Electrician's Qualifications

Now that a DIYer cannot install his own electrics except by getting the council to inspect the work, what acreditaion does an electrician require? If he works for a company does the individual still have to be acredited or does the company acredidition cover the work and the company have to ensure of the competance of the electrician.

Just Wondering.

Kevin

Reply to
kajr
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He has to have paid money to an approved self-certifying organisation such as NICIEC, SELECT, NAPIT, BSI etc. (List on odpm.gov.uk website)

No (if he is working as an employee and the work is invoiced by the company, the company is the legal entity doing the work).

Yes.

Um well in theory...

Owain

Reply to
Owain

incorrect

I didnt think any was needed.

that doesnt generally happen.

NT

Reply to
bigcat

I think it varies slightly depending on which organisation is the acrediting body. I'm with the NICEIC Domestic Installer Scheme (beginning to wonder whether it would have been worth looking into Approved Contractor :-). As I understand it, each company in the scheme needs to have a "competent person" who is the only person allowed to sign off a job as having been designed, erected and tested in accordance with BS7671. Individual electricians need not have formal qualifications, but as their work is the competent person's ultimate responsibility he needs to be sure that the work they are doing is up to scratch. With a small 2-man company this shouldn't be too difficult assuming both people do all jobs together, but with larger concerns it makes a lot of sense to have all employees pass at least the City & Guilds 2381 course (most local colleges offer it) and for very big companies it might make sense to have one competent person per working team.

Obviously for one-man concerns (such as mine) there is only one choice for competent person!

To gain acredited status with the NICEIC they will send an assessor around once a year to examine two jobs that have been completed within the last 6 months. The assessor will also want to check that the company has certain policies/practices in place to ensure consistency, for example calibration of test equipment and ongoing "sanity checks" of such equipment between calibrations. He will also releive you of some £500.

As for qualifications for the competent person, the only one the NICEIC (almost) insist on is the 2381. There are alternatives, but for those of us with a background in the industry (or similar), the 2381 is a quick and easy way to prove you're not terminally thick, know where to find the answers in BS7671 and can do a bit of maths. The alternatives are mostly designed for school leavers or similar and involve several years study, practice and possibly apprenticeship. See, for example, C&G 2360.

After the 2381 there are several further things which might be worth doing; the C&G 2391 covers inspection and testing, and several bodies will teach you all about Portable Appliance Testing, for example.

The biggest problem is encountered by people who are starting up. The NICEIC rule about needing to see two items of work already completed is compounded by the need for the company to have been trading for 12 months or more (though this one is a bit vague and may be flexible). In other words, you can't self-certify until you've been in business for 12 months, and you won't find it easy to be in business unless you can self-certify. It's one thing to "hide" an extra hour or so for testing and writing certificates on your invoice for that extra socket you just installed, it's quite another to have to plan the job sufficiently in advance to contact Building Control and then get the householder to shell out another £75 (or whatever) for the BC inspection.

You can get around this by only doing work which doesn't need notifying, but if you do this you can't become a fully-fledged self certifying member of NICEIC; they have this special category of membership for people who only perform "minor works".

Other acrediting bodies include the Electrical Contractors Association (ECA), ELECSA (which is really FENSA in disguise), BRE, BSI and NAPIT. The above, and other bodies such as CORGI and OFTEC also offer half-way-house schemes designed for people whose main business is not electrical.

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove

Though it could be argued that the recent dramatic increase in severity of punishment for non-compliance is not very productive...

Reply to
Ian Stirling

Do you nominate these jobs - or does the NICEIC choose them at random from all of your work?

James

Reply to
James

they choose from a list of all work undertaken.

got my annual visit tomorrow, i hate it. it isn't a fear of my standards but what happens once you leave. a lot can happen in 12 - 18 months.

loz

Reply to
larry

Except for the first time, when I was allowed to choose two jobs which "illustrate the range of work undertaken" - I showed one complete rewire and one installation of outside lighting.

What do you mean by that, "what happens once you leave"?

All the best for tomorrow though :-)

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove

snip

most of my work is in commercial and industrial sites and these seem to use the floor sweeper to do work if they think it isn't a big job. last week found a bit of 1.5mm swa terminated to the 100A incomer of the 3phase distboard, this was feeding a 30A 3ph machine. what starts off a good job can soon be bodged by "helpful" employees

loz

Reply to
larry

bit of bad ethics answering your own post but "thank god thats over for another 12 months". mr niceic has gone away a happy chappy.

loz

Reply to
larry

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