WHY CANNOT AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER BE A QS.

It's a not like it used to be, some of us are actually moving with the times and adopting new working practices and methods. 

Sorry to say it, getting an Electrical Engineering degree does not mean that someone can actually fulfil the requirements to be a QS without gaining additional relevant qualifications and experience.

The sharp eyed will spot a disable Code Breakers toggle at the top of the screen,  you can also override it declaring an installation unsatisfactory,  but if you do you may be held accountable for doing so.

Turning up late in the day smartly dressed carrying a Megger does mean someone can cut it as a QS anymore. 

Hey. Where did you get that picture of me from?

Actually, I remember going to an evening class at the old Kidderminster College up by the Severn Valley railway and trying to ask the IT lecturer in an adjacent lecturer room a question about using the IET certificates that were published on the IET website and the IT lecturer saying that I was already working above the level of his class who were doing the basic European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL).

Chris Pearson: 
 

lyledunn: 
“Why can’t a doctor be a nurse” …

Ah yes, but nurses are allowed to do medical work these days. Just see what happens when you seek medical attention after falling off your ladders. Will you see a doctor or a nurse? ?

Perhaps an undertaker.

Z.

I despair I really do on all of this!!! QS entitled to be designated or not depending on academic/Vocational qualifications and these scheme operators trying to make things better and clearer for who? the end user with a high quality or rather a safe installation?

What does the actual UK Law ask for? to me its the EAWR Reg 16 and thats it the person needs to be competent simple as that.

It then becomes the “Challenge” of how one demonstrates that competency but again only needs to be for the actual work task being carried out.

Scheme providers have tried to get a formal and indicitive way of doing that for their members, but one size doesnt fit all.

In my own career served a four year craft SJIB apprenticeship, and the C&G 236 courses and continued thru to further and higher education, and run my own consultancy practice now, but I still have always retained and renewed my SJIB Technicians card which I can easily show on site and to the amusement of some of the electrical contractors I meet. And I was a QS and a Hz area QS for many years when working with an electrical contractor.

I do meet many chartered and IEng engineers that did the further and higher education part first, many are great practical engineers both on and off site, but unfortunately I also meet many that wouldnt know a a generator from a UPS if it was staring them in the face or what was T&E and what is the Armoured cable, great theorists, but sadly lacking in other areas, I do remember one telling me that while gaining his Masters degree in Electrical engineering his total time with pliers/tools and cables in his hands was no more than four hours! But Im not sure that would be true on all degree courses.

There are skills that I have gained when working on the tools that has made me very good at what I do now especially solving issues on site for clients and forensic inspections when things have went wrong, that perhaps a theory only engineer may struggle with, but again its all down to competence and what work we take on and do and engaged to do.

Unfortunately I have to review Installation certs and EICR's and the quality in general is poor, and I would actually question the ability of many ( NOT ALL) QS's countersigning certs and reports as they didnt spot the errors and ommissions, many I think just sign to get the paperwork out the door.

As I say when starting this post the whole thing is a mess and getting worse.

Absolutely nothing wrong with a registered engineer/degree/HND or whatever practitioner with no NVQ quals becoming a QS if they have up to date 2382 regs course and 2391 etc.

GTB

ebee: 
 

Hey. Where did you get that picture of me from?

Kneeling or standing? QS or installation electrician?

I have only done six EICRs this year, I have lost all enthusiasm where they are concerned, they just seem to be hassle.

Last year I was working away doing them, but it got to the point where it felt like I was doing an exam every time I did the paperwork with the schedule of inspections becoming a multiple choice exam to be completed as quickly as possible whilst scoring 100%.

Some weeks last year I sat down on a Friday or Saturday with eight reports to write up one after another, as I made notes onsite then sat at my desk to do the actual reports on my PC using the certificate software. That was never a job I planned to have or wanted.

I have just emailed a report I did for a long standing customer, I actually wired the original installation back in 2008 for him, he said the these EICRs must be good business for me and was genuinely surprised when I did not respond enthusiastically.

As I asked above, who really wants to be a QS?

Meanwhile there’s a kitchen fitter I spoke to altering a kitchen installation adding sockets and outlets without any training or qualifications and I know that none of his work will comply with the regs or be certified. Apparently the house may be let, so it will be up to someone else to go in to prepare an EICR and say it cannot be let without replacing the old fuse board and adding RCD protection.

But of course alterations and additions to electrical installations in kitchens are no longer notifiable in England under Part P, because the are so simple anyone can do it. 

Who’s the mugs, the electricians who bend over backwards to comply with restrictions placed on them or the guys who just crack on utter regardless? 

Didn’t you notice 1C in the specification?

Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) in Electrical Installation at SCQF level 7.
Plus
A level 3 Award in the Initial Verification of Electrical Installations*
and
A level 3 Award in the Periodic Inspection, Testing of Electrical Installations*
and
A current Level 3 Award in the Requirements for Electrical Installations
*these may be achieved within a combined qualification

With 2 years’ responsibility for the technical standard of Electrotechnical work

Digging deeper a Scottish Level 7 is a 3 to 4 in England and Wales, so not as grand as it sounds.