Problems becoming an electrician

[banjowizard]

 I have been considering becoming an electrician for a while now and want to enrol on the relevant courses as soon as i can.

 I am 28 years old have GCSE's, A levels, a BSc Honours Degree in Engineering Product Design and 7 years working experience as a Special Effects Engineer for TV and Film.
 The TV and Film industry are in a decline in the UK and i want to branch out and try something else. I have also been working as a freelance Audio Visual Installer for the last six months.

 The problem i am having is identifying what qualifications are needed to become an electrician. I have been on many different websites and spoken to electricians on site but it seems that everything is steered towards school leavers with apprenticeship schemes.
When i have been to college websites there a hundreds of different courses but no indication of what order to take them in.

please help, any information would be greatly appreciated

[dabees]

Have a word with your local college, City & Guilds 2391: Level 3 Certificate in Inspection, Testing and Certification of Electrical Installations is a good start but you will also have to check out the new Part P Certificate. Try this site for answers www.iee.org if they don't know no-one will

[Octavius]

Apprentices work towards two separate qualifications, they are City & Guilds (C&G) Electrical Installation which is studied at college, and NVQ/SVQ Level 3 in Installing and Commissioning Electro-technical Systems and Equipment, this is assessed in the workplace.

The training for installation electricians is run mainly by JT Limited (JTL) in England and Wales, by the Electrical Training Trust (ETT) in Northern Ireland and by the Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust (SECTT) in Scotland. These organisations are the principal training providers to the electrical contracting industry. They arrange and manage training and funding for apprentices by liaising with sector skills councils, training and enterprise councils, colleges, training centres and employers.

Maintenance electricians work towards C&G Engineering Systems Maintenance, BTEC National Certificate in Engineering, SQA National Certificate modules or NVQ/SVQ Level 3 in Engineering Maintenance.

Production electricians may work towards certificates such as C&G Electronics Servicing, SQA national certificate modules or NVQ/SVQ Level 3 in Engineering Assembly.

[Octavius]

However you decide to progress, look for a Joint Industry Board (JIB)-approved course, this may be the best bet and might even open doorways to further  job/training schemes.