Dont All shout. But Electrician courses?

[caslin]

Hi all.


I’m interested in starting a career as an electrician. I have basic knowledge and skills in domestic installation as far as I understand ring mains, spurs, cable sizes etc. And I have rewired electrical sockets and added extra sockets around my home. (Anyone Impressed?????)

I currently work full time as a nurse so can’t afford to do an aprentership (26 yrs old) due to mortgage, family, etc. So I need some advise on courses to get me the knowledge to complete these domestic installations. I’ve looked at a number of courses that offer EAL VRQ qualified domestic installer certificate. If I got this course plus the city & guild 2381+2391 would this give me the qualifications to do ALL domestic wiring i.e., extra sockets to full rewires? I understand that this wouldn’t give me practical experience.


Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[equitum]

Simple answer is yes, 2381/2391 and DISQ course along with registration and full scope acceptance in a scheme such as NAPIT, NICEIC or ECA will allow you to legally undertake and self certify the full range domestic installations. You would not be an electrician, but could call yourself a Domestic Installer, Qualified Supervisor.

 

[dave93]

When I read about acceptance to NICEIC for self certification I took it that you needed to work as an electrician (well as an apprentice to an electrician) or carry out electrical work as part of your main work (e.g. you are a plumber or heating engineer who also wires in controls for the heating system)? Have I misread or do the other two organisations you mention not require commercial experience?

 

[Paul Barker]

I don't know the answer m8 you simply have to phone the various certifying bodies listed above and get their view. I do suspect some relevant experience is asked for,

I am a qualified nurse corgi registered and full scope napit registered. From my point of view the tactile abilites of a nurse will stand you in good stead, the problem solving abilities and speed of calm response in an emergency will also. The mental aptitude to be a nurse is far greater than that required to be a domestic isntaller, as is the mental aptitude to be a heating engineer.

entry level courses like eal level 2 or whatever it is the various bodies want now for part p limited scope competence is quite tough for a newby but easy enough to approapriate the knowledge for someone with your proven aptitude.

2381 is a complete farce, I finished it off the top of my head in ten minutes and walked out from disgust. The oass mark is so low I was absolutely assured of a pass after ten minutes of just what I knew straight off, they should make a much tougher hurdle than that as a right of passage. 2391 is very tough, I sweat buckets and am absolutely sure I got through by the skin of my teeth,

The job is just so much better than nursing, there is no way on this earth I would ever go back. I can't anyway the door was slammed in my face.

I can probably empathise with your situation better than most email in profile if you just want moral support,

I should add though that when I was anurse my last years pay was £27,000. I haven't managed that yet, it has been a real struggle geting a business off the ground and still is. But what price your sanity? Nursing is a killer; it will have you kicking daiseys.

Of course for domestic work you have to take a few years, maybe 3 just learning how to predict what has been done and how best to go about disturbing the fabric of the building. I learned it over a period of four years wirking with a corgi registered gas fitter first then a joiner, and finally electrician. The three approaches are invaluable. You cannot make an electrician just with the quallies. A person straight from a one year course with qualies came to me for experience he wasn't worth a penny had no former experience with his hands whatsoever. Had a head full of knowledge but no practical experience. He had no place in my business for pay, and left next day when he realised he wasn't going to get any money at all, I had to work for free to get where I am. I am certainly not going to pay wages for the privillage of giving someone an education which only slows me down, they are of no use whatsoever, I saw him in the merchants yesterday having secured a job as electricians m8 for £8/hr. All I can say is industry ust be desperate to pay a useless lump of lard like that anything at all.

It will be a tough road gaining the real skills required for success (sufficient income) self employed, but it is possible and it's great for the mind compared to nursing,

 

[CallEdsFirst]

I am a qualified nurse corgi registered

Which job involved checking more dodgy boilers/leaky pipes?

 

[dave93]

Caslin you seemed to be asking if you could without doing an apprenticeship be able to (I presume you meant in legal and in skill/knowledge terms) "complete these domestic installations". Not quite sure what you meant by "these" when prevously you seemed to imply you had only done work in your own house.

The answer by equitum said it would be possible (legally at least), but I can't see how you are allowed to carry out/certify work that should be by a competent person (statutorily speaking) if you don't have any experience.

Perhaps your plan Caslin is to do more domestic installations than your own home and bulid up a business while still being a nurse (sounds hard work)?

I'm interested in this from the point of view really of just doing work in your own home - it would save hassle/money in certain situations to be able to self certify.

Paul, what was the procedure for NAPIT? Did you have to provide a reference from the electrician that you worked under to say you had worked under him for so long and work was up to standard etc? As you say you did it but I'm surprised that unpaid work is allowed to qualify as (perhaps wrongly) it is sometimes taken within regulatory regimes to in itself indicate a lack of ability (though the fact that you wouldn't pay that apprentice because he wasn't very good with his hands perhaps highlights some truth in that assumption).

 

[Paul Barker]

Rules ar ever shifting so I can't say what Napit's rules of entry are now, a year ago they were satisfied with my equivalent trade experience.

 

[Paul Barker]

nursing is far more arduous life threatening wellbeing undermining than any trade work. Life now is a holliday compared to nursing. That coming from someone who probably does 100 hour a week. Phone never stops.

 

[oohthatslive!!]

you dont need to work as an electricians mate to become
a DI. Just do the EAL level 2 VRQ course. Thats what i did.
Member of the NICEIC now as a DI

 

[caslin]

Can i just say a big thanks to paul barker. Paul emailed me his contact details and gave up his time to give me some great advice.

oohthatslive!! can i ask how you are gettin on being a DI? Did you find the EAL level 2 VRQ course useful?

 

[oohthatslive!!]

yea im getting on fine. always learning but always trying
to achieve the very best that i can. the eal course was a
2 week course and i found it very useful indeed. i work in
different houses every week and i see very dubious wiring
all the time and i know that so called electricians have been
guilty of very shoddy work in the past. so i take great heart
in the fact that i can do better!

 

[caslin]

oohthatslive!! do you have the city&guild 2381 or 2391?

And i love the name by the way. Have you copy-righted it?

 

[oohthatslive!!]

no and no !!

 

[caslin]

In that case i will. It can be my business name if i ever get one!!!!!!!!

If given the oppurtunity which one would everyone recoomend doing. The city&guild 2330 or the EAL VRQ qualified domestic installer course. Bearing in mind that i just want to do "House Bashing" till i gain enough experience to get into commercial/industrial work.

 

[Nige F]

Thankyou guys for informative answers without the argi-bargi of the plumbing forum ....I`m going to have a look at the dom. installer route myself . because Corgi and me are incompatible .........due to no sense of smell wouldn`t be much good working with gas, now.......and I`ve done lots of wiring in domestic. pre registration times...seems like a way to go Old-school Plumber with legit electrical quals. PS married to an old-school nurse who started in the 60`s on 18/6d a week She`s worth a bit more £ now tho`