for what it would cost each of your clients in LABC fee's you might as well sign on with a scam, it would make pricing jobs alot easier and cheaper in the long run.

Andy Guinness

 

[pewter]

do you need the 2382

and

do you now need an NVQ

 

[Zeespark]

To join a scam you do need the 2382, but with regards to the NVQ, his 2330 will be accepted.

Andy Guinness

 

[Doc Hudson]

Your LABC should have a page on the council website with their charges including Part-P inspection work for non-self certifiable contractors.  These costs would give you a realistic idea of how much extra you need to put on your jobs, or reduce your profit margins by.

Doc H.

 

[madeinengland]

great answers as per usual guys. thanks.

what's 2382??? that's the 17th edition right??? if so i have that too.

 

[madeinengland]

@evans

the reason to become an electrician is simply because where i am now although going well could very well go belly up at any time which unfortunatley is the nature of the manufacturing industry. we are a solder and whitemetal makers with competition from china and poland (believe it or not) that can do things far cheaper than us. a partnership with a polish company is what "saved" us a few years back.owners are getting older and talk of retirement for the directors is constantly on the horizon. sure that may be an opportunity to step up but again how long does this industry have (our biggest customer for example who make war game figurines has recently gone on to using plastic resins instead of metal and to be fair the little figures they make look far better and at about a 10th of the cost).

also just for the shear fact i went to college for 2 evenings a week for close to 7 years would be wasted if i didn't do at least something with the qualifications that i got. and of course we could all do with a bit of extra money

 

[Evans Electric]

Seems fair enough .

I have no answer to your problem , which is not unique in this day & age,  and that is .......stating the bleedin' obvious... you can't become experienced without gaining experience.   i don't know how you will overcome that .  

How confident are you in tackling a couple of jobs ?    Can you get a Sparky to give you some pointers ?  

As you say , your industry is under threat and could fold.  

 

[northernspark]

What I'm about to suggest is not great by any means but it's a foot in the door experience wise, get your name around a few agencies and if you pester them enough it should get you some work and most of them tend to focus more on the paper side than experience so get your ecs test sat and ring a few agencies