Electrician

[Sizey]

Hi guys, I qualified as an electrical engineer nearly ten years ago, I did my nvq level 3 and my AM 2 practical and this was all to 16 edition.
I worked in modular buildings for my entirety.
The last seven years I have been working in a family business non related to electrical engineering.

I have recently been offered a chance to work for a plumbing company doing any of there electrical work and expanding into more electrical projects, this is mainly within domestic and sometimes commercial property.
I'm seriously considering this opportunity but with no domestic experience and a bit behind the times with regs I'm looking for advice to what my next steps should be as I would be the sole electrician for the company.
My train of thoughts are as follows,
17 edition
Part p
Then eventually I would like to do my inspection and testing.
Hopefully the company are going to look at getting niceic registered at some point to.
Now just for peace of mind, does this sound like the way to go about things? Or am I missing something?
Thanks in advance for any info or advice.

 

[Adam_151]

My train of thoughts are as follows,
17 edition

That would be wise, one should however bear in mind that the 18th is comming out in the middle of 2018, but having a recent 17th will probbaly still be advantagous, as it may well mean that when the 18th comes out, you can do a 1 day update instead of a 3 day update, and it will probably be seen as less urgent to do so, you'd be in the same boat as everyone else, rather than 10 years out of date, so chances are you'd be able to familarise yourself with the book initially and put off the course for a little bit.... So yeah 17th now... it also gives you a bit on 'continuity' on your CV

Part p

Now part P is a building reg, not a qualification. There are coruse out there sold as 'part P courses' they are domestic installer qualifications, generally those are woefully inadequate quick courses intended to teach other trades and other enough to do domestic work in a few weeks and allow them to register with a competant person scheme to enable them to sign off work to meet building regs. With your NVQ 3 and (I presume) parts 1 and 2 of your 2330/2360 it is not something you will need.

Then eventually I would like to do my inspection and testing.

That would be worthwhile eventually, but bear in mind that it has been split into two courses in recent years: It used to be the one course (2391), However its now one course for initial testing and verification (2394) and another for periodic testing and inspection (2395). You need to ensure in your possition that you are competant testing your own work, this may or may not require 2394. The 2395 is one of those, nice to have things that would wait

Hopefully the company are going to look at getting niceic registered at some point to.

If they are going to be doing any amount of notificable work (google for the list of what is and ins't) then realistically they need to be resgistered with a competant person scheme (there are others apart from NICIEC, but they are are best known). Look on the NICIEC for their reguirements to join their domestic installars scheme. So assuming that this company is not already set up for electrical works, then it looks like one of your first jobs there would be get them regsistered

Now just for peace of mind, does this sound like the way to go about things? Or am I missing something?

Now while not structly required for the doemstic sector, I'd advise everyone to get their ECS test done (multiple choice H&S) and update/apply for your JIB card... your qualifications are recent enough that with an ECS test you shouldn't have much trouble. Its the chaps who predate NVQ who have a bit of a fight with them. Once you have got your card, don't let it it lapse, do ECS test and renew every 3 years.... you never know when you might need to get on 'proper site'