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

In message .com,
wrote:

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.

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.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... Sometimes you just have to say 'What the heck'

Martin Angove wrote:
In message .com,
wrote:

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.

I think it varies slightly depending on which organisation is the
acrediting body. I'm with the NICEIC Domestic Installer Scheme

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

"Martin Angove" wrote in message
...
In message .com,
wrote:

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.

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

James

"James" wrote in message
...

"Martin Angove" wrote in message
...
In message .com,
wrote:

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.

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

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

In message ,
"larry" wrote:


"James" wrote in message
...

"Martin Angove" wrote in message
...
In message .com,
wrote:

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.

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

James

they choose from a list of all work undertaken.

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.

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.

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

All the best for tomorrow though :-)

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove: http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/
Two free issues: http://www.livtech.co.uk/ Living With Technology
.... MONEY TALKS ... but all mine ever says is GOODBYE!

"Martin Angove" wrote in message
...
In message ,
"larry" wrote:

snip

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.

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.

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

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

"larry" wrote in message
o.uk...

"Martin Angove" wrote in message
...
In message ,
"larry" wrote:

snip

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.

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.

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

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

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