The highest level in the regulations was Competent person. A person who possesses sufficient technical knowledge, relevant practical skills and experience for the nature of the electrical work undertaken and is able at all times to prevent danger and, where appropriate, injury to him/herself and others.
This has now been combined with Skilled, but the point is it does not list any exam, or apprenticeship to show one is skilled. I can sign my names with FDeng behind it, but that could be in motor vehicle engineering, I have a whole list of exams passed and I had to take these into where I volunteer for them to be registered so insurance would cover.
I have taken a briefcase with my qualifications to interviews for jobs, but often these were not even looked at, so even working for a large firm they did no know what my qualifications were.
I was a member of the IET, costs every year so dropped when I retired, but they accepted me as recommended by lecturer when doing my degree, so they don't really know if I am an electrician.
Scheme membership does require one to have some qualifications and have access to test equipment, but the firm can be a member as well so in that case the electrician does not need it, so only when a sole trader does scheme membership help. This was the whole idea of the schemes, it was so the home owner knows the person doing the work has the skill. And if not a member one is not suppose to display the scheme name or logo on anything be it an advert, sign writing on the van, or paperwork, but I can by a pad of EICR forms with the scheme name on them clearly stating for use by non scheme members once one reads the small print, and when I worked as an inspector the electricians mate would take the van home, so if he did a job on the side he would arrive in a van with the logo on it.
In Wales our Part P does not allow much domestic to be done without registering the work, England is not as strict, so can see why some electricians would say most of my work is commercial, so simply not worth my while becoming a scheme member. As an industrial electrician my wages were far higher than I could get as a domestic electrician, so even before Part P I would only do domestic when industrial work had dried up.
It is the same with most trades, even the boiler inspectors at work are not gas safe, they will be members of some professorial body, but where I work we have real boilers, not simple water heaters, they not only boil the water, but some produce super heated steam, and our firemen light fires, they do not put them out.
My son now industrial like I was, but he started as an electricians mate and would fully wire houses with the electrician calling in once a week to see how he was getting on. He was doing the same thing with every house, it was at that point a boring job, he did not need to make good, working on new houses, he simply followed a plan.
Today homes are more complex, but non of us know it all, remember a plaque on father-in-laws desk, "These people who think they know it all, are specially annoying to those of us that do." and I must say as a foreman for a year I leant so much, as not doing the mundane only the hard stuff. So yes managers do tend to know a lot more than the workers, but as to if they can do the work is another question.
