I have City & Guilds 2382-12 and 2392-10, as well as various other certificates, all gained from OLCI, and am working as a self-employed "Domestic Electrical Installer". I always thought that qualifications were for life, but the more I read about this in relation to electrical qualifications, the more confused I become.
Essentially I have two questions - is it unlawful for a person without relevant qualifications to do domestic electrical wiring work on a commercial (i.e. being payed by the property owner) basis? Obviously this doesn't apply to me at present as I do have relevant qualifications, but my next question will, I hope, make it apparent why I am asking - do such legal requirements change over time, in other words will there be a time when, despite my current qualifications, I am no longer lawfully allowed to do this work?
I ask largely because of an article in Professional Electrician and Installer (p59 of the July/August issue) which talks about electricians being "left out in the cold if they have part qualifications which may not be adequate for the new requirements". It's not clear from the article whether this means that the qualifications will no longer be valid, or just that it will be harder to progress to an NVQ.
I'm certainly not averse to continuing study, staying up to date and enhancing my knowledge - but I'm not yet earning enough to justify spending hundreds or thousands of pounds on new courses just to stay where I am. If anyone can cast any light on this I'd be very grateful. I'm in Scotland, which often makes things more complicated as the law here is often unbelievably obscure, in my opinion at least!
Essentially I have two questions - is it unlawful for a person without relevant qualifications to do domestic electrical wiring work on a commercial (i.e. being payed by the property owner) basis? Obviously this doesn't apply to me at present as I do have relevant qualifications, but my next question will, I hope, make it apparent why I am asking - do such legal requirements change over time, in other words will there be a time when, despite my current qualifications, I am no longer lawfully allowed to do this work?
I ask largely because of an article in Professional Electrician and Installer (p59 of the July/August issue) which talks about electricians being "left out in the cold if they have part qualifications which may not be adequate for the new requirements". It's not clear from the article whether this means that the qualifications will no longer be valid, or just that it will be harder to progress to an NVQ.
I'm certainly not averse to continuing study, staying up to date and enhancing my knowledge - but I'm not yet earning enough to justify spending hundreds or thousands of pounds on new courses just to stay where I am. If anyone can cast any light on this I'd be very grateful. I'm in Scotland, which often makes things more complicated as the law here is often unbelievably obscure, in my opinion at least!