Discuss I for one am getting really fed up of the NICEIC! in the Certification NICEIC, NAPIT, Stroma, BECSA Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

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J

JL_Electrical

I would just like to have a bit of a rant about the competent person schemes.

I have been an NICEIC approved contractor for four years now. I'm a 26 year old self-employed electrician, I have consistently turned over £40,000 per year and made about a £28,000 wage (no different to JIB rate). I am in the NICEIC because I believed that I wanted to belong to an elite organisation and be able to offer an approved service. Also I thought it would help give confidence to my customers when they see my baby face :crazy:. However I am becoming increasingly disgusted :angry_smile: with this industry and starting to think it's time we all stood up and did something. The NICEIC are simply a parasite, they do not remotely care about us or the industry and neither do the other bodies for that matter. We do need a licensing scheme. More and more recently I have been priced out of the market by unregistered out of work electricians doing uncertified rewires for as little as £1100.00. I have been priced out of a job at one of my main commercial customers by a cowboy NICEIC approved contractor. The job was wiring supplies to three roller shutter doors, via 16amp interlinked sockets. He thinks it's perfectly acceptable to piggy back from asbestos clad BS3036 fuses from a board that is at full capacity and is fed from another equally crappy board, 100 yards away with an ancient sub main that joints from SWA, to PYRO, then back to SWA, then back to PYRO (no joke). I was going to do a proper job, by pulling a new sub main in to feed my own dedicated board with new radial up to each.
I phoned the NICEIC because although I'm approved contractor for some reason I know longer appear on the roll online when you search Liverpool, I show up when you search my post code however. They said they would sort this, but haven't! They never give any advice over the phone ( I don't mean the technical line) just some advice I had with regards PV courses etc. They made me feel as if I was putting them out. There are tons of local electricians displaying the logo, I reported one in my local area and they said they would check it. Guess what? his web site still has the logo emblazoned all over it.
They are a disgrace. If we all stopped blindly giving them our £500 per year, something would need to be done!!!!!!
 
I don't even reside in the UK, but i sussed out what these scam providers are all upto, and so far nothing that has been posted on this and other forums has changed my views on them. In fact like your post, they only confirm my suspicions

Get a National Register of Approved/Qualified Electricians, and kick these scammers into touch... I'm pretty sure there are far more incompetent electricians on these scammers books than competent electricians...
 
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Get a National Register of Approved/Qualified Electricians, and kick these scammers into touch... I'm pretty sure there are far more incompetent electricians on these scammers books than competent electricians...

The thing is can you honestly see the government setting this up because sadly, I can't. There are too many organisations with too many vested interests who would not allow it.
Plus Dave and Nick have bigger fish to fry like trying to look good on the world stage.
 
I take it you have missed all of my posts on the subject so let me repeat in theory the registration companies are a good idea in reality they are a bunch of self serving (not for profit cos they just bump up their wages and expenses) individuals who are making a farce of our trade they make the rules and say thats it then Megger brings out a 1700 tester that can do a Zs in a 2 wire test and no doubt they will change to suit and tell us its progress yes I hear what you say you work hard get qualifications buy the latest tech books at £40 a pop because they need to tweak them but will not print something to add on to your existing manual. Then there is the "companies" who start up and do "Drive by PIRs" ie thats 6 PIRs in a 8 hour day or 200 PAT tests in an 8 hour day yes we and they know it cannot be done but a BLIND EYE is turned to this and always will so what chance do you have playing by the rules
 
Just out of interest, does anyone know anyone that has done their part p registration through BSi? Because, if we all did............
 
My point is that the BSi does not exist because of electricians. They exist to do all manner of good things in all manner of industries. Therefore, they are arguably the most 'honest' of the organisations, are sort-of government run, and if they suddenly had an influx of tens of thousands of member electricians all talking to them about why it would be a good idea to have a 'standardised' register, then they are (hopefully) the most likely organisation to listen. Why? Because they don't rely on sparkies to pay the lighting bill.
 
My point is that the BSi does not exist because of electricians. They exist to do all manner of good things in all manner of industries. Therefore, they are arguably the most 'honest' of the organisations, are sort-of government run, and if they suddenly had an influx of tens of thousands of member electricians all talking to them about why it would be a good idea to have a 'standardised' register, then they are (hopefully) the most likely organisation to listen. Why? Because they don't rely on sparkies to pay the lighting bill.

I can see where your coming from, but just how long do you think it will be, before they too would be corrupted by these 10s of thousands of paying sparkies registering with them??
Would they then move over and start grabbing other trades to be there provider too??

That's the trouble with all scam providers, they quickly get used to money coming into the organisation for very little outgoings. Then there's all the periphery stuff that also brings money in. Your all being fleeced, by parasitic organisations that don't give a ---- about you or the overall industry, so long as the cash cow continues keeping them and the investors/share holders happy!!!
 
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If anything else, it might make the other three sit up and take notice when they find the hole in the balance sheet. But yes, we all know, money is P.
 
I have got to agree and i believe there are many sparks echoing your statements but as Eng54 says they all the big bodies have got used to the money they get so won't change.
Perhaps it would be better for all of us to jump ship and go to the same body then change the following year, let each one have a skint year then see the changes that are made ;)
 
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Does anyone know what the requirements / processes are for actually being a scheme provider? I'm guessing it mst be like registering a bank or insurance company.
 

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