Part P is a section in the building regs which covers electrical installations its not a qualification in itself. To be Part-P compliant you need to be a)Defined as a competant person b)Licensed through a self certification scheme ie Napit, NICEIC, Elecsa etc.
To define yourself as competant you must either have gained sufficent expereience throughout your working life and have the technical knowledge through years of working in the industry or gained industry recognised qualifications 2330,2381,2382 etc. Or ideally both of the above. To gain registration through a scheme such as ther ones mentioned above you must possess some sort of qualification but in general the 17th Edition seems to be the minimum requirement. Then you need public liability insurance of £2m+. Then you need a calibrated test equipment usually to the tune of £500 and then you need to know how to use it and test sufficently as not to put your customers at risk and ensure your work is to an acceptable standard. The industry has been watered down in recent years with fast track training courses offereing the gold at the end of the rainbow for a few grand. It takes years to become good at it now weeks yeah you might sit in a nice warm workshop and have a go with some tools and wires but they won't show you how to find faults in properties and diagnose potentially lethal problems. All they do is show you how to wire things up that it. What about cable calculations, thermal capacity, volt drop, rupture capacity etc all things which probably are never touched upon in these overnight dream factories.
To define yourself as competant you must either have gained sufficent expereience throughout your working life and have the technical knowledge through years of working in the industry or gained industry recognised qualifications 2330,2381,2382 etc. Or ideally both of the above. To gain registration through a scheme such as ther ones mentioned above you must possess some sort of qualification but in general the 17th Edition seems to be the minimum requirement. Then you need public liability insurance of £2m+. Then you need a calibrated test equipment usually to the tune of £500 and then you need to know how to use it and test sufficently as not to put your customers at risk and ensure your work is to an acceptable standard. The industry has been watered down in recent years with fast track training courses offereing the gold at the end of the rainbow for a few grand. It takes years to become good at it now weeks yeah you might sit in a nice warm workshop and have a go with some tools and wires but they won't show you how to find faults in properties and diagnose potentially lethal problems. All they do is show you how to wire things up that it. What about cable calculations, thermal capacity, volt drop, rupture capacity etc all things which probably are never touched upon in these overnight dream factories.
Hi Nosa, there is probably a good reason why no one has come up with this suggestion but I will perservere anyway and perhaps one of our experienced members can shed some light on it, but when I was working in the UK the biggest problem I had was getting good industrial electricians. This was for things such as disconnecting/reconnecting machinary, extending power and fitting power sockets where they are needed etc. These guys do have the extra burden of having to do a survey first and submitting a method statements and risk assesments etc. but then they charge for this. Also as Greg has pointed out certainly in some areas there is a flood of unqualified bodge merchants doing the domestic thing but fortunately they cannot access the industrial trade. In factories cables are fitted in conduit nailed to the wall so no crawling around lofts or ripping up floorboards and sockets also are just screwd to the wall instead of all that chasing and plastering. Obviously most of the work is with three fase so I guess there would be some kind of add-on to the training but in the areas where I was doing installations these guys always seem to be at a premium, unlike domestic electricians, although to be honest I think good qualified domestic electricians are at a premium in some areas but its not such a problem as there's often somebody who has a mate that can fix whatever it is for a beer! I do know a guy who set up on his own doing factories and the like and he has never looked back. The last time I used him my bill was over £350 for a wall socket! And he was the cheapest and quickest. I may have misunderstood something but I think it was this guy that told me he wasn't certified to do domestic wiring in kitchens or bathrooms but could do factories.
Like I said there is probably a good reason why this has not been suggested before (like I missed the post) but if not.................
Anyway good luck with whatever you choose to do and I sincerly hope everything works out for you.
Like I said there is probably a good reason why this has not been suggested before (like I missed the post) but if not.................
Anyway good luck with whatever you choose to do and I sincerly hope everything works out for you.
Technically you do not need any technical or formal qualifications to work on industrial and commercial installations because the requirements of Part-P only covers domestic installations... I think the problem Bandit007 has encountered is when an installation is cared for by an in house maintenance team they tend to do things there own way. So if a company gets rid of the maintenance team and gets in the subs to save money, usually the subs are up against years of someone elses rules and work methods. Form my industrial experience I find even though there are similarities, no 2 industrial installations are ever maintained the same there seems to be no industry standard.
@Greg. That does make sense to me. As a project manager doing production installations I invariably would have to bring in subcontract electricians as the 'inhouse maintanence team' where always too busy doing their own thing, although the risk assesment and method statement would have to be approved by the maintenence manager.
But does what you say Greg mean that Nosa might find it easier and at least as profitable if not more profitable to do at least some industrial stuff? Most of the domestic electricians I spoke to thought the paperwork requirements and dress code (steel toecaps, long trousers, hard hats, Hairnets etc. in food factories etc.) made industrial work too challenging/time consuming for them although I would see that as an opportunity.
And is it just me that finds it odd that you need part P qualification to fit a power point in the kitchen of a local flat but not in the canteen of a factory of 600 people.
But does what you say Greg mean that Nosa might find it easier and at least as profitable if not more profitable to do at least some industrial stuff? Most of the domestic electricians I spoke to thought the paperwork requirements and dress code (steel toecaps, long trousers, hard hats, Hairnets etc. in food factories etc.) made industrial work too challenging/time consuming for them although I would see that as an opportunity.
And is it just me that finds it odd that you need part P qualification to fit a power point in the kitchen of a local flat but not in the canteen of a factory of 600 people.
Also there is no requirement to protect a socket with an RCD outside a domestic installation. Its usually a case of Industrial vs Domestic both have benefits but people tend to stick to one area. I have met domestic electricians who don't understand phase rotation or a star/delta motor even though they have done it in college they dont understand it, so I say draw me a diagram of a sub station which they do and then I ask them to explain it 
I have also met industrial electricians who don't know what a ring main is or how to do the "figure 8" test or what earth bonding is??? I think people are scared of venturing into the unknown, dont get me wrong plenty of electricians can turn their hand to both and do it very well, but I have noticed an increase of ignorence between the 2 in recent years. Personally I find that firms brand themselves as one or the other as usually industrial work comes through industry procurement it can be hard work to lend yourself to the needs of joe public and then the next day sit down and sift through pages of drawings to find the location of an offending article which usually turns out to be up a cooling tower, outside, blowing a gale, in the rain... I try to sit on the fence between the 2 and not get to involved with either aspect for example last week I fitted 2 three phase sub mains into a shop and again next week I am fitting another three phase sub mains in a community centre, but the week after that I have rewire booked in and then hopefully I might have another booked in the week after that also.
I have also met industrial electricians who don't know what a ring main is or how to do the "figure 8" test or what earth bonding is??? I think people are scared of venturing into the unknown, dont get me wrong plenty of electricians can turn their hand to both and do it very well, but I have noticed an increase of ignorence between the 2 in recent years. Personally I find that firms brand themselves as one or the other as usually industrial work comes through industry procurement it can be hard work to lend yourself to the needs of joe public and then the next day sit down and sift through pages of drawings to find the location of an offending article which usually turns out to be up a cooling tower, outside, blowing a gale, in the rain... I try to sit on the fence between the 2 and not get to involved with either aspect for example last week I fitted 2 three phase sub mains into a shop and again next week I am fitting another three phase sub mains in a community centre, but the week after that I have rewire booked in and then hopefully I might have another booked in the week after that also.
A
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A factory electrician can work on 415 volts installations for years, but can no longer fit a halogen lamp outside his house unless he fits a plug to it or gets the installation inspected. Part P is just a money spinner for domestic electricians.
And as for 17th edition, to get a 60% pass rate (some days) means effectively 40% of installations can be unsafe and that's OK.
Trying to match exact sentences from 60 multi choice questions in 2 hours, from a book you take in with you.
Its just about knowing where to look and how fast you can do it, but it doesn't make you an electrician, It may as well be a book about brain disorders with a good index, but it wouldn't then make you a neurosurgeon.
I wouldn't expect my electricians to be given 2 minutes to work out cable sizes for a 3 phase installation in a duct on a cable tray next to multiple multi core cables with an ambient temperature of 77 degrees, but the exam does.
And as for 17th edition, to get a 60% pass rate (some days) means effectively 40% of installations can be unsafe and that's OK.
Trying to match exact sentences from 60 multi choice questions in 2 hours, from a book you take in with you.
Its just about knowing where to look and how fast you can do it, but it doesn't make you an electrician, It may as well be a book about brain disorders with a good index, but it wouldn't then make you a neurosurgeon.
I wouldn't expect my electricians to be given 2 minutes to work out cable sizes for a 3 phase installation in a duct on a cable tray next to multiple multi core cables with an ambient temperature of 77 degrees, but the exam does.
the 17th Edition as like the 16th/ 2001 amendments etc and all previous regs exams are an unfair representation of someones knowledge like you say its all down to referencing skills. I did my 17th in November 2008 just as it came out and I got a question about photovoltic which was like my least known subject ever seems as I have never even looked at a solar panel before, luckily the regs pretty much opened up onto the exact page I needed, it is all down to quick reference thats it, if your a librarian then you can pass the 17th edition with full marks 
