Welcome
Hello and welcome to Electrical Qualifications. This site has been set up to help you demistify the somewhat confusing route to practising as an electrician. It is a useful resource for young people looking for entry into the electrical industry and adults looking for electrical training to retrain or gain qualifications in order to further a career in the electrical industry. The site is not just for potential electricians and the City and Guilds 2330 crowd, information is also available if you are a current practising electrician or an allied trade such as a plumber, gas fitter, contractor or kitchen fitter through the domestic installers qualifications and competent person scheme.
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latest news
All change on qualification front
Sunday 28th of June 2009
Busy times ahead for trainers and trainees within the electrical industry. The QCF is just around the corner, spelling the end of the 2330 by the year 2013 and being replaced with unit based qualifications.
As well as the technical certificate undergoing changes, the staple AM2 looks like it will be quite different next year. Plans are currently in progress to overhaul the AM2 and potentially bring it under a QCF unit. Changes mooted are the removal of the motor control circuit completely, taking out the MIMS (MICC) installation as it is thought to be a specialist cable and taking out the conduit forming as it is thought to be a level 2 skill.
In comes a S plan heating circuit, segregated trunking and data cabling.
Other changes include the trainee having to complete a full Electrical Installation Certificate, including a Schedule of Inspection and a Schedule of Test Results instead of the old method with a couple of random boxes of information.
The AM2 is planned to be split into 4 sections, A - Installation, B - Inspection and Test, C - Fault Diagnosis and a new section D - Knowledge Assessment. The last part is planned to be a 30 question multiple choice exam with a 90% pass mark. The exam will cover health and safety, working at heights, security systems, building regulations, protective devices, hand tool and single and three phase supplies.
Other big changes include the introduction of an NVQ Level 3 Domestic Electrician, an NVQ Level 2 Domestic Installer and making qualifying managers for Part P compliant installations working at level 3 with a portfolio of evidence backing this up.
There is also planned a replacement for the old C certificate, a level 4 Building Services qualification based around electrical installations.
More news when we get some.
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New QCF qualifications to overhaul existing electrical qualifications
Wednesday 03rd of June 2009
Recent meetings with the Summit Skills have outlined the new proposals for replacing the current crop of electrical qualifications. Although the 2330 and the 2356 have been extended to 2010, there will be replacement qualifications that are in line with the brand new qualifications framework.
It was mentioned that there was a possibility that only those currently working within the electrical industry could gain the relevant qualifications to be an electrician, subsequently closing to the door to those trying to retrain or gain apprenticeships.
We hope that this doesn't happen and that the Summit Skills and the awarding bodies stop and seriously rethink about what they are proposing.
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Colleges head quits over botched building programme
Monday 23rd of March 2009
The national college rebuilding crisis claimed its first major casualty today with the resignation of the Learning and Skills Council's chief executive, Mark Haysom.
He said that he was taking responsibility for the quango's failures in managing the flagship programme.
"No matter where those mistakes have been made and no matter how many people have been involved in the capital programme, as the chief executive of the LSC I am, of course, finally accountable," he said. "That is why I have made my decision to step down at this time."
Full story can be found here
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Sudden delay in building decisions could throw some colleges into financial trouble
Friday 23rd of January 2009
The prime minister could not have expected to soothe everybody with his new year pledge to keep public building projects going during the economic crisis. But some college heads were surprised to hear his views. They had been told just before Christmas, without any warning, that their rebuilding plans were to be put on ice for three months. And this moratorium until March on funding decisions for capital projects, announced by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), could tip some of their institutions into serious financial difficulties, they say.
The LSC decision was made suddenly with no public statement. College principals were told individually. One describes it as the latest factor in a "a toxic mix" that could spell financial crisis for colleges. It comes at a time when they are anxious about their incomes for teenagers - soon to come from local authorities rather than the LSC - and about the fragmentation of adult funding, which they will increasingly have to tender for.
More information can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jan/20/colleges-building-plans
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Downturn could scupper apprenticeships
Saturday 13th of December 2008
With jobs vanishing daily, the economic crisis looks likely to scupper government attempts to give every teenager who wants one the legal right to an apprenticeship, MPs predict.
Such a right cannot be established without seriously lowering the quality of these training programmes, according to the Commons children, schools and families committee.
It praises ministers for trying to raise apprenticeship standards, but suspects that efforts to do this by passing a new law are a waste of time.
The draft apprenticeships bill, due to pass through parliament in the forthcoming session, requires the secretary of state to approve the core contents of every apprenticeship framework.
Full story here http://www.guardian.co.uk/education
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