Content of Core Electrician Courses, how do we change it?

nicemark said:

That means All the electrical accessories you buy will have Manufacturers recommended Torque settings for the screws.  Most students don't even know what a torque screwdriver looks like let alone how to set one or use a calibrator

That’s just something that should be taught in the workshop whilst carrying out practical work, though it’s very rare to see any torque requirements stipulated apart from in consumer units and distribution boards.

Two days ago on Tuesday I installed new lighting in a bathroom and I did not even use a screwdriver, all I needed was a tape measure, pencil, cordless drill, hole saw, a pair of combi wire cutters/stripper and a pair of long nosed pliers.

I marked out and drilled the holes for the down lights, pulled the cables through and connected them using their push fit connectors.

In fact I have done a couple of jobs like that in the last week.

Protective devices with push fit terminals are already available in Mainland Europe, things are moving on, screwdrivers are not so essential now.

nicemark said:

That means All the electrical accessories you buy will have Manufacturers recommended Torque settings for the screws.  Most students don't even know what a torque screwdriver looks like let alone how to set one or use a calibrator

That’s just something that should be taught in the workshop whilst carrying out practical work, though it’s very rare to see any torque requirements stipulated apart from in consumer units and distribution boards.

Two days ago on Tuesday I installed new lighting in a bathroom and I did not even use a screwdriver, all I needed was a tape measure, pencil, cordless drill, hole saw, a pair of combi wire cutters/stripper and a pair of long nosed pliers.

I marked out and drilled the holes for the down lights, pulled the cables through and connected them using their push fit connectors.

In fact I have done a couple of jobs like that in the last week.

Protective devices with push fit terminals are already available in Mainland Europe, things are moving on, screwdrivers are not so essential now.

Your are correct, but the larger terminals will always need torquing. I think you will find Torque settings on the modern leaflets which come with accessories. Though you may need an illuminated  microscope to read it. :-)

The torquing problem, or rather, the loose connection problem stems more from the engineering of quality out of products by the bean counters rather than the not-tight-enough-screw phenomena. Products from 40 years or more ago simply did'nt suffer as much from the lack of a torque figure written down in some manual somewhere being applied. The introduction of cheap and nasty single cadmium- plated steel  screw and clamp terminals did much to cause the ensuing problems of burning/overheating connections and joints. When stuff was made of solid brass with terminal holes drilled in round rather than square fashion and when the screws which fitted into these terminals were of the same material, the difference in temperature coefficients didn't exist, so the thermal cycling did not cause loose terminal syndrome in the same way it does now.

Years ago a torque wrench was the preserve of those running aluminum alloy engines in order to prevent warping when refitting/re tightening a cylinder head for example. The requirement simply didn't exist in the electrical world unless you worked on some kind of mission-critical kit or other.

We had solid brass double screwed round tunnel terminals at high current connections which match the round csa of cables, and with brass and copper, the risk of thermal cycling causing a loose connection was much smaller.

Then the bean counters came along to value engineer all quality out of product in pursuit of a quick buck and an ever shortening product life cycle, which has resulted in higher product failure rates and much waste. So rather than revise standards to impose a minimum materials standard for the production of items carrying an electrical current, they sell us a torque screwdriver instead, thus treating the symptoms rather than the root cause!

There you go - had I not done my (not-really-necessary-or-directly relevant) broad based training back then - which included materials technology - I would not have been able to comment!

Thank you for your excellent reply. With regard to your "broad base", differential materials is not included in the syllabus (it may be in some but if it is it is no more than a mention of the word.), and should be, as you say to show differential expansion but also to show galvanic issues when combined with moisture.