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BEng Computer Aided Engineering (we'll gloss over the actual classification I think!)

Basically a 70-30 mix of mechanical and computer aided design

Never really my thing to be honest (hence I've been working as a flight attendant for the past 7 years!)
 
you are most welcome. Best listen carefully and sleep on it. Believe me. I just looked at local sparks jobs, and 10-1 they were all in design. the short courses are spewing out joe sparks domestic installers. The jobs are there for the brains who have taken it one step further into design, controls, CAD, plc etc..

advice is there for the taking or leaving.

If you leave it, don't ever look back because there we'll all be saying.....told you/.

Good luck fella, and think carefully.
 
Hi.
I'm looking to change career from a stonemason to electrician, so I'm not new to the building industry (been doing stonework for 17 years), but have no electrical experience other than a few times I've helped my brother (who is a sparky with over 20 years experience). Read loads about the courses on offer and I'm still not sure which is best. I'm most tempted by the OLCI course, but I'd appreciate any advice on the best course to take as i cant really afford 4 years on low wages as an apprentice.

All comments much appreciated. Thanks.
 
Hi.
I'm looking to change career from a stonemason to electrician, so I'm not new to the building industry (been doing stonework for 17 years), but have no electrical experience other than a few times I've helped my brother (who is a sparky with over 20 years experience). Read loads about the courses on offer and I'm still not sure which is best. I'm most tempted by the OLCI course, but I'd appreciate any advice on the best course to take as i cant really afford 4 years on low wages as an apprentice.

All comments much appreciated. Thanks.
I've just enrolled on a JIB gold card course (By far the most comprehensive course in the UK) at Able Skills after having chatted with a course tutor. Ignore all the negative comments about courses. It is true that a course is no substitute for actual work experience, but nobody claimed otherwise. At Able Skills, I was advised after getting city and guilds 2365 level 2 and 3, City & Guilds 2382 - 18th edition course, City & Guilds 2377 - Pat testing, it would make it much easier to get a job as an electrician's mate as opposed to somebody who doesn't have those qualifications. And when working as an electrician's mate you get real-life work experience whilst working towards your NVQ level 3. It also prepares you for your AM2 exams before you can apply for your JIB fully qualified Electrician Gold Card.
 
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Sorry to say, but in the main it is luck, same course, but different teacher, and also what you learn on the job. Both my son and I started at another trade, so I started as an apprentice motor vehicle and bridge building technician, working for the county council, and I realised I was better on the electrical side, and did the auto electricians course and passed out as an auto electrician.

Went to work in Algeria, early years had a good guy who showed me the ropes, latter I was the only electrician on site, did not matter if the generators did not work, the cooker did not work or freezer did not work, I had to fix it, there was no one else, well they would send a refrigeration guy to gas up if I had to drop gas, talk about learning curve.

In the early years I swapped auto to mains many times, but as time went on left the auto side, and took many courses, be it simply how to use a Hawk gland where there are explosive gases or how to program PLC's or how to set up heat treatment, however around 1992 on returning to UK from the Falklands all I seemed to hear was 16th edition says this, and 16th edition says that, I held off for a while but when BS7671:2001 came out I did a set of three courses and exams, one the 16th edition, the other two installation and appliance inspection and testing. Latter did the 17th edition, it seemed employers wanted the bits of paper.

However on the building of T5 I had an accident, which stopped me working, so I decided to go back to school, and get the qualifications I lacked, so to start with did IT, to get back into learning, and while at the collage I sat in on some electrical lectures, Oh dear, the other students did not know gold was a conductor, god knows what school they went to, but progress was so slow, no way was I doing that course, so did a foundation degree in electrical and electronic engineering passed but a complete waste as never worked again, until I retired when I went to work at local heritage railway.

But did have a good work experience, including being a tunnel boring machine electrician in Hong Kong. That was really good wages.

Son needed a job, at the time I was fitting alarms, the wages dropped so I left, and old boss wanted me back, he offer me promotion, but the wages were not that good, so he asked what else can I offer you, I replied a job for my son, that's how he started in the electrical trade, I also did a shop refit in Next and again got him a job, and he did the same three courses I did 16th edition etc. He also looked at higher education, in his case a HND, and he now is rather high up in the maintenance at a glass works.

Like me a lot of luck, also a lot of hard work, his knowledge of drives and PLC control is way over mine, once you get into industry one finds house bashing boring, we are both old enough to have been able to work on houses before the schemes started, so could flit back and to between domestic, industrial and commercial. I found domestic rather basic, although it has changed today, and installation work was another world, more worried about marking a gland to if it worked.

I did work at harland and wolff on the building of the schiehallion, it makes me realise how old I am when I found out now scrapped. Ulster was great, but the work I spend most of my time printing labels on a computer. I watched some of the apprentices at Sizewell, all they did all day was fit tray work. However I spent more of my time on that job doing heat treatment, that was not as hot as my sons job with glass, but still hot work.

The point is there is a huge variety of electrical work, I have never worked with high voltage, well did a little with 3.3 kV on the Falklands, but there are really a host of trades within the electrical trade, even the guy who repairs washing machines. Be it an EV charging point, or Solar panels there are even divisions within domestic.

My dad told me how my apprenticeship of 5 years was too short, his was 7 years, the last 2 years he was at 4 different firms learning how his trade varied works to works. Even I did steam tables, and learnt to use a slide rule. As to log tables that caught me out, as not quite what one thinks as knowing logs today. I remember my son talking about imaginary numbers and thought he was taking the ----, but then as I progressed found myself using them.

But some areas of electrics is very maths orientated, others more worried about how to bend conduit and not mark the gland.
 
I've just enrolled on a JIB gold card course (By far the most comprehensive course in the UK) at Able Skills after having chatted with a course tutor. Ignore all the negative comments about courses. It is true that a course is no substitute for actual work experience, but nobody claimed otherwise. At Able Skills, I was advised after getting city and guilds 2365 level 2 and 3, City & Guilds 2382 - 18th edition course, City & Guilds 2377 - Pat testing, it would make it much easier to get a job as an electrician's mate as opposed to somebody who doesn't have those qualifications. And when working as an electrician's mate you get real-life work experience whilst working towards your NVQ level 3. It also prepares you for your AM2 exams before you can apply for your JIB fully qualified Electrician Gold Card.
 
Hi.
I'm looking to change career from a stonemason to electrician, so I'm not new to the building industry (been doing stonework for 17 years), but have no electrical experience other than a few times I've helped my brother (who is a sparky with over 20 years experience). Read loads about the courses on offer and I'm still not sure which is best. I'm most tempted by the OLCI course, but I'd appreciate any advice on the best course to take as i cant really afford 4 years on low wages as an apprentice.

All comments much appreciated. Thanks.
and truly clobbered Mate, beware of false promises, I'M not one for short boil in the bag courses, so I'm biased. best I shut up.
 
and truly clobbered Mate, beware of false promises, I'M not one for short boil in the bag courses, so I'm biased. best I shut up.
Can you elaborate on how you were clobbered? I'll be doing a 15-week course soon, hopefully, followed by getting a job as an electrician mate whilst working towards my NVQ level 3 and eventually AM2 assessment. After that, I can apply for my JIB Gold Card. This should qualify me as both a domestic and commercial installer/electrician with city and guilds 2365 level 2 and 3, City & Guilds 2382 - 18th edition course, City & Guilds 2377 - Pat testing qualifications. Apparently, this whole process should take less than 3 years.
 
Many years ago I went on the government course 12 weeks to train as a heavy plant mechanic, would be around 1985, after a week I was called into the principals office, the lecturer it seems had complained. It turned out with my experience and qualifications I could have taught the course, as in an allied trade, so the course was shortened and I used the rest of time using there mail system to apply for jobs.

It was the same as schools, the teacher may be employed as an English teacher, but if she can speak a little French, it French teacher is off sick then he/she stands in and takes the class.

So at the end of the day it is down to the teacher, not the course, and if that teacher suits you. Not even how much the teacher knows, I had a physics teacher who was well over qualified, but useless at teaching.
 
Can you elaborate on how you were clobbered? I'll be doing a 15-week course soon, hopefully, followed by getting a job as an electrician mate whilst working towards my NVQ level 3 and eventually AM2 assessment. After that, I can apply for my JIB Gold Card. This should qualify me as both a domestic and commercial installer/electrician with city and guilds 2365 level 2 and 3, City & Guilds 2382 - 18th edition course, City & Guilds 2377 - Pat testing qualifications. Apparently, this whole process should take less than 3 years.
Hi Ryokan, Could you tell me which training center is this at?
 
They're all crap imo. The reality in colleges up and down the country is they're understaffed, underfunded, full of people who don't care and the organisation is usually appalling.

You just need to get through the Level 2 and 3 and try to find work to get the real on site experience that is required to do the job properly.
 

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