ELECSA Certification Scheme Elecsa assessment

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hutch6447

Hi, i am new to this forum and about to have my elecsa assessment soon. I am just in process of leaving forces after 12 years i am a qualified sparky in the army but have loaded myself on civvy qualifications to bring me up to speed, my only worry is experience are they harsh on the assessments?
 
welcome to the forum. I am with elecsa had my assesment in March last year so nearly up for renewal.You can have something as simple as a fuse board change to be assesed on on the day the guuy only watched me do an RCD and a Ze test most of the assesment was going through the paperwork and of cousre the regs, so as long as you kow regs and also fundementals such as zones, building regs , sleeveing cables up then youll be ok
 
I had my first elecsa assessment last year and it was fine. I just made sure that I had something to show for all the items on the checklist they sent me, mostly based on the samples they sent. On the day he asked me questions on BS7671 and a couple of questions on each of the relevant parts of the building regs. He had a look inside my consumer unit and a poke around with a screwdriver to see if I'd done all the screws up correctly. I had done some alterations to a lighting circuit as well and he asked me to do some tests on that, just Zs and RCD tests if I remember correctly. Nothing to worry about really.
 
Great can i just ask how much experience you had before assessment? i have 12 years but its in the army and to be honest i hardly touched it after the course. I have done the civvy courses and refreshers and worked on my own house mainly testing?
 
As far as experience goes I think that for the assessment you only need to show that you have done a major job, which can be just a consumer unit change, and possibly a minor job as well. They will assess your competence based on the work that you show them, asking you questions on the wiring and building regs and watching you do some testing. I think that they also want to see that you have the 17th edition qualification but as long as you can show that you know how to do the testing I'm not sure that you need any other qualifications.

I told them that I was a start-up sole trader and only showed 1 EIC for a consumer unit change on my own house and 1 MWC for an outside light on another house. We did chat very breifly about my background, informally over coffee, but I don't think that this got recorded anywhere and they certainly don't ask to see any evidence of any prior experience. Personally I wouldn't lie about previous experience to an assessor but I would concentrate on the positive things and avoid mentioning any negative things, i.e. 12 years qualified sparky in the army sounds impresive to me, much more than a lot of Part P scheme registrants I think, but if you didn't touch it that much I wouldn't mention that, just mention things that you did do.

As long as the work you show them is ok, you can answer the questions (or find the answer in a book) and show that you can do the testing then you'll be fine.
 
Hi I am also new to this forum.
Ive recently had my third elecsa assessment. Dont get too worried. Most of the guys are pretty friendly and rememeber, they're not the gestapo, they want your money at the end of the day. You're worth £500 a year plus to them and if they fail you, they know you can just go to napit instead. Its a business transaction and you're the client. As long as you can provide all the things on the checklist (if you cant, you have a month after to do so) and prove your basic knowledge of things related to domestic work you'll be fine. They usually ask you the following type of thing: Max RCD trip time at 1x and 5x 30ma, Max Ze on TNS, TT, TNCS. MAX Zs on 32A MCB etc. What size main tails should be, what size Main earth and bonding should be. It doesn't matter if you don't know everything. On my first Assesment I had only worked as an electrician, full time for about 2 years. The job I showed them was just a bathroom where I had installed lights, fan, UF heating, towel rail etc. I had used new lighting and 20A radial circuits fed from a 2 way RCD board (they do like to see some form of consumer unit installed by you) If they do pull you up on minor things they will just write it down as advisory. At the end of the day, they don't want to fail you, they just want to help you improve and work to the regs as closely as possible.
 
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Happy Days thanks must admit this is a very friendly forum with lots of helpful people. Thanks Again
 
Hi Hutch, as others have said the assessors are very approachable. i had my first assessment a year ago (with Elecsa) after qualifying a few months previously. I had changed my own consumer unit as an assessment piece. He asked quite a few questions but you are allowed to refer to your regs book and on-site guide if you need to, so make sure you have markers in them for the obvious stuff like disconnection times. they often ask about where joists can be drilled and where cables can be run, and about energy saving lighting requirements. They are all electricians so are realistic and supportive. Just take your time when doing the tests he asks for and make sure you isolate and test for dead because they want to make sure you can work safely. Good luck, you'll be fine.
 
Don't worry mate the ELECSA assessors are a friendly bunch, unlike some of the condescending "We are not amused." types from other schemes. You will not be expected to know all the answers to their questions, but you will be expected to be able to find the answers in either BS7671, OSG, GN3 or EGBR.
 
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