STROMA certification.

[Nickfromwales]

I hope NAPIT aren’t reading this lol. ?

[Jeremy Harris]

1 minute ago, Nickfromwales said:

I hope NAPIT aren’t reading this lol. ?

 

My experience when I rang NAPIT was pretty positive, they were far and away the most helpful of the Part P accreditation companies I spoke with, so my guess is that they would see this for what it is.

[Onoff]

5 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

 

My experience when I rang NAPIT was pretty positive, they were far and away the most helpful of the Part P accreditation companies I spoke with, so my guess is that they would see this for what it is.

 

Did you ask about whether they still do the "Just 8" scheme? Only downside is if you do more than 8 notifiables you can't just pay a bit extra. They don't as I think I've mentioned before advertise it.

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

 

Did you ask about whether they still do the "Just 8" scheme? Only downside is if you do more than 8 notifiables you can't just pay a bit extra. They don't as I think I've mentioned before advertise it.

 

 

All or fcuk all mate   I don’t do half measures. 

[newhome]

Just now, Nickfromwales said:

All or fcuk all mate   I don’t do half measures. 

 

I think that was for @JSHarris. I think @Onoff knows you are all or bugger all . 

 

 

[Onoff]

4 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

All or fcuk all mate   I don’t do half measures. 

 

That was directed at Jeremy, you'll do 8 in a week!

[Nickfromwales]

32 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

I think that was for @JSHarris. I think @Onoff knows you are all or bugger all . 

 

 

 

29 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

That was directed at Jeremy, you'll do 8 in a week!

 

Ok, gotcha.

[Ed Davies]

14 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

When my mate was running a big PA and lighting rig we made up 2x 13a plug to 1x 32a C-form splitters to max out the double sockets. 

Better than my mate at school who, when he was about 10, decided he wanted 480 volts so wired two plugs in series. His father was less than entirely pleased.

[Jeremy Harris]

14 hours ago, Onoff said:

 

Did you ask about whether they still do the "Just 8" scheme? Only downside is if you do more than 8 notifiables you can't just pay a bit extra. They don't as I think I've mentioned before advertise it.

 

 

 

They don't, as the cost had risen to almost the same as getting the standard Part P just before they stopped it, plus they put restrictions on it whereby lecturers who wanted to join Just 8 had to be in full time employment; they wouldn't allow retired part-time lecturers (like me) to have joined. 

[Nickfromwales]

£200 on books ?

I hope one of them has a bloody happy ending ?

 

 

Nightime reading ?

[newhome]

Dunno about happy endings, looks like the cure for insomnia ???

[Onoff]

I can genuinely say I've lost count of the times I've taken the B*B (* insert current colour) to bed. More so than the OSG, GN3 etc. Especially leading up to the exam. Are you still allowed to tag the book / make notes at the back when you take the 2382? I imagine so. 

 

[Nickfromwales]

Yup. Got my £5 worth of day glow coloured post-it notes and tags etc ready to tag the high frequency stuff. 

A few good YT vids with good advice re the exam which is time limited. Says to flag answers that you've guessed so you can answer the ones you know, quickly, and then in the remaining time you get to go back to the flagged ones and reference the book to correct them. 

A few sparkies out there who aren't fans of the fast track schemes but if it's a good enough filter to recognise competent people then I'm a fan.  Without core electrical knowledge I wouldn't have got through the first phone call in fairness. 

Fell asleep 55 pages in last night. Lightweight  

[Onoff]

Did you try that exam simulator?

[Nickfromwales]

On 10/10/2018 at 13:18, Onoff said:

Did you try that exam simulator?

Of course not. I will though, when my arse gets to meet my chair. ?

[Onoff]

The exam simulator I referred to above and sent to Nick was for the 17th but tbh 99% valid as a learning tool. 

 

There's also this free online one for the 18th:

 

http://www.sparkyfacts.co.uk/18thedition/18th-edition-exam-simulator.php

[dpmiller]

Seriously?

Wow. I just clicked through that in a couple of minutes with no reading, books, nor previous, and got 69%.

[Jeremy Harris]

1 hour ago, dpmiller said:

Seriously?

Wow. I just clicked through that in a couple of minutes with no reading, books, nor previous, and got 69%.

 

Frankly it's worryingly easy to get the paper ticket needed, without any real on-the-job experience.  It's no wonder there are a few "qualified" people around who are, on paper, "competent", but who in reality aren't up to the job.  I'd rather have someone who's served a proper apprenticeship, and got lots of experience of working on a wide range of jobs, than someone who's just done a short course at a technical college and come away with enough knowledge to pass the exams.  One big problem is that the accreditation bodies are just businesses, keen to recruit more people so they can increase their profits, which has led to the introduction of shorter "training" periods and exams that can be passed by those without any real in-depth experience.

 

Back when I used to teach electrical engineering science to apprentice electricians, all of them were doing a three year apprenticeship and doing their exam work on day release.  They learned far more on the four days of the week they were at work then on the one day a week they spent in college.  Even in college around 50% of the course was practical work in the labs, where we had just about every wiring installation system they would ever come across mocked up, so they could put the theory learned in the classrooms into practice.

[newhome]

4 hours ago, dpmiller said:

Seriously?

Wow. I just clicked through that in a couple of minutes with no reading, books, nor previous, and got 69%.

 

Crazy huh! I got 60% on the one I tried and can’t wire a plug ?. There’s something about the way they ask some of the questions that draws you to the correct answer. The ones I did badly on were the ones where there were pairs of numbers to choose from. With those you either know the answer or you don’t. 

[Jeremy Harris]

11 minutes ago, newhome said:

The ones I did badly on were the ones where there were pairs of numbers to choose from. With those you either know the answer or you don’t. 

 

And you're allowed to do the exam with a copy of BS7671 with you in order to look up those numbers....

[newhome]

26 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

 

And you're allowed to do the exam with a copy of BS7671 with you in order to look up those numbers....

 

WTF!! ???

[Jeremy Harris]

2 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

WTF!! ???

 

Precisely why I have a slightly jaded view of the whole accreditation business...

[Nickfromwales]

The systems / schemes exist for recourse. 

If you’ve sat the exams and got your quals then you’re then in the lions den. 

Scenario 1)

Arthur Clue from down the pub fits your new fuseboard for £80 “ ‘cos it’s only ‘alf a days work at most mukka”, and leaves. 

That evening there’s an electrical fire caused by his shitty work, and somebody loses their life. 

 

Scenario 2)

I sit my quals and go through my fast track. People scoff at how easy it was to sit, and anyhoo I pass with flying colours. 

I got the above job and fitted the new fuseboard. I did the tests and certified the job to my satisfaction. Customers happy with the bit of paper and the receipt. They paid much more but got the job done correctly. 

That evening there’s an electrical fire caused by my work, and somebody loses their life. 

 

In court arthur and I stand side by side for sentencing. 

The judge looks at him and deems him to not know any better, and more importantly that he wouldnt be in a position to grasp fully the repercussions of his actions. 

He gets a huge fine, and maybe a suspended sentence. 

The judge looks at me. 

I should know better and should have done the job according to the training I’ve received, and the knowledge I had at my disposal which should have allowed me to undertake that work to a good standard. 

I had the book, but I didn’t read it, and that caused the job to fail. 

As a qualified and competent person, I would then be sent straight to prison for manslaughter. 

 

The schemes exist to try to achieve a basic level of workmanship and to give installers the tools required to do the job properly. It’s just the assholes that don’t go by the book that cause the problem. 

The cash in hand posse are just as guilty as the person employing them imo. 

Give me a registered installer any day, fast tracked or not, and let’s be fully aware that that test is a PART of the process not all of it, as in I have to be inspected on site in a live install, carrying out a full test and certification instance, plus I must stand in front of examiners and answer questions whilst I wire some basic circuits in front of them in a live working training centre. 

 

No training, no qualification = no comebacks and no legal route for recourse for the person employing them. 

Quals = onus, liability, accountability and a ticket to jail if you fcuk anything up. 

 

Its about the individual NOT the scheme   

 

 

[newhome]

26 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

 

Its about the individual NOT the scheme 

 

I don’t feel that people should be able to look things up in a test such as the ones in the link. It’s the sort of info that if you were properly trained you should know IMO as how many people will look things up mid install? You either know this stuff or you don’t. And knowing that you’re taking a test surely you’ve been revising too? You don’t get to take the Highway Code into the driving theory test.

[Onoff]

16 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

I don’t feel that people should be able to look things up in a test such as the ones in the link. It’s the sort of info that if you were properly trained you should know IMO as how many people will look things up mid install? You either know this stuff or you don’t. And knowing that you’re taking a test surely you’ve been revising too? You don’t get to take the Highway Code into the driving theory test.

 

Trouble is there is so much info in the regs now it's a pita to remember it all. It's quite acceptable to say you need to refer to the regs during an assessment though probably not on every question! In fact, if designing wouldn't you want someone to methodically refer to the written word than guess it or "remember".

 

Fwiw I smashed the 17th. Did a few hundred test questions beforehand and tagged the book for speed. As long as you know in what section something is you've got 2 mins per question. 60 questions over 2 hours. 58 mins with a migraine and no Neurofen! Got 98.something percent.