Electrician Qualification Requirements

[MonsterLandrover]

I have been reading a few topics on this site about people becoming electricians. I have a foundation degree in electrical and electronic engineering which covers all of the topics in the C&G 2330. What I cannot find out is what qualifications you need to legally be an electrician in the uk.

Obviously I need the 2382, 2391 and the part P but do I need the 2330 qualification?

Any help would be much appreciated and I am trying to make myself a career.

 

[Taylortwocities]

You do not need any qualifications to legally do a lot of electrical work. That would be minor stuff like adding sockets, lights, etc

HOWEVER

Most of the more involved work that you would be asked to do and anything in a kitchen, bathorrm or outside the house has to be notified to the local authority
see //www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:part_p:diy_electrical_work_and_the_law

To carry this out you would need to join one of the registration schemes. They are listed at the bottom of this page http://www.competentperson.co.uk/

Each has slightly different entry qualifications. Go to their sites and you'll find out what you need to do.

Competence is a requirement for other things too - you will find it hard to get Public Liability or Professional Indemnity Insurance without the right tickets!

 

[ricicle]

You do not need any qualifications (Part P is not a qualification) to be an Electrician. You need to be competant and be able to prove competance if something were to go wrong.
Qualifications will go some way to proving competance (but not always!!)

A greater proportion of experience is needed to make a success of this profession.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Obviously I need the 2382, 2391 and the part P but do I need the 2330 qualification?

You may find that to do 2391 you will first have to pass 2330 or an equivalent qualification. Check out the qualification handbooks here: http://www.cityandguilds.com/45768.html
and also the entry requirements at your chosen training centre/college.

 

[dingbat]

...you will find it hard to get Public Liability or Professional Indemnity Insurance without the right tickets!

Not at all. Any insurer will happily sell you the insurance.

What they might not do, however, is pay out if it is deemed your non-competence is to blame.

 

[1john]

...you will find it hard to get Public Liability or Professional Indemnity Insurance without the right tickets!

Not at all. Any insurer will happily sell you the insurance.

True, I have NEVER been asked about my qualifications, strange now it's been mentioned. As sugggested, I suppose they worry about that if they have to pay out and if there is no pay out they just keep collecting your cash.

 

[harrythehat1]

Has anyone noticed the proposed changes regarding being a qualified
supervisor in relation to Part P which are due to come into force Jan 12?
I am very confused as to how this effects small businesses eg sole traders as I am.
I have done the part P and 16th and 17th edition wiring regs, bought the kit and maintain and calibrate it yearly and trade as a non registered competent sparkie doing electrics in relation to being an RGI/plumber (domestic).
If I am understanding it correctly I will no longer be able to fill in a Domestic Electrical Installation Cert.
Could anyone clarify this for me please.

Do I smell yet more red tape and another college course to have to do thus earning our great chancellor even more in VAT?

 

[chivers67]

Obviously I need the 2382, 2391 and the part P but do I need the 2330 qualification?

You may find that to do 2391 you will first have to pass 2330 or an equivalent qualification. Check out the qualification handbooks here: http://www.cityandguilds.com/45768.html
and also the entry requirements at your chosen training centre/college.

It depends on your ability to swot on the theory test and how much you can interpret on the practical test. I only had the regs before taking 2391 and passed it. I do however come from a Telecoms background with a BTEC and had quite a bit of experience fault finding in telephone exchanges.

 

[ricicle]

I have done the part P ....

What does that mean ?

 

[RMS]

A greater proportion of experience is needed to make a success of this profession.

This is what many people disregard when it comes to competence. Its not just a case of gaining the qualifications and hey presto your there.

The Electricity at Work Regulation states you should possess knowledge and experience. In other words you should be competent which means you should have the training, skills and experience relevant to the nature of your work.

Anyone that comes out with the term "partp qualified" or "I have done partp" has misunderstood the whole point.

A few years back I remember seeing a van that advertised "partp qualified".

 

[ban-all-sheds]

And I have passed the P... - many times.

So often you can do it in your sleep, eh?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I have done the part P

 

[RMS]

RMS
have many approved electricians became inspectors where you work recently?

It is very rare for an electrician to progress their career in the inspection field. Progression is normally through the role of a qualifying supervisor or if one is really fortunate electrical manager / principle duty holder.

do you have a lot of inspector posts?

Yes, we have many inspectors in many different fields.

do you work in a massive company where these sort of positions come along regularly?

Depends how you would scale massive. My employer is well positioned in the market and inspection roles come up now and again. My company has a good staff retention.

elrobbo, I take it these questions have been asked to try and extract information about staspark's current role with my employer. If you have a question about starpark then please be more direct.

I refuse to join you in your counter productive play ground activities.

 

[ericmark]

When doing work on my parents house my son with 2391 and 2381 (at that time there was no 2382) was not accepted by LABC to sign the installation certificate.

He told them I had a foundation degree and that was accepted as good enough for me to sign the installation certificate. I also had the 2391 and 2381 but the LABC inspector did not know that.

We have both been electricians from early age and neither of us have the 2330. I did start on the course but doing a course where the other students did not even know iron was a conductor was far too simplistic for me to sit there listening to such basic things like silver is a conductor.

How the lecturer did not lose his temper I do not know. It seems extending school leaving age from 14 has resulted in less not more being taught!

If nothing goes wrong there is no problem. But if a mistake is made then one needs to prove one had the knowledge required and since a mistake has been made this is hard. Bits of paper are the only real way to show someone who has proved due to the mistake he was not qualified to do the work was not normally incompetent but it was just a momentary lack of concentration.

In some ways the degree is useless as it does not consider health and safety or standard practice and regulations. However in other ways it goes far deeper and gives understanding to things like power factor correction which requires one to understand what J is (i to non engineers) and the concept of imaginary numbers.

Of course some one can read the BS7671:2008 and understand what it says without taking any exam. In fact to my mind the exam is useless as it only tests ones ability to read non the ability to understand what it says.

It seems very few understand what they have read. 434.2.1 for example clearly gives a 3 meter rule but many still consider a spur can be longer than 3 meters. I had always considered a circuit protected at origin as a radial and one protected at it's termination as a spur but that is not how the BS7671 defines them. It does not really matter what name it is given what is more to the point is what protection should be given to a cable which is often buried in a wall. This is not taught as part of a degree.

I had a huge argument my my lecturer over health and safety. An Alan Bradley PLC was the subject and I maintained since the slots were larger than the permitted IP4X or IPXXD and the mains connection terminals could be accessed without the use of a tool or key it needed to be installed in a enclosure to comply with BS7671. Reading the Alan Bradley instructions they also said it should be installed in an enclosure. I had high lighted this as requested on my write up. However the lecturer maintained since it had been PAT tested it was OK to use as it was. I replied as a instructed person it was OK but we could not use them as a demonstration for school children as they were and for the open day they needed to be in an enclosure. Maybe I was pedantic but it showed how the academia were out of touch with the regulations. In fact they had not even read the instructions for the unit they were using.

It seems my son who is also now doing a level 5 has the same problem with academia being unaware of the regulations.

As to the levels I still can't see how C&G 2382 is classed as level 3 the same as an A level. I would have even questioned level 2 status.

But to have a level 5 qualification should be enough for most courts to accept you had the required skill. Any other qualification would be only required by organisations who have to set a requirement and don't look at each person on their own merit.

 

[JohnW2]

As a matter of detail/correctness....

It seems very few understand what they have read. 434.2.1 for example clearly gives a 3 meter rule but many still consider a spur can be longer than 3 meters. I had always considered a circuit protected at origin as a radial and one protected at it's termination as a spur but that is not how the BS7671 defines them. ...

In fact, 434.2.1 relates to protection against fault (not overload) current, so I don't think it's an issue, since I would think that the upstream 32A (or event higher) MCB will provide adequate fault protection, more-or-less regardless of cable size; am I wrong? The corresponding 433.2.2, relating to overload protection, says that 'far end protection' is acceptable if the 'spur' length is less than 3m AND/OR if the cable has fault protection per 434. Hence, these pair of regs appear to allow for an unlimited length of 2.5mm² unfused spur on a 32A circuit (since, as above, there will almost invariably be adequate upstream fault protection) - although the OSG suggests, as a 'rule of thumb', that spur lengths should not exceed one eighth of the distance from the spur to the furthest point of the ring.

Kind Regards, John.