Approved Contractor training

[mattg4321]

When I started up as self employed I chose Elecsa as my 'CPS' because it seemed that most of the shoddy work [apart from DIY] that I came across generally had an NIC sticker on the board - and I didn't want to be associated with that, probably sounds a bit controversial and I'm sure many will disagree, but it's what my experience was.

We started off notifying under part p through Eca who then bought out elecsa and moved everybody across and now been moved to niceic di. Bit annoyed really as we always used to be full scope under Eca. I wasn’t running the business though until about 5 years ago, so details are a bit vague to me.

I think I’m going to have a bit of a whinge to nic and see what happens. I meet all the criteria for AC, if they will do half day assessments and no/minimal extra fee for AC I’ll switch over. I only do about 5-10% commercial work but it annoyed me getting refused by OZEV for the workplace scheme.

 

[7029 dave]

Back then Dave all NIC registered people would be Approved Contractors, no such thing as a 'DI' then, well apart from Detective Inspector.

Yes the good old days when the NIC meant something

 

[Dave OCD]

It's all a right mess now I think.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

Never heard of people getting knocked back for wcs approval based on di status. I only have DI approval and am registered.with ozev for evhs.and wcs.grants. admittedly have been for a few years now and a couple hundred installs later.....
The various schemes are tightening.up. i have an NVQ but wrong sort so have signed.up for the 2346 experienced worker route and will then do the am2e to tick all boxes going forward. My NVQ is electrical mechanical engineering
Funny thing is in August i could switch to NICEIC AC but September onwards I cant.

 

[UNG]

My understanding is from September last year both NAPIT and NICEIC are now insisting on NVQ 3 including AM2 or equivalent as a minimum CPS entry. Although if you are already a member then this will not be required, this will sort of kill off the domestic installer route, I think the consensus was that the short courses are not sufficient training and encourages too many people to shortcut route into electrical industry..

Maybe the CPS are trying to gently push those that are domestic installers to get the required qualifications etc to be an AC, I always wondered if at some point in the future they might say something like those without an NVQ 3 and AM2 have a few years to prove they are starting the qualification and then 4yrs to complete the qualification or something along those lines.. When I was choosing my route into the electrical trade although there was a massive difference between the 2+yrs doing NVQ 3 and AM2 against the 2 week short courses I chose the longer route to cover myself.

I seem to recall the changes made to the requirements to join a scheme also included a requirement for existing members below the required entry standard post Sept 21 had to have / show a training schedule to get them up to the minimum entry level although I don't think a cut off date was or has been set yet to remove those who don't reach the post Sept 21 entry requirements

I believe the Domestic installer was more for other trades, so it allows bathroom fitters to carry out electrical work or add a circuit etc, but it because a popular route to be an electrician as especially in the domestic world nobody knows the difference between an Approved contractor and Domestic installer anyway.

The NIC had the defined scope membership for other trades doing minor electrical work but that seemed to disappear when Part P appeared on the scene and the DI bandwagon rolled into town