Hi all - this is my first post so go easy! Firstly I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who contributes here, I've found many-a-solution to problems by searching, and I hope to get to the point where I can be the one contributing, but for now I'm desperately in need of some advice from those with more experience than I. It's a bit of a long one, and a somewhat complicated situation I'm in, so bear with me.
So a little bit about my background - my entrance into the building trade started in my mid 20's as a labourer during a stint of unemployment from my usual I.T work. The building company I worked with had their own electrician who soon realised my abilities lent themselves to electrical work, so fairly quickly I was doing a lot of the basics for the electrician, and slowly but surely being given more and more responsibility.
This lasted for a few years, and eventually I was doing all of the work, from start to finish - though I was never allowed to do the design or testing. Towards the end of this period I began to realise the electrician I was working with wasn't all that competent and was probably deliberately holding me back as a cheap source of labour - in many areas my knowledge (mainly due to my natural interest in electricity in my spare time) began to exceed his.
I won't go into details as to why I left this building company, mainly though it was due to the electrician I was working with refusing to pay me for an entire job that took longer than it should have (due to his mismanagement). Out in the cold, I quickly decided I should use what money I had left to get qualified myself - so I went on some Trade Skills 4 U courses and got my City & Guilds: 2382-12, 2392-10, 2377-22, 2377-32 and Part P.
This was an amazing feeling - I really felt I was moving on to becoming my own person for once. This feeling was to be short lived though - not long after I was involved in a serious road traffic accident requiring some fairly major surgery - which as you can imagine completely put a stop to my electrical work. And unfortunately with working knowledge, if you don't use it, you lose it (or get very, very rusty).
So for the last 2 years or so I've been going through a long and difficult recovery, and have had to work a bog standard office job to make ends meet in the mean time. Recently though as my recovery is nearing completion, one of the sub-contractors I used to work with called me up to ask if I wanted to be his "go to" electrician, as he's started his own company - what a fantastic opportunity, I feel like I've been given a second chance. But also daunting (as you can imagine) given everything that's happened and time passed.
The builder who's offered me the position is in the middle of a fairly big extension / renovation project right now, carrying out basic cable runs and what not himself (I've had a look over the plans and work on site to check it's all in order so far). I'm leaving my office job in the next week to go and work on site with him, the intention is for me to take over electrical work on site, and to do the fuse board and sign it all off upon completion in 3 months or so.
Now you've heard my life story, you can see where I'm at. I'd like to get registered - I checked with Trade Skills and they say my qualifications are still up to date to sign off work (hoping someone here can confirm this, aware I'll need to do catching up with amendments though). As I mentioned I haven't been registered before, neither have I much hands on experience with design & testing.
I'm thinking of registering with Elecsa, and have already spoken with them. They've e-mailed me over what I'll need to book an assessment to get registered with them. So what I'd be extremely grateful for here is some advice (feel free to go into as much detail as you'd like) on what steps to take next / exactly what I'll need to get in order for their assessment. As I said I've never been registered, and my experience with design and testing is mostly limited to what I've read / what took place on the courses I did a few years back. I know I'm throwing myself in the deep end here, but I know I've got it in me to get up to speed with all of this, and after everything I've been through I'm more determined than ever.
If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read. Any and all comments appreciated and welcomed.
EZ
So a little bit about my background - my entrance into the building trade started in my mid 20's as a labourer during a stint of unemployment from my usual I.T work. The building company I worked with had their own electrician who soon realised my abilities lent themselves to electrical work, so fairly quickly I was doing a lot of the basics for the electrician, and slowly but surely being given more and more responsibility.
This lasted for a few years, and eventually I was doing all of the work, from start to finish - though I was never allowed to do the design or testing. Towards the end of this period I began to realise the electrician I was working with wasn't all that competent and was probably deliberately holding me back as a cheap source of labour - in many areas my knowledge (mainly due to my natural interest in electricity in my spare time) began to exceed his.
I won't go into details as to why I left this building company, mainly though it was due to the electrician I was working with refusing to pay me for an entire job that took longer than it should have (due to his mismanagement). Out in the cold, I quickly decided I should use what money I had left to get qualified myself - so I went on some Trade Skills 4 U courses and got my City & Guilds: 2382-12, 2392-10, 2377-22, 2377-32 and Part P.
This was an amazing feeling - I really felt I was moving on to becoming my own person for once. This feeling was to be short lived though - not long after I was involved in a serious road traffic accident requiring some fairly major surgery - which as you can imagine completely put a stop to my electrical work. And unfortunately with working knowledge, if you don't use it, you lose it (or get very, very rusty).
So for the last 2 years or so I've been going through a long and difficult recovery, and have had to work a bog standard office job to make ends meet in the mean time. Recently though as my recovery is nearing completion, one of the sub-contractors I used to work with called me up to ask if I wanted to be his "go to" electrician, as he's started his own company - what a fantastic opportunity, I feel like I've been given a second chance. But also daunting (as you can imagine) given everything that's happened and time passed.
The builder who's offered me the position is in the middle of a fairly big extension / renovation project right now, carrying out basic cable runs and what not himself (I've had a look over the plans and work on site to check it's all in order so far). I'm leaving my office job in the next week to go and work on site with him, the intention is for me to take over electrical work on site, and to do the fuse board and sign it all off upon completion in 3 months or so.
Now you've heard my life story, you can see where I'm at. I'd like to get registered - I checked with Trade Skills and they say my qualifications are still up to date to sign off work (hoping someone here can confirm this, aware I'll need to do catching up with amendments though). As I mentioned I haven't been registered before, neither have I much hands on experience with design & testing.
I'm thinking of registering with Elecsa, and have already spoken with them. They've e-mailed me over what I'll need to book an assessment to get registered with them. So what I'd be extremely grateful for here is some advice (feel free to go into as much detail as you'd like) on what steps to take next / exactly what I'll need to get in order for their assessment. As I said I've never been registered, and my experience with design and testing is mostly limited to what I've read / what took place on the courses I did a few years back. I know I'm throwing myself in the deep end here, but I know I've got it in me to get up to speed with all of this, and after everything I've been through I'm more determined than ever.
If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read. Any and all comments appreciated and welcomed.
EZ
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