Sparkingchip said:

My notifications are probably costing me around seventy pounds each!

Exactly, that's why I gave up my Scheme membership 5 years ago, I was doing so few notifiable jobs that , as you say, they were working out at £50 plus each. I still have all my insurances as before, I just cannot notify. However, it has come back to bite my ***, as I never finished an apprenticeship in the 80's due to redundancies (I worked in engineering/foundries, most of which were shutting down). I went to re-register last year, mainly to notify EV charger installs, but couldnt meet their (NIC/NAPIT) criteria, as I do not have an NVQ3.

I'm going the 2346 route, which seems pretty simple, but far too expensive. I'm on  a great site now for it, blocks of flats, It ranges from 185mm cables terminated in bus bars down to single phase DBs with AFDDs and SPDs. Hopefully I can get enough pictures there to satisfy the needs of the NVQ. The slight downside is that I'm probably going to be promoted to Electrical Site Supervisor this week, but that doesnt help to show my competency to the JIB!

Actually, £28.5k Mike + books which are likely to cost another £2k. Most of it will be remote, and in my view now pretty useless. Labs etc are reduced to an absolute minimum. It is another con, have you actually tried a few questions of a probing nature on most new graduates? It is a comedy act!

We have a problem with the exam and 2346 in general. The portfolio of work is mad, it proves nothing and is complicated and very time consuming to assess, as Lyle says. Some domestic electricians probably cannot complete it because their work only shows a small area of possibilities. Alan is doing quite a range of stuff, so may well be OK, but many would struggle.

Why should one not just be able to take the written exam, and a practical assessment in one or 2 days?

I am afraid I think this is all a stich-up to make money, for both schemes and C&G. Basically we are paying hundreds of pounds for a scheme that has no noticable effect on anything.

Qualifications and Credentials used to be the same thing.

lyledunn said:

Really only experience is required.

But then you're saying there's assessment (once the experience has been assessed) because no-one believes the assessment ? And the assessment is not a qualification (as qualifications have a legal definition now)?

Or am I getting the two confused?

I have been reading this thread with an equal mixture of interest and horror. I am still not quite clear what form of registration is being discussed: is it a JIB (gold) card; comprehensive NICEIC/NAPIT membership; or domestic installer?

What rather horrifies me is the notion that one has to have done something for a certain length of time to be any good at it. The World Snooker is about to resume in 1/2 hour - do people say that somebody is too young to become world champion, or do they celebrate somebody for holding that record?

If you are competent, you are competent. You do not need to keep proving it. You do not take exams on an annual basis though appraisal is a completely different matter.

I don't think that being an electrician is very different from any other profession. You need to know some stuff and (like a surgeon, for example) you need some hand skills. You need to keep up with developments: the laws of physics and human anatomy don't change, but the kit with which you deal with them certainly does. Steel scalpel/fuse, or laser/AFDD?

The last thing which bothers me is the notion of returning to practice. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. have this well worked out, largely because of career breaks brought about by motherhood. It shouldn't be a huge obstacle.

Chris Pearson said:

I have been reading this thread with an equal mixture of interest and horror. I am still not quite clear what form of registration is being discussed: is it a JIB (gold) card; comprehensive NICEIC/NAPIT membership; or domestic installer?

All of them. The Rules changed last September (maybe 2020?) for NAPIT/NIC, so an NVQ3 is now required to be even a domestic installer. Previously,  just 2382/17th/18th and some form of testing cert. was required. And one site visit to see the work you prepared beforehand for your assessment.

The JIB card has been like it for a while now, either finished apprenticeship papers, and AM2 (passing the apprenticeship isnt enough?), or the 'modern' NVQ3 in electrical installation and AM2.

I've taught 4 good apprentices in the last 5 years, all passed easily (one got into an electrician of the year final), but I have never qualified for a Gold Card, and cannot get membership of NIC/Napit due to a lack of NVQ3.

I'm doing the C&G2346 soon, it pains me to do it, but I'm finding some work has been excluded from coming my way due to lack of a JIB card. (I dont generally do domestic work), and, can only see it getting worse, so am biting the bullet, and have been diligently photographing anything out of the ordinary that I do 185mm 3c bus bar chamber last week, earth matting for a new supply late last year, including fitting the new meter box etc. though maybe that sort of stuff is OTT for thr NVQ, and they want to see someone neatly wiring a DB with their safety gear on?

Imagine having an NVQ3 but it's still not good enough to join. It's not like I've qualified as a chef previously, it's electrical installation and commissioning!!

"And he that strives to touch the stars, Oft stumbles at a straw." Edmund Spenser.

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught." Oscar Wilde.

To clarify; to gain entry to the qualification requires only 5 years of generally concurrent experience working as an electrician. No other qualifications required although useful.