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18th Edition training is it only for electricians?

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?

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    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.

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  • 0

    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.

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