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aidge

Hi all, first time on, names Aidge. Did a months course at Technique Training a year ago and have spent the last year learning how to actually become an Electrician! Came off course feeling very angry that they are churning out people who are so green they are a danger to themselves and every household they venture into and that i had fallen for there ridiculous marketing claims! Anyway have landed on my feet after really tough time finding that nobody in the industry even slightly recognises these 'Learn a new trade in a month' courses! hooked up with a guy who is a lighting designer from Bristol Old Vic. Really knows his stuff and we make a good team. Got my Niceic assessment next week and need any help i can get with any tips on last minute panic preparation! Any usefull tips would be much appreciated.
Cheers Aidge
 
finding that nobody in the industry even slightly recognises these 'Learn a new trade in a month' courses!
Cheers Aidge


You wonder why?????:confused:

How about, 4 years training, apprenticeships, several exams including 2 day practical/theory.. etc etc.

Not being funny, but most sparks have learned long and hard to do what they do today, and many do get a bit funny when the 5 day wonders come into the industry.

Looking forward to your 'how do i...' posts.
 
Looking forward to your 'how do i...' posts.

Come on, he's actually come on here to say he didn't realise the situation, give him a break. Seems people can't win whatever they say or however much they back down; as long as they haven't done it the way you want, they're roasted on here.

The electrician I work alongside at work has done the years of college, taken the exams, and still has 'how do I' questions from time to time. This seems a really good forum, but there are a few who tend to present themselves with a very bitchy attitude. If someone can prove themselves to have the skills and knowledge, it doesn't matter if it's self-taught or if the same info was pumped into them via a tutor, or if they learnt it alongside others. It's what you can do and not how you learnt to do it that matters.

How about less judging and a better attitude towards others?

Peace.
 
Here we go again.......
"5 day wonder" is a bit harsh....and it's a little boring seeing this string repeated all over this forum.....
I have absolutely no doubt that there are loads of good sparks out there who have done the long long long training course/apprenticeship, no doubt all of whom claim to be better than the intensive course chaps. I have to say that judging from the SH*TE I see very day that some old time spark threw in to someones house that even the "old way" does not guarantee a goodsparky at the end of it. How many times do I have to roll up at some old dears house to find a brand new CU fitted, cables all over the place, wrongly rated protection devices, no labelling, no bonding, and he poor old buzzards lights are all dim. (Oh, and shes £600 down the tubes). And no cert of install. Oh, and he never left a phone number. Dont try to tell me this is all down to the 5 day wonders. Rubbish. Rubbish sparkies all over the place, both intensive trained and "the right way".
 
Well put Chappers, I totally agree with you.
There does seem to be a lot of hate towards us so called '5 minute wonders'. Not all of us took the cance to do an apprentiship when we left school and are taking the chance to get into the industry through a different route, Like myself I'm 27 just coming out of the armed forces after 11 years, I certainly cant afford to go on apprentices wages and go back to college.
So instead of having a dig at us all the time when we post a so called 'how do I' why not be constructive and point us in the right direction so that we dont guess and leave jobs in a poor/dangerous state.
 
You wonder why?????:confused:

How about, 4 years training, apprenticeships, several exams including 2 day practical/theory.. etc etc.

Not being funny, but most sparks have learned long and hard to do what they do today, and many do get a bit funny when the 5 day wonders come into the industry.

Looking forward to your 'how do i...' posts.

Well said, some may get miffed at the idea of sparks being put out but did they honestly expect to get the same level of respect from other sparks.
 
Nowt to do with getting respect, but some of us "5 minute" boys do actually know a thing or two....
STEAN my old lad...we are out of the same melting pot...welcome to the club.....the "5 MINUTE CLUB"!!!

Randyrat:D
 
I don't know what the 'Mr Senior member' Jasons' of this world are so worried about. If they are doing what they do well then why worry about the '5 minute wonders' surely it just gives you even more work to put your vast knowledge into good effect! I am serious about being good at this new trade i have choosen and want to be taken seriously. I understand that you have to earn that respect and i am not expecting you to be hanging on this forum waiting to answer my 'How do i' posts but equally i didn't sign on this forum to get into a slanging match with some bitter old tradesmen who can't handle change! I am on here to use it to help me gain the knowledge to start to be taken seriously and it sounds like there are plenty of like minded open people that are prepared to help. Thanks for that, now lets get down to effecting some positive change and work together at making us all better at what we do and hopefully better people for it!
 
Sorry chaps, didnt mean to sound that harsh!!!!!!!

Trouble is, and from experience, i have had to put a lot of work right that had been done by short course sparkys, but not all.

I have seen horrendous work in kitchens and bathrooms, which seem to be the main problem area.

Im only too happy to help people on here. Thats the reason i joined, but i do get a little disgruntled when newly qualified people come on here and start with the impression that they did the course fast track and it was a piece of p**s.

Thats how it came across to me although i do appreciate thats probably not what you meant.



Anyhow,

still looking forward to your 'how do i...' posts:D

Its all good.:)


PS Im 38 and so im not that old. Bitter maybe, but not old.:p
 
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not being funny but ive done the long run in my twenties on crap money and paid for exams by myself, this isnt a trade u should be in if your not willing to invest time. I mean aidge spending 1 year learning and pointing out how green people are" lol. you cant learn a trade over night
 
I mean aidge spending 1 year learning and pointing out how green people are" lol.

This is maybe best answered by aidge, but I gathered from his post that he was including himself as one of the people being churned out 'green' from the course he went on, and it was that which angered him - that he felt 'green' even though the course made promises of leaving people with a much higher degree of knowledge and practical skill than it, in his opinion, actually did.

Interestingly, my father is a retired electronics engineer, went to college for years, earnt his qualifications, spent years working alongside senior technicians converting theory to practical experience, went solo, was very successful and popular. His business (longest established electronics repair business in the county) is still running now, still successful and still popular. Yet the current man in charge and his engineer are my two brothers. My father taught them everything they know, although they've been on a few fast-track courses for modern equipment, and the rest is self-taught through experience and using their heads. My father doesn't consider them second rate because they didn't do the years in college and years by the side of senior engineers, nor does he consider their abilities to be below his - in fact, they're now more knowledgable than him after many years in the trade and having learnt much of the newer technologies not pervasive when he was still working in the trade. As I said before, it's what you know, not how you learnt it. Of course, if he's peeved that they just walked into an established business without taking the same path as him, and are now making money he could only dream of when he was on poor pay as a learnee, he isn't showing it. ;)

Oh, and the contractors who come to my workplace are nice chaps, we know them quite well. Went the college route, apprenticeships, have every qualification under the sun, NIC registered, the lot. Shame we have to right their work at times, and try and figure which circuits feed what cos they don't bother labelling in disti boards. Even the 5-day-wonders at work look and immediately point out where they haven't complied with regs... Good and bad from both sides of the fence. The real danger, in any trade, is when a person thinks they know it all, because no one's ever that good. If you accept you have lots to learn, then you ask questions, seek advice, and reduce any danger that comes from your lack of experience. Oops, sorry for long post, stupid fast-typing fingers. :D
 
This is maybe best answered by aidge, but I gathered from his post that he was including himself as one of the people being churned out 'green' from the course he went on, and it was that which angered him - that he felt 'green' even though the course made promises of leaving people with a much higher degree of knowledge and practical skill than it, in his opinion, actually did.

Interestingly, my father is a retired electronics engineer, went to college for years, earnt his qualifications, spent years working alongside senior technicians converting theory to practical experience, went solo, was very successful and popular. His business (longest established electronics repair business in the county) is still running now, still successful and still popular. Yet the current man in charge and his engineer are my two brothers. My father taught them everything they know, although they've been on a few fast-track courses for modern equipment, and the rest is self-taught through experience and using their heads. My father doesn't consider them second rate because they didn't do the years in college and years by the side of senior engineers, nor does he consider their abilities to be below his - in fact, they're now more knowledgable than him after many years in the trade and having learnt much of the newer technologies not pervasive when he was still working in the trade. As I said before, it's what you know, not how you learnt it. Of course, if he's peeved that they just walked into an established business without taking the same path as him, and are now making money he could only dream of when he was on poor pay as a learnee, he isn't showing it. ;)

Oh, and the contractors who come to my workplace are nice chaps, we know them quite well. Went the college route, apprenticeships, have every qualification under the sun, NIC registered, the lot. Shame we have to right their work at times, and try and figure which circuits feed what cos they don't bother labelling in disti boards. Even the 5-day-wonders at work look and immediately point out where they haven't complied with regs... Good and bad from both sides of the fence. The real danger, in any trade, is when a person thinks they know it all, because no one's ever that good. If you accept you have lots to learn, then you ask questions, seek advice, and reduce any danger that comes from your lack of experience. Oops, sorry for long post, stupid fast-typing fingers. :D


Your brothers basically did an apprenticeship then, they didnt go on a short course and get all the qualification numbers you require to call yourself qualified then use that to say that they are qualified. Your father (tradesman) taught his two sons (apprentices) over a number of years, its vastly different from going to one of these colleges knowing no one or anything from Adam and been shown a very small scale of the electrical spectrum.

The NIC/JIB/ECA or whoever should really create a title for guys like yourselves which is either Electrical improvers or domestic installers.

Unless these courses show you how to do metal trunking and conduit, ladder rack and tray, or prepare you for working in the commercial or industrial side of the game then in reality you cant really claim to be an electrician.

I cant see the position ever being created as there was a big enough kick up when they tried to create the skilled mechanical assembler role a while back.
 

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