I moved from motor mechanic, to auto electrician, to electrical engineer, over my working life, but back when I did it, there was not the need to show written exam results as there is today. So around 2000, I decided there was a need for written qualifications, at that time there were night classes running, so I could take a series of three exams one after the other, and these showed other I had the knowledge.
So there is some luck involved. Both my dad and my son have taken night classes, my dad forwarded his career, by demanding a job after returning from the war, what he did was not very fair on the guy he got kicked out of the job, but over the years, rules have changed, and we have also seen night classes fade out, and be replaced with courses which need you to get a day off per week, and even in the UK, this all changes area to area, when I got my degree, it was because an industrial accident stopped me from working, so I had the time to take the course.
We talk about allied trades, either working with each other, or an overlap in the work done. What is a plumber? Today organ tuning, and some electronics, still use lead, but most of the lead work has gone, a plumber is a worker of lead, so today we look at the jobs plumbers use to do, repairing roofs, domestic water supply, one is temped to call it pipe fitting, but working with 40" gas pipelines, or 36" steam lines is what the pipe fitters I knew did. And rather skilled.
As an industrial electrician I would install air lines, be it plastic or steel, be it conduit to carry wires, or heavier pipes to carry air, principle was the same.
Central heating is today lumped in with air conditioning, and we get heating and ventilation engineers, I consider engineer means trained over level 3, and to work out delta whatever its called, is well over what I have learnt, I did do steam tables at collage, never used them again, so can't really remember how to use them, they just look good beside my slide rule, can't remember how to use that either. Well yes simple calculations, but not the more complex type.
With domestic, we have some trade bodies which we can join, there has to be a selection, as we are no longer allowed a closed shop, so if for example to work with gas one had to be in a union called gas safe there would have to also be an alternative, or it would be illegal. On the electrical side the options are reducing, one can join a union and this union can offer shortcuts, like registering work, but there has to be an alternative method.
However with the electrical side, it might not be a closed shop, we can register work direct with the LABC, but it is a rather expensive route, and these unions or schemes, require one to pass a selection of exams, so in real terms you have to pass exams, and pay annual fees to do some of the work, be it domestic water or domestic electrics, there are some jobs one can do without becoming a scheme member, and others one simply can't be competitive without joining a union or scheme, what ever name you want to give it.
So in real terms a plumber no longer exists, plastic water pipe may be grey to look like lead, same with twin and earth cable, but it is not lead, and so step one is to define what you think a plumber is? Most of the pipework in my one house, when needing work, has been done by a handy man. He fitted the shower sides, doors, and tray, doing all the pipe work and wood work, fitted new motorised valves to the central heating, repaired the beams where they had rotted, replaced part of the floor, painted where required, and he subcontracted the work on the oil boiler.
So what do you think a plumber does? It seems the organ pipes tone will change if lead not used, so organ tuners still use lead. But think one would look under organ tuners, not plumbers to find them.
