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Greener on the other side

lyledunn

I have seen an increase in enquiries from very well qualified people who want to achieve the NVQ L3 as a route into the practical side of the electrical installation sector. Many have degrees in electrical and electronic engineering and similar electrically biased third level qualifications. For example, one chap has a HND and held down a senior role in a consultancy practice. I didn’t ask but I should imagine that the salary is north of 50K.

At the moment we only offer a route via the experienced worker assessment, which, as an entry requirement, requires five years post training experience operating as an installation electrician. As with the chap in the example, most seem to want to move into a specific discipline within the sector, solar PV and battery being a popular focus. Whether one is intending to work in the microgeneration side or on the larger scale projects, having the right brace of qualifications is becoming increasingly essential. Unfortunately, some of the qualifications restrict entry to candidates with a NVQ L3, which, for those with the top class academic qualifications, means achieving accreditation for those practical skills that the NVQ demands.  Gaining such experience can be elusive, if not impossible. I am not at all convinced that some of  the practical skills, such as bending steel conduit, should prevent someone achieving a NVQ and thus prevent access to the renewable qualifications. However, I am not pretending that the answer to allowing gates to open to facilitate folk to move into the installation sector, with all its extensive disciplines, is an easy one.

As for the chap in the example, I met him by chance on a large solar project in an industrial site. He had ditched the suit for a pair of overalls and was helping to pull in long runs of fairly lumpy SWAs. He looked over the fence, decided the grass was greener and took up a job with a contractor who, erstwhile, he gave directions to! He tells me that in time, he will be seeking to enrol on whatever route will see him achieve the NVQ L3 and AM2 and ultimately, the electricians gold card.

Good luck to him, he will be an asset to our industry. I wish I could make it easier for other similar high quality individuals to climb over the fence. Perhaps the grass will not be as green as they thought, but at least we would have them on the right side!.

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    I read this with interest - and to set the scene for me the day job is very much design authority stuff for electronic bits and bobs, with occasional look at how things will be installed, but the hobby and pro-bono side takes me into the world of real tools and power. On both 'sides'  I've often sensed a sort of snobbery /or perhaps inverted snobbery that puts the practical and theoretical skills at odds, and occasionally I must admit I like to puncture those balloons for fun. 

    But there is a serious point, as stuff gets more complex, and Electricians may find themselves staring at something that needs its IP address setting up or its wireless antenna locating sympathetically, much as the designers of the thing really ought to have thought about terminals for sensible cable sizes and how to fit it  one handed while on a step ladder,  that 'fence' really needs to become more of an increasingly low dwarf wall... 

    I see a need for folk with a foot in both camps even if that means a site boot on one side and a nicely polished shoe on the other  (!) Knowing how to use stuffing glands or bend conduit does not suddenly make your hands dirty and your knowledge in some way inferior, nor does knowledge of design software, network protocols or even partial integrals make you a hopeless geek, or purely an ivory tower academic incapable of being left alone with push taps and sliding doors without injury..

    It might do, as of course there are a few hopeless folk in all camps, but for those that can, a bit of cross-over working is healthy, and I think to be encouraged. 

    There may be an argument for tweaking the training routes in a way that will actually acknowledge and encourage more of that.

    Mike.

  • 0 in reply to mapj1
    mapj1 said:
    On both 'sides'  I've often sensed a sort of snobbery /or perhaps inverted snobbery that puts the practical and theoretical skills at odds, and occasionally I must admit I like to puncture those balloons for fun. 

    Obligatory reference back to "the Practical Man" 

    1
    Hunt, B.J.: ‘“Practice vs. Theory”: The British Electrical Debate, 1888-1891’Isis, 1983, 74, (3), pp. 341–355.   https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/353303
    Very much a "rock, paper, scissors" round robin of continual standing on the  shoulders of giants (EngTech, IEng, CEng, Yin yang ).
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  • 0 in reply to mapj1
    mapj1 said:
    On both 'sides'  I've often sensed a sort of snobbery /or perhaps inverted snobbery that puts the practical and theoretical skills at odds, and occasionally I must admit I like to puncture those balloons for fun. 

    Obligatory reference back to "the Practical Man" 

    1
    Hunt, B.J.: ‘“Practice vs. Theory”: The British Electrical Debate, 1888-1891’Isis, 1983, 74, (3), pp. 341–355.   https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/353303
    Very much a "rock, paper, scissors" round robin of continual standing on the  shoulders of giants (EngTech, IEng, CEng, Yin yang ).
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