Part P

[DurhamSparky]

Just to sum it up


Part P is a building Regulation that is statutory and which must be followed when carrying out electrical work in domestic property.

Part P is NOT a qualification and any body going around saying they are Part P qualified and have a certificate are talking Bull....!! You DO NOT need to do a 2 week VRQ course
Electrical Course | Part P Electricial Course like this one with a training scheme to register as a Competent Person.

YOU NEED TO BE COMPETENT....!! this can be achieved by undertaking formal Electrical Quals at a college or by a training provider...!!

You do however need to know about the building Regs and Part P....!! you can download Approved Document P from the planning portal website.

The following schemes are the most popular with domestic sparks. Elecsa, Niceic and Napit. Upon registration with them you will be required to conduct a formal technical site assessment that will involve you changing or modifying the electrical set up drastically (Rewire/ Cu Change)

If you pass the assessment you are then freely allowed to carry out work in areas designated by building control that fall under the Part P umbrella http://www.partp.co.uk/downloads/public/CLGbuildingworkleaflet.pdf and any work that you carry out can be notified and signed off through them (the schemes) at a small cost (£2-4) and they will inform LABC for you.

If you decide not to register with a Part P scheme. be preared that notification of work to LABC can cost hundreds of pounds and drastically increase your price. They will also expect you to still carry out the tests and paperwork before they arrive to SIGN IT OFF


Recommended courses to do are:

A formal Technical Certificate that is achieved at Level 3 on the NQF (National Qualification Framework) i.e

C&G 2330 or BTEC Advanced/National Diploma.... This gives you the Underpinning Knowledge to build on. (achieved via college or distance learning 18months - 24months is time scale)

You will also Need 17th Edition Wiring Regulations C&G 2382 (if you dont have this you wont get any where in the trade.)

NVQ 3 2356 (its a Craft Certificate that although not needed is very desirable and normally achieved when doing an Apprenticeship but now freely available to "Bolt on" to your current Qualifications via distant learning.

C&G 2391 the ultimate qualification in the electrical world..! Inspection and Testing only to be achieved with considerable site and technical knowledge, closed book exam with a 30-40% pass rate.

C&G 2392 (lesser qualification of the 2391 and aimed at new sparks with little knowledge of inspection and testing, normally used as a starter course to grasp the fundamentals of what's required)

Signing off your work..!!!

you DO NOT need 2391 to sign of your work but you will be expected to have knowledge of inspection and testing to an achievable standard required to carry out and fill in the test results.
You also do not Need 2391 to carry out PIR's but should any thing happen and you go to court the 2391 certificate is your lifeline to prove competence in the field.



hope this helps...

comments and alterations welcome

 

[MiAmigo]

Afternoon all,

May as well make my second ever post!
Like Eliminator Guy above I re-trained and took a couple of courses. Mine were with Trade Skills 4U. I had worked in broadcast electronics since leaving school and have a HND in electronic engineering. I was made redundant about three years ago and discovered what people had been telling me for years- namely that when I get to 50 no one will want me.
So I decided to spend some of my redundancy pay on some re-training and TradeSkills 4U were fairly local in Crawley. Plus, since I had spent most of my adult life (and much of my childhood) thinking about amps, volts and ohms I didn't think the courses would be that difficult. In fact I found all the electrical theory a breeze- it was the rules and regs I wasn't prepared for. I did a basic electrical installation course which entailed a week being supervised by an experienced electrician and having to assemble various circuits on a board. All these circuits were tested for R1+R2, insualtion etc under DC conditions. There was no certificate for this course but I subsequently did an EAL Domestic Installers course (4385), C&G BS7671 and C&G level 2 testing and initial verification. Armed with these bits of paper I then put a small advert in our local paper for Minor Works, just to gain some experience. I had approached a few building firms locally to get some experience but they all had insufficient work to keep their regular Sparkys busy. I also found, somewhat depressingly, that my ad in the local attracted more calls from out of work Sparkys than business from clients. Anyway, undeterred I have accumulated about 20 Minor Works jobs and am in the process of applying for Elecsa membership. My aged aunty's house needs a new CU and some other minor work and i intend doing that and submitting it for the Elecsa inspection.

My experiences with the training organisations is that during the good times their main business comes from electrical contractors who send their trainees along for an intensive course. During recessions such as we have just had their main business is from people investing their redundancy pay. Virtually all the people doing the courses that I was on were all recently made redundant. A few dropped out after a few days on the basic course- they were so out of their depth. Others who mwere a bit more savvy stayed the disitance but I'm not sure how many woulkd actually go into the trade.
My ambition is to get the Elecsa acreditation and spend the last 15 years of my working life jobbing Domestic work.

 

[ELIMINATOR GUY]

Great, if anyone else needs them here is the link.

http://www.------.org/publishing/wiring-regulations/forms/formspdf6.cfm?type=pdf

 

[DurhamSparky]

good luck MIamigo!!

lifes crule but if you work hard you reap rewards.!!

 

[Jimmy Boy]

Don't bite my head off if I have missed a point Gents just joined today, as you can see from my first post I am in the trade.

Breathe deep..According to the London Borough of Redbridge Building Control, I still have to notify them of any work I do and have it signed off by the Building Inspector PRIOR to my application to register with a body, because I am qualified and am able to Verify, Inspect and test and fill the forms out to BS 7671 they will only charge me £75 Per Visit (Gee thanks) instead of £200 per visit, according to them it is illegal to do any work whether it is for the purpose of a registration or not, ONCE I have these two signed of examples of work I then present these for inspection by my chosen body to register for Part P...Is that a fair assessment of the procedure ?

ATB Steve B

 

[MiAmigo]

Don't bite my head off if I have missed a point Gents just joined today, as you can see from my first post I am in the trade.

Breathe deep..According to the London Borough of Redbridge Building Control, I still have to notify them of any work I do and have it signed off by the Building Inspector PRIOR to my application to register with a body, because I am qualified and am able to Verify, Inspect and test and fill the forms out to BS 7671 they will only charge me £75 Per Visit (Gee thanks) instead of £200 per visit, according to them it is illegal to do any work whether it is for the purpose of a registration or not, ONCE I have these two signed of examples of work I then present these for inspection by my chosen body to register for Part P...Is that a fair assessment of the procedure ?

ATB Steve B

That's correct Steve- though different councils seem to have different rules. When I contacted Elecsa they said that some councils don't require the building regs payment on a job that is going to be used for evaluation.Others are more strict. Not so with London Borough of Ealing where my aunty lives. They charged me £192.24 for building control notice on the basis of the work costing less than £500. They weren't interested in what exams I'd passed- only the fact that I wasn't an existing member of a recognised trade body. I believe that when you are accepted within the Elecsa enclave they charge £1.50 per building notice.

On the Tradeskills4U courses I did the trade bodies like Elecsa and NICEIC were referred to as "The Scam Clubs"!

 

[Mooresy]

Hi everybody

I was hoping to get some answers because i'll be honest some of the qualifications are confusing me. I am looking to retrain as I have a degree in computing and absolutely hate everything about it.

I understand that the first qualification i would need would be the Certificate in Electro Technical Technology level 2 and then level 3. Am I right in assuming that I need to be working in the field to be able to do level 3? What time scales does it take to gain these? I read earlier in the thread about 18months to 24 but does that one level or both? A college close to me does level 2 over 34 weeks, 1 day a week.

After that I believe i would need to look at getting 17th edition.

Am i right here or am I talking complete nonsense.
Thanks

 

[DurhamSparky]

any order you want!!! i suggest doing 17th as early as possible as its a good course for referencing your Level 2/3 work against as you will be using it every day!! if you learn the book the therory will follow!! then you put all that in to practice during level 3 (if you can) or when you finish level 3 and do the NVQ!

 

[Addlight]

I've found the route as clear as mud - and I suspect the colleges and 'oversight' bodies like to keep it that way!

I did 2330 L2/L3 in at evening classes over two years - it just seemed like five ... Then I crammed in 2382 via on-line learning packages, and found a college that would allow me just to sit the (PC-based) exam for about £60.

I then did 2391 in a 4-day course and found that more useful than 2330 and 2382 combined. Did the 2382 and 2391 in space of about 2 months after finishing 2330 L3 - having it all fresh in my mind helped, but the best way would be take you time and get lots of practical experience first.

Now the real learning begins ...

With your computer background you may find some of the college course way too long - but if they can make a course last two years instead of just one that's more dosh to the colleges...

 

[DurhamSparky]

i love your avatar!!

 

[Addlight]

Thanks!

It took a lot of work with our dog and my IR tester to get just the right result ...


Wife not best please though..

 

[Mooresy]

mmhm the college I am looking at would allow me to do both so guessing that will be the best option. To get the level 3 qualification do I need to be working with electrics or can still do that along side my current job?

Do you know also whether the college route or one of these intense courses are better?

Sorry for all the newbie questions
Thanks
Ian

 

[Addlight]

Wish I could help you on that question - when we started our 2330 L3 there was a rumour going around that the college shouldn't have allowed everyone on it, as a number of us weren't working in trade - including me.

I never found anything in balck and white on that - which is how it should be. The system should allow us a number of different ways in.

I'd recommend you do the L3 and start picking up as much experience as possible as you do it - offer your time to mates for free - there'll be guys on the course working in trade that may be able to get you in as labourer at weekend, etc.

I've been at it 3 years in September - doing the courses. Still doing the 'day job, but starting to pick up more and more part time paid work now I'm 'qualified', and aim to get NICEIC soon. From there, depends on how the work comes in ...

 

[mickie69]

I am an approved JIB electrician and have an NVQ level 3, the 2391 and my 17th edition.
Do i need to do a part P course or just be registered and have insurance to be able to do domestic work?

 

[Jimmy Boy]

Nobody 'has' to any courses it's all about your knowledge and experience of applying 7671 and the paperwork that goes with it, if you have 2391 and are useing it on a frequent basis your assessments will be a breeze, pick a body and do the two assessments stil gonna cost you a few quid tho !

 

[mickie69]

Thanks Steve, is there a particular body that you would recommend?

 

[Bright Sparks]

Hmmm, I 'did' my 2391 about 4 years ago, I am pretty sure that the pass grade was more in the 70% area.

 

[coatesykid]

could someone please help, I took the part p on-line exam a week ago (failed had questions about roofing and bricklaying) I have downloaded the approved documents I just wondered if the "electricians guide to the building regs" was worth buying. Did it help U pass the exam?

 

[DurhamSparky]

never took a part p exam!!! load of tosh!

 

[MICK.BUDDY]

I am looking at would allow me to do both so guessing that will be the best option.

 

[Paul.M]

I am looking at would allow me to do both so guessing that will be the best option.

Do both? Please read the first page of this thread, he's not lying to you. Any questions afterwards are welcome. No need to do any exam, save your money.