18th Edition training is it only for electricians?

Is this in the UK or another country?

Martine Dushime: 
 

I am writing to request assistance from a technical query related to 18th Edition Wiring regulation. I am told that this training is only for electricians and no other engineers. Is this correct?

What it is, I am a qualified Electrical Engineer from academics in HV and energy engineering and never worked on LV installations or related where some digging involvement required too before then. In my employment, my electrical manager who was also HV and LV qualified booked me on the 18th edition training but then he left and another manager I was given who is Mechanical  has said that the 18th edition is for electricians or NVQ only and that my academics qualifications are enough and that I should carry the LV installations works but I am not comfortable because I have not worked on LV installations as such and concerns of H&S. He is saying that I don't need the training at all because I have a master in HV engineering and I tried to explain that they are not the same and regulations are different but not listened too. Could you assist with this and provide your comment from a professional point of view?  That means he want to take me off this training and that I should not attend this training?

My background is: A qualified Electrical Power Engineer with no LV installations background or related, would this not be reasonable to attend? or would academic and HV qualification mean that the person can carry out 18th edition LV installation works on industrial or domestic type of environment without the 18th edition?

I'm a degree-qualified electrical engineering consultant, but I'm also aware that qualifications and experience don't tell you what's in BS 7671. 

The standard is now 100s of pages long … if you are to have any involvement with working on, or compliance of, LV installations, I would recommend a course on how the standard is laid out, its main objectives, and how to find things in it that relate to the work you are doing, which is what the City & Guilds 238x courses are all about. Over the course of my career, there have been 4 major versions of the standard, and I did C&G courses covering each of them: 

• BS 7671:1992 (16th Edition IEE Wiring Regulations, Red Cover)
• BS 7671:2001 (16th Edition IEE Wiring Regulations, Blue Cover)
• BS 7671:2008 (17th Edition IET Wiring Regulations, Red Cover)
• BS 7671:2018 (18th Edition IET Wiring Regulations, Blue Cover)

If you are new to the standard, it may benefit, the first time you are doing it, a course that is longer duration, say equivalent to 5 days of learning, for a more in-depth explanation of some topics.

Well then, your firm (or your manager) might have an opinion that such a course is "only for electricians". But I`m sure most of us would say no to that. It is for “Electricians” yes but very often of use to others too. Engineers (Electrical) supervisors and designers can benefit. HV & LV do have lots of differences (So does Commercial & Domestic & Auto (Cars and Vans) wiring too). 

I could go on, but I think this blanket statement is wrong

I am an engineer and not an electrician, and like Graham above, I have sat and passed the 16th -18th Editions of BS 7671. I have also taught, and still teach, the Wiring Regulations.

If you do not have any knowledge or experience in working on LV installations you may struggle with the course content and understanding but may still pass. What it you will not do is make you competent to design , install and inspect and test LV installation based on holding a shiny new 18th Edition qualification, but it will give you a basic appreciation. 

I would consider that an 18th edition course is PRIMARILY for electricians already qualified to an earlier edition, but also applicable to those with other relevant qualifications.

If your LV work is within the scope of BS 7671 (rather than some other standard - e.g. if it's part of a “machine” it might come under something like BS EN 60204) then you should certainly be very familiar with the contents of the current version of BS 7671 - no degree, certainly from years ago, can possibly substitute for that. I bet your university education didn't tell you in what circumstances you need to provide additional 30mA RCD protection to a socket … BS 7671 does (and it's rather different to what it was a few years ago too).

It might be that you don't need the actual training course. Short courses will provide you with quite limited knowledge and if you're used to a bit of self-guided education and familiar with technical standards in general it might be you could do well enough by getting hold of a copy of BS 7671 and associated guidance (e.g. the IET's GN series) and reading them through yourself. You'd need to be allocated some reasonable time to do that though (probably much longer than a simple training course) and perhaps more to the point your management would have no documentary “proof” that you'd successfully acquired the necessary knowledge - unlike a course with would usually provide some sort of certificate that can be filed away should it ever be needed in a future posterior covering exercise after something went wrong and the HSE were poking around asking for evidence that management had exercised due diligence in ensuring that their employees were competent to carry out the tasks that had been asked of them.

   - Andy.

I am not quite sure of the aim here. Will you actually be doing some LV work, designing it, ensuring that a contract is performed, or something else?

Perhaps point out the following questions to your new manager.

Under what circumstances is supplementary bonding required for an LV installation or part thereof? How (if at all) is this affected if the location contains a bath, shower or paddling pool basin? How would you test such bonding? Is such work notifiable? Was this covered by your previous training? If so, have the requirements changed since? In what section(s) of what standards and/or statutory instruments would you look to find the answers?

If you didn't already know the answers to all the above, then how does your manager expect you to safely work on LV systems without further training?

Is anyone expecting you to sign an electrical certificate to say that installation work has been carried out in accordance with BS7671 The Wiring Regulations?

Twenty odd years ago when it did the 16th Edition and I&T courses a guy signed up to do the I&T course alongside us.

He wasn’t a happy man, he had been asked by his NICEIC inspector why he was doing EICRs without having appropriate qualifications, he signed up to do the I&T with us as evening classes and to do the 16th at a different college on a Saturday to do them both at the same time. He failed the I&T exam, I don’t know how he got on with the 16th.

No one should be expecting you to certify that installation work as being in accordance with anything without appropriate training and qualifications, even if they are seen as being at a lower level than the qualifications you already have.