2 week wonders

[ericmark]

I'm going to hit back, I've not read the link, but the amount of self worth you guys are showing over and above DI qualified guys amounts to near racism.

To admit you did not read the post really says it all. The guy quite obviously did not have a clue. But the biggest problem was he did not realise he didn’t have a clue and this is the dangerous bit. Those who realise there limitations and read up on bits they don’t know are not so bad.

I'm a DI, did a scope A 5 day wonder course 4 years ago and proved I could read a book and did the 3 day 17th last year.

It is the blind following of regulations, which can cause problems. There will be times when basic electrical knowledge is more important.

Would you please accept that some DI's have the skills and can more than match (some of) the full fat apprentice qualified guys.

That goes without saying people who have come via an allied trade can bring in a lot of knowledge which those who have only been electricians lack. Pneumatics is one where it is very evident.

I have 2 x relatives that are full college qualified and they are absolutely cr4p at doing domestic. They cut corners, have no idea of rules and aren't P qualified.

Cutting corners is something which can to a limited extent be an advantage used by those who understand what they are doing. And it can give use the time we require in other parts of the work. It was called rule of thumb but now is historically and if I got a reading well under limits I may not get out the PDA to check it complies can’t see anything wrong in that. As to Part P that is only for domestic electricians which is a very small corner of the trade. And only sole traders are Part P qualified everyone else is covered by the firm they work for unlike Corgi which shows how your knowledge is lacking!

Over the years the messes and dangerous installations I've seen that were done by C&G electricians is appalling.

Yes I am sure we all have. It is after all why Part P was required and was more down to employers than the electricians themselves. The domestic seen was always a young mans game where speed was very important and it was this push to faster and faster work which lead to mistakes plus inexperience as most older guys would not work on house bashing unless nothing else available they knew there were not fast enough. This has changed to some extent but there are bound to be old jobs where one can find the results from the speed electrics.

Now I'm sure that some DI's are chancers, that they cut corners and do things outside scope. But that is 'some'- not me and not quite a few DI's that I've worked with.

The problem is they don’t know they are chance’ers! They think they are doing an A1 job. It is the same for DIY bloke who just does not know he should measure ELI never heard of it. Even after an apprenticeship things can be missed. I have seen where because a contactor was burning out it was changed for a semi-conductor type but the guy did not know it would need fuses not a MCB and that he needed to add an emergency stop contactor. But he also knew his limitations and asked the right questions to the right people and corrected his error. But the only way most of the 2 week wonders can get work is to work for themselves so have no one to ask and errors like this go unnoticed.

I can understand you anxiety and your feelings of being cheated by a system that has allowed a quick route to DI, but.......... Blame the powers to be and get down of your high horses of self righteousness.

In my experience it is normally those who have not served an apprenticeship who shout the loudest about short cuts into the trade. At one point when JIB started loads of electricians mates were given electricians JIB cards it was how the JIB got it’s foot hold. My dad would complain at my apprenticeship saying how could I ever learn a trade in 4 years! He had done 5 years as an apprentice and 2 years journeyman. And then I complained about TOPS system where one could learn basics of a trade in 16 weeks but the TOPS system did ensure people were placed working with other tradesmen and never professed to teach the students all that was required.

Most of all, please stop generalising and accept that some DI's (and even some C&G's) are good, and some are bad.

Rant over

If after completing the course the students were placed where they can continue to learn off their peers then there may be a place for these courses. This is how TOPS worked. But to allow people to work without the infrastructure in place to guide them through first few years it is asking for problems. Although some students may have the go about them to learn fast, and to become very good electricians. One must realise that when they walk out of the intuition gates they are well below standard. And to me they should have to go through a journeyman system like in 1940’s to come up to speed in real world for at least 2 years.

As I said to start with the whole point where you jumped in to defend this guy without first reading post re-enforces the root of the problem.

These people who think they know it all. Are especially annoying to those of us that do?