Learn about City and Guild 2382 course for the 17th edition

Over the last few years electricians have become one of the most regulated and persecuted sections in our society. Today we all live in a world in which our every move seems to be examined by cameras, store detectives and other invasions into our private lives.
Well not even any of that crap has prepared me for the last three years living as an electrician and guess what its about to get worse.

Lets start from the beginning.
I left school in 1985, went to college for a month, dropped out then sort of staggered into an apprenticeship. It was at British Steel and as an electrician. I attended college full time for a year and then returned to my place of work and continued to work through my apprenticeship for a further 4 years (well three and a half to be fair) Each week spending one day at college studying from 9 am until 9pm all on a wage which was about £5 more than a YTS (remember them!).

In 1990 I started to work as an electrician on a rather basic wage. In 1991 a new set of wiring regulations were released refereed to as the 16th Edition. So we all went back to college to study those, once a week in our own time. We all then went back to our jobs and continued as happy as Larry until 2004, which is when things started to hit the fan.

2004 PART P!!

What is part P?

Anyone carrying out domestic electrical installation work now has to comply with Part P. For DIY, that simply means making sure that straightforward jobs like replacing a socket or adding to an existing circuit comply with the Wiring Regulations (to comply with the wiring regs means the whole circuit must be A OK).

However, more significant work, such as house rewires, new circuits, and any additions to existing circuits in kitchens, bathrooms or outside the house are 'notifiable'. That means it will have to be certificated by a member of one of the five competent person self-certification schemes that have been approved by the Government or notified to the local authority, which will then be responsible for inspection and testing and will then charge you around £500.

But why? Part P was introduced to regulate our 'unregulated industry'. This was despite deaths by shock was falling. The government was concerned with the increase in shocks and burns and other non fatal accidents Despite more people being killed on the roads in one day or by hospital not being cleaned properly killing 1000's the spotlight was on us electricians and our massive shock and burnt finger problem.

Now as you can see above I have highlighted five competent person self-certification schemes. And its these schemes that are the problem. You see all that work I had to do to qualify has now been replaced with a 7 day course costing around £1000 a application fee to the body around £500 annual fee to the body, around £500. An initial and annual inspection fee again around £500 plus a whole other load of s**t there boffin s seem to think is necessary to prevent a few burnt fingers and shocks, well let me tell you there is a lot more shocks and burnt fingers in my line or work since Part P, mainly my shock at the cost of this s**t and then my burnt fingers when I have paid up.

The city and guilds now started to feel a little lonely and unloved so it was now there turn to stick the boot in. Along comes a couple of new examination question writers and with it a whole load of more shit.

Inspection and test (also knowns as the City and Guilds 2391). Now not to put a finer point on it but this test is a ridiculously hard to pass. It consists of two parts, a practical with about 5 test's involved, all to be passed in two hours and then a written exam which assumes the knowledge of the 321 page book BS7671 has been ingested parrot fashion from back to front, to those who haven't had the pleasure of this riveting read, compare it to learning a dictionary from back to front and boy do those new test writers find the small print.

“What type a light fitting can be used in zone A in a swimming pool?” In reality it would be “Hold on I will just check the regs book” but this exam is closed book, how many pools in the UK? Its all a piss take. So here we are after 3 years of utter shit what can happen next. Well the one major player who hasn't yet had a go is the Institute of electrical engineers or the iee. So what do they do? They decide that the regulations that both part P and 2391 are based on are going to be changed which means? More shocks and burnt fingers, mine unfortunately.

The utter incompetence of these people is hard to believe. Why not change the regulations first, then the test, then introduce Part P? It either they are really stupid or they have another reason to do it, I wonder what it could be...?

Now although this is bad for me, I have seen a lot of others far more severely burnt. The older generation amongst us, sitting in class rooms after a day at work trying to learn formulas they will never use or worse still learning the Wiring regulations, also known as BS7671 (BS standing for...) from back to front ....AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

17th edition is due to come into affect form June 1st 2008 so any circuit designed after that should comply to the 17th version of BS 7671