Electrical Competency, what is it?

Sparkingchip: 
 

Back in the 1980’s I worked as a subbie carpenter on Bovis Homes new housing sites, the electrical contractor was Big Bert, Bert Salcombe to give him his correct title, Big Bert contracted the work and employed two subbies The Two Steve’s to do the work, Steve Clarkson and Steve Evans who then employed some younger guys to work alongside them, I used to sit and have a cup of tea and eat my lunch with the entire workforce of Clarkson Evans electrical contracting including the senior management The Two Steve’s themselves.

Big Bert ordered the materials and the wholesalers van driver left the boxes containing what was required for each plot and stage in one of the Steve’s garden shed ready for the next day. The Two Steve’s then got the work done.

When Big Bert retired the Two Steve’s took over the whole operation and turned it into one of the top fifty electrical contracting companies in the UK, I see their vans out on the road most days, though there’s only one Steve now.

I worked on other sites where there were similar arrangements, one guy known as The Silver Fox, and spotted on site just as frequently, ran his electrical business from the Post Office he and his wife had in the village where he lived, firms like this had and still do have electricians who rarely work on a live installation and rarely test or power up their own work.

There is the opportunity to make a good living by doing repetitive work on new installations first and second fixing, without getting involved in testing and inspecting at all.

However and it is a VERY BIG HOWEVER, working as a one man band electrician out of the back of a van is a completely different ball game to working on a big site where there’s a segregation of labour into first, second and third fixes or whatever. The list of skills, talents, training, education, experience, knowledge that is required to be a one man band working out of the back of a van is phenomenal, it’s in a different league to being an electrician who spends their working life installing boxes, containment and pulling cables on site, but everyone does the same basic training.

Yes I did the “C” course along with its assignment component. It involved design and installation plus regulations. I enjoyed it and passed.

The one man band working from a van is the boss, electrician, contract manager, store man, assistant, apprentice,  negotiator, salesman, fault finder, health and safety rep., accountant, estimator, representative, transport manager, driver, can carrier and tea maker etc. He is multi skilled indeed.

Z.

Sparkingchip: 
 

Back in the 1980’s I worked as a subbie carpenter on Bovis Homes new housing sites, the electrical contractor was Big Bert, Bert Salcombe to give him his correct title, Big Bert contracted the work and employed two subbies The Two Steve’s to do the work, Steve Clarkson and Steve Evans who then employed some younger guys to work alongside them, I used to sit and have a cup of tea and eat my lunch with the entire workforce of Clarkson Evans electrical contracting including the senior management The Two Steve’s themselves.

Big Bert ordered the materials and the wholesalers van driver left the boxes containing what was required for each plot and stage in one of the Steve’s garden shed ready for the next day. The Two Steve’s then got the work done.

When Big Bert retired the Two Steve’s took over the whole operation and turned it into one of the top fifty electrical contracting companies in the UK, I see their vans out on the road most days, though there’s only one Steve now.

I worked on other sites where there were similar arrangements, one guy known as The Silver Fox, and spotted on site just as frequently, ran his electrical business from the Post Office he and his wife had in the village where he lived, firms like this had and still do have electricians who rarely work on a live installation and rarely test or power up their own work.

There is the opportunity to make a good living by doing repetitive work on new installations first and second fixing, without getting involved in testing and inspecting at all.

However and it is a VERY BIG HOWEVER, working as a one man band electrician out of the back of a van is a completely different ball game to working on a big site where there’s a segregation of labour into first, second and third fixes or whatever. The list of skills, talents, training, education, experience, knowledge that is required to be a one man band working out of the back of a van is phenomenal, it’s in a different league to being an electrician who spends their working life installing boxes, containment and pulling cables on site, but everyone does the same basic training.

Yes I did the “C” course along with its assignment component. It involved design and installation plus regulations. I enjoyed it and passed.

The one man band working from a van is the boss, electrician, contract manager, store man, assistant, apprentice,  negotiator, salesman, fault finder, health and safety rep., accountant, estimator, representative, transport manager, driver, can carrier and tea maker etc. He is multi skilled indeed.

Z.