18th Amdt 2 exam.

To answer David’s question, is this really the state of the industry, I would say, emphatically yes. However, much is being done to improve matters with the apparent ambition being that an electrician should be an autonomous unit able to plan and manage his work effectively and safely and to be able to erect a wide range of wiring systems, connect equipment, inspect, test, commission his work and carry out basic fault diagnostics. These are the tenets of the Level 3 NVQ qualification which is often required to be supplemented with the wiring regulations and, at least, the 2391 initial verification qualifications. 
These are laudable aspirations with most electricians having no difficulty with the practical considerations. It is with the more academic concepts that issues arise. As an NVQ assessor, I often find that chaps breeze through the practical units but fall foul of a basic understanding of the systems they are working on and how they should be verified in accordance with the current edition of the wiring regulations. 
Whether we need every electrician to be an autonomous operative is quite another matter. We do, however, need people, perhaps like the guy in the video, who can safely follow instructions, bend the conduit, dress the pyro, install miles of cable tray, connect their cables, fit a thousand luminaires etc. They are the backbone of the electrical installation industry, without them all the clever folk are lost!

To answer David’s question, is this really the state of the industry, I would say, emphatically yes. However, much is being done to improve matters with the apparent ambition being that an electrician should be an autonomous unit able to plan and manage his work effectively and safely and to be able to erect a wide range of wiring systems, connect equipment, inspect, test, commission his work and carry out basic fault diagnostics. These are the tenets of the Level 3 NVQ qualification which is often required to be supplemented with the wiring regulations and, at least, the 2391 initial verification qualifications. 
These are laudable aspirations with most electricians having no difficulty with the practical considerations. It is with the more academic concepts that issues arise. As an NVQ assessor, I often find that chaps breeze through the practical units but fall foul of a basic understanding of the systems they are working on and how they should be verified in accordance with the current edition of the wiring regulations. 
Whether we need every electrician to be an autonomous operative is quite another matter. We do, however, need people, perhaps like the guy in the video, who can safely follow instructions, bend the conduit, dress the pyro, install miles of cable tray, connect their cables, fit a thousand luminaires etc. They are the backbone of the electrical installation industry, without them all the clever folk are lost!