Training/Qualification advice

[youspruce]

Youspruce,

I am currently undertaking electrical courses at Able Skills. I have just finished the C&G Level 2 2365 and start the Level 3 2365 Diploma in Electrical Installations on Monday. Each course is 7 weeks in duration. It is very intense and I find myself studying for several hours in the evening and at weekends.

Level 2 is fairly basic but that was good for me as I had no electrical experience prior to attending the course.

Having finished the Level 2 course, I now understand wiring lighting circuits and ring and radial power circuits. However, you don't learn or practice how to wire a house, for example where to lay the cables.

In hindsight it would have been better for me to study it part time in the evenings and then obtain a job as an electrician's mate. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Having sought advice from a couple of the tutors at Able Skills, the best route would be to get a job as an electrician's mate. This would give you the opportunity to learn from a qualified electrician, whilst obtaining the required qualification. But that is all well and good if don't have a another day job.

Technically if all you wanted to do was domestic installation, then you would need to take the Domestic Installers course, 17th edition wiring regs (2382) and the 2394 and 2395 inspection and testing courses. Although we are being told by Able Skills the 2394 and 2395 is being replaced by the 2391. However no date for this yet.

Also as previously mentioned the draft has been written for the 18th edition wiring regs. If you can wait another year or so then it is worth it. I sat the 17th edition exam yesterday, and according to the tutor it is valid until 2019. Then I will have to sit the 18th edition.

If you want my opinion on Able Skills, then I would say it is great place to learn, the instructors are friendly and knowledgeable and the facilities are good. Only downside from my point of view is there is not enough practical time. But as the courses are short, I don't think there is much they can do about it.

Good luck mate, hope it all works out.

All the best

Pete

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the feedback on courses. I was down at ableskills yesterday checking out the facilities and they look very good. I think I will go with them as they are closest to home and appear to be good value for money.

With regards to the level 2 course you took, what percentage was spent hands on / in the classroom?

Thanks

 

[youspruce]

You do need need to be (Qualified) but competent, but how do you prove competence without tickets.

To be fair, houses are not difficult, providing your design is good, generally average 3 bed house is simple.

C&G 4555 is pretty worthless, it a course they made up to go with the C&G 2393 building regs.
PAT testing won't give you any knowledge in house bashing
17th edition is good, although 18th edition will be stating to come in next year/jan19.
level 2 inspection & testing is pretty basic.
EAL level 3 is considered the easy option in inspection and testing, you want to do the job properly, get the C&G 2394/2395 takes longer, but its the proper qaulification.

in training courses you'll prob pay around 3k for above, 2394/2395 is £1300 alone.

Buy the green IET building regs book & IET onsite guide. it will cover everything you need to know,

you'll need to buy a multifunction tester, along with any other electrical related tools, bare in mind the average electrician prob has 10k of tools in there van.

If you join a scheme like the NICEIC domestic installer, it will be 1k just to join, if you don't you will have to have visits from building control which will be costly,

open an account with an electrical wholesaler otherwise pay top prices in the likes of screw fix etc, (you won't get an Electrifix account at screwfix as your not properly qualified)

Whilst you will get valuable skills, you have no experience, and you can't learn everything in 6 weeks, so its likely you'll miss out lots of things, from not ordering something to forgetting to pull a cable in after its been plastered.

Summary, the above is expensive enough, factor in no experience, likely hood of something being wrong, then the cost of hiring someone qualified to rectify. unless your minted... then crack on!

Thanks for the advice Adam. My plan is undertake the project in a cost effective way as well as gain some valuable skills for future projects. I certainly cannot afford to chuck money at my mistakes! A couple of questions if you don't mind

If I was to employ a qualified sparky to design the circuits and get me started do you think I would be ok to finish the job myself? or would it be best to get them to do the entire job while I shadow them? and would an electrician be willing to work in such a way? I think I would find it annoying myself if I had a novice shadowing me (I may have answered my own question here!)

With having a qualified electrician overseeing everything I do, would I need NICEIC membership myself or could I use the electricians?

Thanks again

 

[Andy78]

Thanks for the advice Adam. My plan is undertake the project in a cost effective way as well as gain some valuable skills for future projects. I certainly cannot afford to chuck money at my mistakes! A couple of questions if you don't mind

If I was to employ a qualified sparky to design the circuits and get me started do you think I would be ok to finish the job myself? or would it be best to get them to do the entire job while I shadow them? and would an electrician be willing to work in such a way? I think I would find it annoying myself if I had a novice shadowing me (I may have answered my own question here!)

With having a qualified electrician overseeing everything I do, would I need NICEIC membership myself or could I use the electricians?

Thanks again

Would an electrician be willing to work in such a way ? Not many, no. You are effectively asking them to help you do them out of work.

Would you be able to and should you be carrying out work on your own after a short course ?
In my opinion, no. You should be getting a few years practical experience under supervision under your belt after your brief training to gain skills and also to fill in all the gaps in your knowledge this course will leave you with.

 

[Rpa07]

Why don't you project manage the whole build, get reading and learning about it and it will improve your knowledge of different trades. Timing of fixes and schedules. You may be very good at this and it'll take all of you time up.
I say do your course but don't expect to be a major part of this build except experiencing how everything gets done and on time.
Just my opinion

 

[Des 56]

I understand that I will need a fully qualified electrician to sign off my work,

You do not need a fully qualified electrician to"sign off your work"
If you were doing any electrical work yourself you would be in contravention of BS7671 IEE regs unless you completed a installation certificate (naming you as the installer)
It is applicable to any electrical work undertaken by you or anyone else,whether they be an electrician or not

would I need NICEIC membership myself
There is also no requirement to be in the Niceic or any other numerous similar private profit motivated schemes to install domestic wiring
You "do" have to abide by the Building regs,a full wiring of a house would need notification to them
You can pay them to oversee the work, inspecting what you have done during 1st and 2nd fix and to test the installation

If you don't want to pay them,perhaps have "a n other" to do the work
You can hire a electrician who is registered with the any one of the myriad of schemes, they can self certify that their work complies with building regs and you don't need to pay Building control

In a nutshell,there is no restriction on who can do the work,there are consequences if that work is found to be below whats required