I am not permitted to carry out any domestic electrical installations.

Not quite true. Anyone can carry out electrical installation - the only requirement is that they are competent to do so  (no paper qualifications necessarily needed at all). Even in the domestic arena where part P of the building regs applies - anyone can still go down the pre-notification to your local LBC route - and even that's only necessary for notifiable work.

The tricky bit comes if you wish to join one of the registered competent persons schemes - you don't have to, but there are usually commercial advantages in doing so (not least that the pre-notification route is rather expensive for small jobs, and a lot of customers do seem to like the reassurance of a "badge") - each scheme traditionally had their own particular demands - although I gather there has been some standardisation of late and I've heard talk of needing a level 4 qualification now. Others here will know more of the details of that.

Some domestic areas (e.g. private rented) do have slightly higher demands (and in law too), but that's a small fraction of the market.

   - Andy.

See recent threads. I fear that the competent person schemes value an apprenticeship more than a degree.

I am also bound to wonder why a professional engineer would want to become a tradesman.

I fear the same from what I have read.

Sorry I should have clarified. I am not looking to become a tradesman. I am very much hands on with my home renovations and regularly help friends out, but I'd like to be able to self certify my own work. I am completely competent, I just can't assign a test certificate and self certify. 

My day job is running my own engineering consultancy business, but when work is slack, being able to pick up a bit of hands on work would be great.

Thankyou Andy.

Yes the pre-notification route is always available but the LBC will want a test certificate at the end, which I am not 'allowed' to generate. Being part of a self cert scheme would allow me to test and certify as I understand it.

I am just completely unsure of how to get to that point without starting from the basics as an apprentice or taking on a long college course, which is crazy considering the qualifications I already have

The easiest legal route is to find someone in NAPIT, prepared to act as a 3rd party verifier for you for the very small fraction of domestic work that actually requires notification. With care, at least in England surprisingly little does if you plan that way,

The other route  is to talk to your local builing control - not read the website, and explain what you intend to do. You may find, as I have in Hampshire, that they will actually accept a home rolled certificate from someone who is clearly not an amateur.

Mike

LBC will want a test certificate at the end, which I am not 'allowed' to generate.

Says who? I went down the LBC route with my own home renovations a few years ago - the council's electrician was pleasantly surprised I presented him with an EIC (made out by me with not a single C&G certificate to my name) and was happy to accept that, but would have signed it all off anyway based on his own I&T. At one point a lass in the office did suggest I find my own qualified electrician, but as soon as I pointed out I'd already paid them a couple of hundred quid BC notification fees for them to do the work, they soon relented.

In BS 7671 terms if you're do the work (design, install or I&T) you're required to sign the corresponding section of the certificate - the competency test is one and the same. There's no extra qualification needed to be allowed to sign your name.

    - Andy.

Ben Evans said:

I am very much hands on with my home renovations and regularly help friends out, but I'd like to be able to self certify my own work. I am completely competent, I just can't assign a test certificate and self certify. 

Understood. I reckon that you need to do at least 3 notifiable pieces of work to make membership of a CPS worthwhile.

Let's make it clear - you can test and certify new work and you can test and report on an existing installation. What you cannot do is notify except as others have said, through the LA, which can be expensive.