Training as an electrician

Hi all, i'm looking for a way into the trade as a 25 year old with no experience, i've had no luck in finding apprenticeship placements (despite being prepared to cover the course fees myself as i understand i am too old in the eyes of the LSC) I have however come accross these people

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who for =A36K offer a self study course along with 4x1 week practical training blocks covering the following accreditations...

Essential Electrics - CITB Certificated

16th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations City & Guilds 2381 Electrical Portable Appliance Testing City & Guilds 2377 CSCS Site Safety JIB (Joint Industry Board) certificated Appointed Persons 1st Aid HSE Certificated EAL certificated Domestic Installer Scheme

They also build a portfolio of the work you do in thier training centres, help you construct a CV and offer recruitment support

Now i've had plenty of "6K is alot of money" comments (as if i wasn't aware) but nothing much in the way of alternative advice, ideally it'd be great to hear from someone with any experience of the company, but further to that i'd greatly appreciate people's views on this route in, whether they would consider me employable at the end of it, any alternative avenues anyone is aware of, or anything else you think may be helpful to me, i should point out that for the moment i am not looking to go self employed, i simply want to get my foot in the door to working as a qualified and competent electrician, thanks for your time..... Tim

Reply to
tim-jewitt
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Essential Electrics - CITB Certificated

16th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations City & Guilds 2381 Electrical Portable Appliance Testing City & Guilds 2377 CSCS Site Safety JIB (Joint Industry Board) certificated Appointed Persons 1st Aid HSE Certificated EAL certificated Domestic Installer Scheme

They also build a portfolio of the work you do in thier training centres, help you construct a CV and offer recruitment support

Now i've had plenty of "6K is alot of money" comments (as if i wasn't aware) but nothing much in the way of alternative advice, ideally it'd be great to hear from someone with any experience of the company, but further to that i'd greatly appreciate people's views on this route in, whether they would consider me employable at the end of it, any alternative avenues anyone is aware of, or anything else you think may be helpful to me, i should point out that for the moment i am not looking to go self employed, i simply want to get my foot in the door to working as a qualified and competent electrician, thanks for your time..... Tim

Smells a lot like SPAM to me....

Reply to
wattie

You will need CSCS or equivalent to work on construction sites eg wiring new build houses, but not terribly relevant if you intend to work as eg an industrial maintenance electrician.

Can be done free or at low cost with Red Cross / St John / St Andrews Ambulance etc.

The IEE do intensive short courses with certification, not at all cheap (£hundreds), but a lot cheaper than £6k

IEE ditto, or a lot of FE / Tech colleges do this periodically, 1 or 2 day course including certification.

Not really relevant unless you want to be self-employed and do domestic work, I would have thought.

However 4 weeks isn't much practical experience. The skills you would need will vary on what you want to do - industrial work wants conduit/trunking, SWA and MICC.

which you can get free from Jobcentres, Careers Service, or allied organisations.

As said, depends a lot on what sort of electrician you want to be and what work is available in your locality.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Used to be very much cheaper in further education and technical colleges. Now that they've lost their government subsidies, that may not be the case anymore, unless you are unemployed.

Ditto. IME, very few electricians are PAT qualified, and when you see them doing PAT testing, that's blindingly obvious.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Thanks for the replies guys...

Owain, domestic electrician for the moment i guess, so it seems i don't need many of these qualifications? Am i right in thinking i only need

2381 and to demonstrate competence to become part P registered? The IEE intensive course sounds great, although i wonder really how employable it woud make me, i mean 4 weeks of practical training is better than none... All i'm really after is enoug behind me to convince a contractor to hire me, i was hoping the new career skills course might just about be enough?
Reply to
tim-jewitt

Screwfix Electricians' forum here;

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them or search the archives, training /work placement queries are posted with great regularity.

Reply to
Aidan

Well, I'm not a Part P qualified electrician. However, if I wanted to become one, I'd do the two main C&G courses, or better still, pop down to the IEE to take just the exams. Then I'd find work with a local certfied electrician until I met the least onerous membership requirements of any of the certifying bodies.

Of course, this requires that you already know what you are doing. If not, then the full C&G courses at the local college would be good if you can get a place. You should also contact local electricians to see if they want a mate for minimum wage or thereabouts, where you can learn the nitty gritty of pulling cables until you have the required paper to start earning proper money. Don't forget to pack a cat, ball of string and a tin of salmon.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

I would have thought that you'd need 2391 as well to be provably competent to undertake testing.

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

Thanks guys, right, seriously thinking i should ditch the course now. Believe me i've tried local electricians, i must have called/mailed about 100 with absolutely no joy, they either have all the apprentices they can handle or are only looking for school leavers. With that aside though would it be the broad agreement of everyone here then that the best thing for me to do if i could, is find someone who'll take me on as a mate, and undertake the intensive IEE 2381 and 2391 courses as suggested above? Looking on the IEE it seems even this would cost me around =A32000

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Reply to
tim-jewitt

These are definitely the courses you need. Make sure you KNOW it all before you attend. Make sure you have read the full IEE regs cover to cover and understand every sentence. Make sure you have the right equipment. Do full periodic inspections on your house, your parent's houses and anyone in your street who will let you. If you're lucky, your house needs rewiring. Do it yourself to get some idea of how cables are run in practice.

Do all this BEFORE you go on the courses. Also, if you have the certificates before you start ringing up the sparkies, you will be taken far more seriously. There's nothing stopping you working for yourself immediately. You just won't be able to sign off stuff, so you would need to submit building notices. After a few of these a week, the BCO will get so p*ssed off they might just let you start submitting major works certificates unchallenged.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Might get the 2381/2391 cheaper at local evening classes at the local tec. Though some may insist that you have other C&G quals as a precursor.

Also, although, someone suggested SWA and MICC in connection with industrial installations, SWA will come up many times anyone wants outside power.

MICC is rarer than it used to be - but someone with an antique or bare stone building may want it but may not be worth the effort - depends a lot on the local architecture in your area.

Also suggest going to

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and searching for a publication called "Wiring Matters". You can download past copies as PDFs and they have some great stock solutions to common wiring issues - such as power to an outside building - but much more besides.

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

I know it's no consolation - but it's their loss. From experience of placing mature (normally 20s & 30s) workmen in employment after short (under 12 months) training courses I can confirm that their employers found them to be generally amongst their best workers, despite initial misgivings.

Reply to
John Cartmell

Make sure you KNOW it all before you attend. Make sure you have read the full IEE regs cover to cover and understand every sentence.

What reading material would you suggest for me to do this? Jon reccommended i get this

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else you would suggest? I realise this is a difficult question, but at a rough estimate how long do you think it would take a non idiot to get to a stage where he could/should attend and pass these two courses?

Tim S, i have spoken with both colleges in my area that offer electrical training and both only do one day a week courses that require me to be working at the same time

Reply to
tim-jewitt

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anything else you would suggest? I realise this is a difficult

Try asking in the IEE forums - but don't play yourself down, or you'll get the p*ss ripped out of you something rotton by the established sparks(!).

There are some recently qualified sparks there who should be able to tell you.

The IEE regs, which are what will be examined in detail by 2381 are long, complicated and apply to many situations such as farms and industry as well as domestic. (eg, don't do *this* with your TT earht electrode or you'll zap your cows sort of thing). Best read in conjunction with one of the explanatory guides mentioned previously. ie you'll need to learn more than you actually need, if you see what I mean.

They do seem to attach random and varied conditions for reasons I;ve never understood (don't they want my money) - IEE might be the way to go.

Good luck,

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

That would depend on your current level of knowledge. I only read the IEE regs and on-site guide. I used no other reading matter. I do, however, have a BEng in Electronic Engineering, so wasn't looking for the Dummies Guide to Electricity.

The book you suggested looks reasonable for someone with some knowledge, but in need of a top-up before hitting BS7671 directly.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

I had to try half the wholesalers in S London to get the bits I wanted for a bare 2L1 installation.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

2381 and 2391 would probably qualify you to teach the subject in an FE college :-)

It would demonstrate your commitment to a career in the electricity industry if you put yourself through at least some of the qualifications; although you won't walk into a time-served electrician jpb you stand a much better chance of being taken on as a mate.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

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