Electrician qualifications

Wavysands

Hello,
I am trying to find some information on qualifications one needs to do a job as am electrician in the UK. My dad has lived in Australia for years now but is thinking of coming back to the UK (I know, usually people move TO sunny destinations as they get older, but he wants go see the grandkids more ).

He has been working as a decorator and is also a qualified electrician and would like to continue in this line of work. I'm trying to help him understand what is involved. What sort of qualification / certification would he need to obtain to do this sort of work over here? Any tips and suggestions? Thank you in advance!

Neil_Jones

Google is your friend:
https://www.ucas.com/ucas/after-gcses/find-career-ideas/explore-jobs/job-profile/electrician

You may find equivalent qualifications in Australia could be matched to the appropriate ones over here. A quick Google suggests a licence is needed in some Australian states but that doesn't apply here.

Wavysands

Thank you for this Neil. I did try Google, but majority of the information (also here, which lead me to create a new post) relate to becoming an electrician through study and apprenticeship or for re-qualifying as an adult with no prior experience. My dad has a degree in electrical engineering, obviously from years ago, but I think equally valid?

I am just interested on the practical side what is needed in the UK. I have so far found that NICEIC offer a number of schemes - which ones would be worth pursuing? Are there any other ones?

TELLIT01

Is there an electrical trade body in the UK he can contact. Somewhere like that should be able to tell him if his qualifications are directly transferable.

tacpot12

The qualifications required may depend on what area your Dad wants to work in, e.g. domestic repairs and rewiring, new domestic installations (i.e. working on building sites installing the electrics into new build residential homes), industrial, commercial, renewable energy systems, etc.

One thing that your Dad will need some training on is the latest version of the UK Wiring Regulations (18th Edition). He will need to pass the exam on the 18th Edition of the regulations.

If he wants to be self-employed, he needs to meet the requirements to be a Qualified Supervisor. Have a look at page 14 of either of these documents for the routes to become a Qualified Supervisor: https://www.niceic.com/medialib/www.niceic.com/Schemes/DIS-Reg-Guide-Dec-18-Web.pdf OR
https://www.niceic.com/join-us/approved-contractor-scheme-(1)/ac-reg-guide-dec-18-web.pdf

Your Dad is probably going to need to call NICEIC on 0333 015 6626 to discuss what requirements they would have to register him to do certain sorts of work. There are other registration bodies available, and he might find that another has slightly less stringent requirements, so he probably needs to ring around them all. I would suggest that he calls them, as it will be much harder for the registration body to assess his qualifications and experience if the information has to pass through you first.

If he is happy being self-employed and doing domestic repairs and rewiring, the Domestic Installer registration (with him as the Qualified Supervisor) would be sufficient. The training courses for this are much maligned, but if he has significant experience, he really just needs to study for the assessment, but I would suggest that he also does a Test and Inspection course - e.g. https://www.niceic.com/contractor/training/electrical-courses/periodic-inspection-and-testing to get up to speed with the UK requirements for testing and inspection.

He should probably look to join the Approved Contractor scheme rather than the Domestic Installer scheme if he can met the requirements to do so as it opens up the option of doing Electrical Inspections on Residential Properties - the amount of work may increase in this field as the UK government is considering mandating regular inspections for rented properties. The second document above shows the NICEIC requirements to join their Approved Contractor scheme.

There will be some other costs on top of the registration fee if he is going to be self-employed, e.g. calibrated test equipment and public liability insurance.

ohreally

One of my ex colleagues made the same move, returned to the UK from 30 years in oz. He walked into a maintenance job no problems, just had to show he completed a recognised apprenticeship and was working as a maintenance spark in oz.

Undervalued

tacpot12 wrote: »

The qualifications required may depend on what area your Dad wants to work in, e.g. domestic repairs and rewiring, new domestic installations (i.e. working on building sites installing the electrics into new build residential homes), industrial, commercial, renewable energy systems, etc.

One thing that your Dad will need some training on is the latest version of the UK Wiring Regulations (18th Edition). He will need to pass the exam on the 18th Edition of the regulations.

If he wants to be self-employed, he needs to meet the requirements to be a Qualified Supervisor. Have a look at page 14 of either of these documents for the routes to become a Qualified Supervisor: https://www.niceic.com/medialib/www.niceic.com/Schemes/DIS-Reg-Guide-Dec-18-Web.pdf OR
https://www.niceic.com/join-us/approved-contractor-scheme-(1)/ac-reg-guide-dec-18-web.pdf

Your Dad is probably going to need to call NICEIC on 0333 015 6626 to discuss what requirements they would have to register him to do certain sorts of work. There are other registration bodies available, and he might find that another has slightly less stringent requirements, so he probably needs to ring around them all. I would suggest that he calls them, as it will be much harder for the registration body to assess his qualifications and experience if the information has to pass through you first.

If he is happy being self-employed and doing domestic repairs and rewiring, the Domestic Installer registration (with him as the Qualified Supervisor) would be sufficient. The training courses for this are much maligned, but if he has significant experience, he really just needs to study for the assessment, but I would suggest that he also does a Test and Inspection course - e.g. https://www.niceic.com/contractor/training/electrical-courses/periodic-inspection-and-testing to get up to speed with the UK requirements for testing and inspection.

He should probably look to join the Approved Contractor scheme rather than the Domestic Installer scheme if he can met the requirements to do so as it opens up the option of doing Electrical Inspections on Residential Properties - the amount of work may increase in this field as the UK government is considering mandating regular inspections for rented properties. The second document above shows the NICEIC requirements to join their Approved Contractor scheme.

There will be some other costs on top of the registration fee if he is going to be self-employed, e.g. calibrated test equipment and public liability insurance.

Unless I am out of date "registration" for electricians in not mandatory in the UK, unlike say the Gas Safe register where it is an offence to work on gas without being on the register.

It may well be that it is difficult to get certain types of work without being "registered" by one of the recognised bodies but even you first link describes it a voluntary.

As far as I know (please correct me if I am wrong) anybody can still set up in business offering to do electrical work without breaking any law. Obviously they need to do it competently and in compliance with current regulations, that is another matter.

Many years ago the whole question of registration of various professions and trades in the UK was a particular interest of mine, although not in the electrical field. There were actually amazingly few where there was a specific legal requirement to be registered. Beyond that were were rather more where it had become commonplace, but not mandatory. There there were other fields where there was often several competing "professional" bodies, which generally liked to give the impression that they had more power and influence than was actually the case.

chunkytfg

Undervalued wrote: »

Unless I am out of date "registration" for electricians in not mandatory in the UK, unlike say the Gas Safe register where it is an offence to work on gas without being on the register.

It may well be that it is difficult to get certain types of work without being "registered" by one of the recognised bodies but even you first link describes it a voluntary.

As far as I know (please correct me if I am wrong) anybody can still set up in business offering to do electrical work without breaking any law. Obviously they need to do it competently and in compliance with current regulations, that is another matter.

Many years ago the whole question of registration of various professions and trades in the UK was a particular interest of mine, although not in the electrical field. There were actually amazingly few where there was a specific legal requirement to be registered. Beyond that were were rather more where it had become commonplace, but not mandatory. There there were other fields where there was often several competing "professional" bodies, which generally liked to give the impression that they had more power and influence than was actually the case.

Whilst you're technically correct being a member of a body like NAPIT of NICEIC is voluntary to do work in the UK without it would involve having to notify building control every single time and pay to have them come out and inspect and test your work. Being a member means you self notify and save the cost.

coffeehound

Wavysands wrote: »

He has been working as a decorator and is also a qualified electrician and would like to continue in this line of work.

Are you sure that he is a qualified Electrician? That's a specific trade and is not the same as an Electrical Engineer or Technician. It's unusual for an electrician to have a degree.

Also, if he is a qualified electrician, why is he not working as one?

I wonder if you might have got confused with the job names.

Savvy_Sue

chunkytfg wrote: »

Whilst you're technically correct being a member of a body like NAPIT of NICEIC is voluntary to do work in the UK without it would involve having to notify building control every single time and pay to have them come out and inspect and test your work. Being a member means you self notify and save the cost.

It's Part P qualified he needs, isn't it? Worth googling that..

Wavysands

Thank you all so much for the useful advice. I will check out your suggestions

As for the electrical engineer / electrician thing, he did his degree and went to Australia a few years later. First he picked up some decorating jobs just to make a living and found out he was quote handy at it and enjoyed it. He then got involved in doing electrical installations as a part of decorating and ended up getting licenced to be able to do it on his own (which I understand that you are saying works the same way here). His degree wasn't directly related to this, but I guess gave him some underlying knowledge.