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A bit of a mini essay but these questions have been building up in my mind over the last weeks and months as I've been studying and volunteering in the field.
Just wondering if anyone can give some advice about the NVQ / portfolio. I'm currently studying level 2 EAL in the evenings, while volunteering 2 days per week with a local electrical firm doing mainly domestic, and who knows, hopefully getting an entry level wage soon. I'm working my steady part time office job the other 4 days per week and having a day off.
I've been watching a lot of youtube advice videos and reading threads on here. More than one person has suggested to me now that when they look back, they wish they'd started their NVQ portfolio sooner, and that a good idea in terms of speeding up my progression would be to start taking photos of the work I'm doing on the job (with myself in the pictures, with PPE, with date stamp etc) and doing a write up of what I've done for each set of photos, as well as keeping (making?) copies of risk assessments etc so that by the time I come to do the NVQ, I will already have a substantial body of evidence to really speed up the rate at which I can complete the NVQ/portfolio.
A few questions about this:
1. Is there any time limit on how old the evidence can be? For example, I'm due to start my EAL level 3 in September (well, I'll do C&G level 3 this time, but as far as I can gather it should be fine, to combine EAL lvl 2 with lvl 3 C&G) so its' going to be mid 2024 before I've got the level 2 and 3 done, at which point from what I have seen and read, if I want to be more than a domestic installer with only a little experience, I'll need to go on to spend more hours on the job each week (ideally sooner as well I guess, as per question 4 below), as well as doing something like a C&G 2346 to move my way up to being an actual 'electrician' (on paper at least).
By an actual electrician, as far as I can tell at the moment, my understanding is that that means someone who either: Did an apprenticeship all the way to and including completing a version of the AM2 and then the other shorter courses like Part P etc as well, Or; someone who has done diploma levels 2 and 3, then an experienced worker course like C&G 2346, including the portfolio and a version of the AM2 and the other bits afterwards like Part P etc.
Once I've eventually done the second of those two routes (at which point, I'm sure many will say, I should be then on my way to becoming a competent electrician in practice not just in theory) it might well be the case that I'm submitting evidence with my portfolio which might be a year or two old. Would this be an issue does anyone know?
2. Selfies as evidence photos. Some people seem to say that it's not ideal to be taking selfies for evidence as you can't really get yourself in the picture as well as the work. I seem to manage this to some extent. Picture of myself with the marked points on the ceiling, then holes cut, then spots put in, then wiring the back of them in the loft etc, is selfies a real no-no? or do they accept them if they show the relevant content? Eg I'm still wearing PPE and you can see all of or most of my face in them. I do other close up ones right after of the actual detail (i.e. the wires terminated into the back of the led spotlight) which is clearly a close up of the previous image with me in it plus the dressed in cable and tops of the spotlights in the loft, for example.
I hope these kind of photos will be acceptable. At the end of the day it feels like a waste not to use the experience I'm gaining to start to build a portfolio as soon as possible.
3. Is there somewhere I can see a template of what a completed portfolio looks like? Or find out the criteria for what will be needed to complete it, so I can tick things off as I go along and not waste time collecting evidence which won't be needed? I've found example sheets on various online videos, but not a breakdown of the criteria for the portfolio in total or significant chunks which show how it should look ready to be submitted.
4. Some of the videos I see of people looking at the courses which help domestic installers transition to become 'fully fledged electricians' (on paper at least) seem to indicate that you would need to have at least 2 years full time experience before you can get on a C&G course (like 2346) to enable you to begin to progress beyond domestic installer level. Other sources suggest that isn't necessarily true, and that in some instances, depending upon the learning institution in question, tutors can take a view and might consider part time work experience or some other experience level which isn't full time work, over 2 years, as sufficient to enable one to embark on a transition course beyond domestic installer status and towards being an actual 'electrician'. Depending on which of these is true, it might not be my portfolio holding me back in terms of making progress, but my depth and length of practical experience on the tools.
Fundamentally I suppose I recognise the unavoidable necessity of practical experience and that the journey should take a certain length of time as a minimum in order for a person to have a well rounded enough body of experience as well as learned knowledge at the point of being able to be considered an 'electrician', be that an approved contractor, or gold card holder or whatever type of electrician one wants to become, and I suppose much of what I'm looking for by asking about this is to get a clearer perception in my own mind of what the journey looks like, how to avoid wasting time (I'm not as young as most trainees, lets just say that - almost twice the age of some of them in fact), and to be able to feel I'm making the most effective use of my time while I'm volunteering (and once I'm getting paid for some of my efforts too) and studying.
It seems there's more than a few other people out there working in the industry who have, even after many years of experience, discovered that they didn't realise that they still lack some kind of qualifications to be considered a 'fully qualified electrician' whatever that really is, and so I don't think it's a bad idea to try to get a bit more clarity about this myself. There's probably some quote out there somewhere, about needing to have a clear focus on a goal in order to be able to achieve it, it's that kind of thing that I'm trying to get at here.
Thanks for reading if you've got this far. Any and all feedback appreciated. Oh - and I must say I'm grateful in general for the many people who have taken the time to upload videos to youtube and elsewhere discussing this kind of subject matter, it is such a crazy advantage to be able to dip into such a vast knowledge pool and learn from so many sources so rapidly. I'm also very grateful for these forums and the threads herein, again hugely useful and often inspirational, which is helpful when the journey seems daunting.
Just wondering if anyone can give some advice about the NVQ / portfolio. I'm currently studying level 2 EAL in the evenings, while volunteering 2 days per week with a local electrical firm doing mainly domestic, and who knows, hopefully getting an entry level wage soon. I'm working my steady part time office job the other 4 days per week and having a day off.
I've been watching a lot of youtube advice videos and reading threads on here. More than one person has suggested to me now that when they look back, they wish they'd started their NVQ portfolio sooner, and that a good idea in terms of speeding up my progression would be to start taking photos of the work I'm doing on the job (with myself in the pictures, with PPE, with date stamp etc) and doing a write up of what I've done for each set of photos, as well as keeping (making?) copies of risk assessments etc so that by the time I come to do the NVQ, I will already have a substantial body of evidence to really speed up the rate at which I can complete the NVQ/portfolio.
A few questions about this:
1. Is there any time limit on how old the evidence can be? For example, I'm due to start my EAL level 3 in September (well, I'll do C&G level 3 this time, but as far as I can gather it should be fine, to combine EAL lvl 2 with lvl 3 C&G) so its' going to be mid 2024 before I've got the level 2 and 3 done, at which point from what I have seen and read, if I want to be more than a domestic installer with only a little experience, I'll need to go on to spend more hours on the job each week (ideally sooner as well I guess, as per question 4 below), as well as doing something like a C&G 2346 to move my way up to being an actual 'electrician' (on paper at least).
By an actual electrician, as far as I can tell at the moment, my understanding is that that means someone who either: Did an apprenticeship all the way to and including completing a version of the AM2 and then the other shorter courses like Part P etc as well, Or; someone who has done diploma levels 2 and 3, then an experienced worker course like C&G 2346, including the portfolio and a version of the AM2 and the other bits afterwards like Part P etc.
Once I've eventually done the second of those two routes (at which point, I'm sure many will say, I should be then on my way to becoming a competent electrician in practice not just in theory) it might well be the case that I'm submitting evidence with my portfolio which might be a year or two old. Would this be an issue does anyone know?
2. Selfies as evidence photos. Some people seem to say that it's not ideal to be taking selfies for evidence as you can't really get yourself in the picture as well as the work. I seem to manage this to some extent. Picture of myself with the marked points on the ceiling, then holes cut, then spots put in, then wiring the back of them in the loft etc, is selfies a real no-no? or do they accept them if they show the relevant content? Eg I'm still wearing PPE and you can see all of or most of my face in them. I do other close up ones right after of the actual detail (i.e. the wires terminated into the back of the led spotlight) which is clearly a close up of the previous image with me in it plus the dressed in cable and tops of the spotlights in the loft, for example.
I hope these kind of photos will be acceptable. At the end of the day it feels like a waste not to use the experience I'm gaining to start to build a portfolio as soon as possible.
3. Is there somewhere I can see a template of what a completed portfolio looks like? Or find out the criteria for what will be needed to complete it, so I can tick things off as I go along and not waste time collecting evidence which won't be needed? I've found example sheets on various online videos, but not a breakdown of the criteria for the portfolio in total or significant chunks which show how it should look ready to be submitted.
4. Some of the videos I see of people looking at the courses which help domestic installers transition to become 'fully fledged electricians' (on paper at least) seem to indicate that you would need to have at least 2 years full time experience before you can get on a C&G course (like 2346) to enable you to begin to progress beyond domestic installer level. Other sources suggest that isn't necessarily true, and that in some instances, depending upon the learning institution in question, tutors can take a view and might consider part time work experience or some other experience level which isn't full time work, over 2 years, as sufficient to enable one to embark on a transition course beyond domestic installer status and towards being an actual 'electrician'. Depending on which of these is true, it might not be my portfolio holding me back in terms of making progress, but my depth and length of practical experience on the tools.
Fundamentally I suppose I recognise the unavoidable necessity of practical experience and that the journey should take a certain length of time as a minimum in order for a person to have a well rounded enough body of experience as well as learned knowledge at the point of being able to be considered an 'electrician', be that an approved contractor, or gold card holder or whatever type of electrician one wants to become, and I suppose much of what I'm looking for by asking about this is to get a clearer perception in my own mind of what the journey looks like, how to avoid wasting time (I'm not as young as most trainees, lets just say that - almost twice the age of some of them in fact), and to be able to feel I'm making the most effective use of my time while I'm volunteering (and once I'm getting paid for some of my efforts too) and studying.
It seems there's more than a few other people out there working in the industry who have, even after many years of experience, discovered that they didn't realise that they still lack some kind of qualifications to be considered a 'fully qualified electrician' whatever that really is, and so I don't think it's a bad idea to try to get a bit more clarity about this myself. There's probably some quote out there somewhere, about needing to have a clear focus on a goal in order to be able to achieve it, it's that kind of thing that I'm trying to get at here.
Thanks for reading if you've got this far. Any and all feedback appreciated. Oh - and I must say I'm grateful in general for the many people who have taken the time to upload videos to youtube and elsewhere discussing this kind of subject matter, it is such a crazy advantage to be able to dip into such a vast knowledge pool and learn from so many sources so rapidly. I'm also very grateful for these forums and the threads herein, again hugely useful and often inspirational, which is helpful when the journey seems daunting.
- TL;DR
- Questions about the NVQ/Portfolio including whether it is a good idea to start collecting evidence now, how to collect evidence efficiently, and other hurdles to an optimal learning & progression journey.
