Archive for the ‘Electrical’ Category
Prince Charles Installs Solar PV – A Plus For Green Electrical Training!
Recent news that the Prince of Wales had been granted permission to install 32 solar photovoltaic panels on the south-east roof of Clarence House, his central London residence, and which has been a royal home for 170 years, gives another tremendous confidence boost to the UK’s embrace of renewable technology.
Despite of recession and austerity budget cuts, increasing numbers of men and women are entering the trade skills industry to train to become an electrician, and this now must take on board the use and installation of green energy appliances. Today’s trainee electrician is to be involved in the UK’s rolling out of replacement energy sources, the most important being Solar PV and Heat Pumps, in order to help meet the government’s commitment to lowering the country’s carbon emissions by 2020 and beyond.
The installation of solar PV panels is the latest in a line of renewable energy projects enacted by the Prince of Wales household, which not only aims to cut carbon emissions, but also raise the profile of green technology. Clarence House has previously installed energy efficient boilers and lights, while other royal properties possess wood chip boilers.
Approval of the planning application by Westminster Council, means the solar panels, which will be hidden from view by the high parapet balustrade on the Grade I listed building, are expected to produce around 4,000 kilowatt hours of ‘green’ electricity a year - equivalent to the household average in the capital.
Coincidentally, approval of the Prince’s solar PV scheme was announced alongside energy regulator, Ofgem, revealing that a record number of homeowners had installed solar panels during the past month. As a result of the introduction of the Government’s “feed-in tariff” scheme, which pays PV system owners for the green energy they generate, 2,257 solar panels were fitted, up from 1,700 in July and 1,400 in June.
All those who have become seriously interested in taking electrical courses, will begin learning the foundation theory and practical knowledge on the City & Guilds Electrical NVQ 2330 level 2 before advancing to the NVQ level 3 and the opportunity to undertake a number of knowledge and skills development modules.
17th Edition IEE Wiring Regulations Due For Change.
The 17th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations, published 1st January 2008, is scheduled to be subject to a major revision in June 2011. Plans for a change of name and the inclusion of topics that are not dealt with in detail by the present edition, will then most likely come into force on 1st January 2012.
The new revision, to be known as the IET Wiring Regulations, is currently only a proposal and the changes introduced by the revision are not limited to key areas only.
A large part of the revision will be devoted to dealing with the new subjects being covered, which will include, in particular, medical locations, measures against electromagnetic influence and devices for protection against overvoltage (surge protection). Many small revisions will also be addressed throughout the regulations, and there is also a new section covering operating and maintenance gangways.
Section 710, Medical Locations, covers not only hospitals, but also healthcare facilities of every type, such as doctors’ and dentists’ surgeries. The new regulations are intended to deal with the reliability of supply in these locations, and to reduce the risk of electric shock. Included will be medical IT distribution systems with special isolating transformers, supplementary equipotential bonding and “safety service” power sources that will ensure continuity of supply.
Section 444 of the revised regulations deals with electromagnetic influence, and is intended to aid compliance with the requirements of the EU EMC Directive, already covered in UK law by SI 3148. Updated advice will be offered on installation of mains power cables and common bonding of multiple power sources in order to achieve the best EMC performance. Compliance with Part P of the Building Regulations depends on compliance with the Wiring Regulations, so when the new version of the regulations comes into force, the implication is that electrical contractors and building inspectors who provide Part P certification will need to have specialist knowledge about the EMC performance of electrical installations.
Section 534 covers the selection and applications of surge protection devices, which are used to minimise the effects of voltage transients produced by natural phenomena, such as lightning and by switching operations.
At present, individuals on electrical courses are able to undertake the NVQ 2382 17th Edition Wiring Regulations course as a key knowledge and skill module as part of a course progression at a leading UK skills training centre.
The entry level for men and women wishing to train to be an electrician is the City & Guilds NVQ 2330 level 2, which provides all the required foundation and practical skills to be assessed for advancing to the next learning level.
Electrical Training On The Rise.
New figures just released by the vocational education organisation, City & Guilds, reveal that over the last 12 months, electrical installation has become the nation’s most popular industry skill, with 97,411 certified learners across the UK, while the number of individuals joining vocational learning schemes climbed by 11 per cent.
The news that training on electrical courses is on the rise due to the after-effects of the recent economic downturn is a great boost to current trainees and all those who are looking for a secure career path in the trade skills industry. Without doubt, training to be an electrician in today’s economy looks to be a safe bet!
According to Chris Jones, director general and CEO, City & Guilds, growing numbers of people are recognising the value of work-related learning and equipping themselves with the right skills and training they need to succeed and lead in today’s fast-paced economy. “With apprenticeships and work-related learning now a firm priority on the UK’s education agenda, demand for skills-based courses in electrical installation has never been higher”.
The number of certified learners in electrical installation between 1 June 2009 – 31 May 2010 show London and South East England with the highest number of electricians closely followed by the West Midlands and the North West.
According to the figures, electrical installation is also the most popular vocational course in a number of cities across the UK, including Southampton (1,003), Manchester (970), Liverpool (888), Nottingham (858), Sunderland (453) and Maidstone (258).
Below shows the City & Guilds regions and the number of certified learners in electrical installation between 1 June 2009 – 31 May 2010:
1. Southern – 14,150
2. Eastern – 11,101
3. London and the South East – 9,818
4. North West – 9,684
5. West Midlands – 9,552
6. Yorkshire – 8,910
7. South West – 7,998
8. East Midlands – 7,539
9. Wales – 6,972
10. Northern – 4,997
11. Scotland – 4,281
12. Northern Ireland – 2,409
The established electrical industry entry course is the City & Guilds NVQ 2330. This extensive series of learning units provides all the necessary theoretical knowledge and practical skills required to be verified and assessed by an approved and accredited City & Guilds training centre to be competent enough to progress onto the required next level, the City & Guilds NVQ 2356.
Obtaining the mandatory level of skills learning is essential in order to be considered correctly qualified to start an apprenticeship scheme and go on to train on more specific course modules.
New Homes Bonus Scheme A Boost To Skills Training
Last week, it was announced that English Councils are to be offered extra money for every newly-built home, as part of a coalition government scheme, “New Homes Bonus”, aimed at easing housing shortages and which will also offer an incentive to local authorities.
This once again, is good news for the construction firms and trade service suppliers who will be involved, and is a boost to the construction industry as a whole. It also provides reassurance and optimism for future job prospects to the many people who are currently training to be an electrician or learning the plumbing trade.
With endless media talk of slow recovery from recession and slowdown in trade growth, it’s always good to hear the news on the ground, as it were, from the frontline of the trade industries.
Under the “New Homes Bonus” programme, the Government stated that it will match the council tax raised on each new home for a period of six years to help boost house building, which has been at a lower level, due to slow recession recovery.
There were 120,000 homes built last year and there are 4.5m people in England who are on council waiting lists.
The Government, ” ..will not tell communities how or where to build … but the New Homes Bonus will ensure that those communities that go for growth reap the benefits of development, not just the costs”.
There will be undoubtedly, many men and women who currently are looking to start a new career that will provide a more steady future. The skills of construction industry trades such as plumbing, electrical, gas and building are always in demand, and with the widespread use of green energy heating and lighting systems being increasingly adopted across the UK, future career prospects look to be assured.
City & Guilds NVQ courses are the recognised, established route for entry level students and the leading UK skills training centres can also provide accredited renewable energy courses within a dedicated classroom environment.
Solar PV Rise In UK Fastest World Growth.
It’s official - new research suggests there has been a very dramatic increase in the number of homes in the UK that are being fitted with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. This has now made the UK the world’s fastest growing market for this kind of technology!
Figures released show that the installations of PV systems in the UK will amount to 96MW in 2010. This means that it will represent a 1,500 percent increase from the 6MW of energy that is generated by this kind of technology in 2009.
The large increase has overtaken the rate of growth of the UK’s nearest rival, Spain, whose estimated percentage of growth is around 730 percent. PV subsidies have been introduced in many other countries around the world with rapid market growth being achieved in each instance. In the UK attractive feed in tariffs to promote PV have been adopted. This is causing more people to get on board than ever before.
With over 40,000 systems installed in the UK alone, solar power is becoming the leading source of providing alternative energy. In the UK we receive sufficient sunshine to provide up to 70% of our annual domestic hot water needs from a well designed solar installation and this type of system will also reduce harmful emissions by up to 500 kg per square metre of panel per year.
Energy efficient heating and lighting technology is now an urgent priority and it’s becoming clear that undertaking green energy training in Solar PV installation or heat pumps is going to directly benefit trade skills trainees.
Knowing how to make a green energy assessment and undertake the required installation will be of direct relevance to experienced electricians and plumbers, who wish to upgrade their service provision.
Training to be a plumber or electrician now involves working with the installation of renewable Green Energy for use in the home or workplace. AbleSkills have built dedicated renewable energy training workshops in conjunction with energy assessment courses to supply an increasingly vital service.
For those who wish to make a new career in the electrical or plumbing sector, entry level training without any prior knowledge or experience, can be undertaken on a City & Guilds NVQ Level 2 course – Electrical 2330, or Plumbing 6129 - which provides foundation knowledge and introduction to the required practical skills before qualifying to progress onto Level 3.
Electrical and Trade Skills Training Highlighted In Report
There is always a shortage of qualified and trained trade skills personnel, whatever the economic weather! It’s been a consistent fact voiced many times and recently highlighted by a new document from the Commission for Employment and Skills, entitled ‘Ambition 2020’.
The report suggests that Britain must dramatically improve the skills of its workforce in order to maintain its place in the world’s economic rankings. Acknowledging that even in its current state – recovering from recession and facing austere cutbacks - the country’s economy remains “world class”. However, economic success rests on skills, jobs and productivity – and it seems the UK is well below average on the first of these, requiring swift and decisive action to be taken.
The findings were also echoed recently by the President of the Electrical Contractors Association, who said that the UK is ‘facing a ticking time bomb’ because of a shortage of skilled workers such as electricians and plumbers. Because of a previous emphasis on university education rather than on-the-job-skills training, the valuable role of electricians and plumbers and other trade skills persons carrying out essential work in the home and businesses, are often ignored and as a result, are in short supply.
In addition, the increasing urgent role of installing green energy , such as PV solar panels, across the UK in the decades ahead, means that training to be an electrician is now more critical then ever before. The ongoing shortage of trained and qualified electricians now needs to be seriously addressed.
At the current time, many businesses are still trying to recover from the recent credit crunch and recession. Faced with cutbacks in certain public services, they are likely to shed some of their workforce. Many workers will take the opportunity to reassess their employment options and career opportunities.
Given that once again, the trade skills is one job sector where personnel are always needed, it makes perfect sense that those looking for a new direction will find good opportunities within the construction skills industry.
Approved entry for those embarking on new career as an electrician is the time-honoured and recognised City & Guild NVQ 2330 level 2 course, which provides all the necessary underpinning knowledge in order to proceed to the NVQ 2356 level. From there, career development can lead to taking a number of key electrical courses, which provides a tremendous springboard to gaining an apprenticeship and developing further vital experience in order to be a qualified ‘competent’ electrician.
Construction Industry Upward Trend Gives Optimism To Trade Skills Training
A landmark occasion was highlighted in the news this week as the 2012 Olympics reached the July 27th planned opening date, now exactly just two years away.
The construction industry in London continues to benefit from preparations for the 2012 Olympics. The £303 million Aquatics Centre and the £80 million Velopark are among the key stadium building projects to have started on site over the last year, while work has also commenced on the Olympic Village.
Recent trends within the construction industry as a whole, seem to show a continuing, if cautious improvement in the recovery from recession. Various news reports for the last quarterly show that renewal of work on building projects, temporarily halted in the last two years, have helped with improving work prospects across the industry trades.
This is encouraging news, especially for those currently in Electrical NVQ 2330 training or on a Plumbing 6129 level 2 course. The slowly returning confidence spells optimistic prospects for the many men and women thinking of entering the industry by enrolling on a training course at an approved skills learning centre.
Individuals searching for a new career and are thinking to train as a bricklayer or learn tiling, the prospects for employment in the private residential housing market have started to pick up during the second half of 2009, cutting the decline for the year to just 11%.
During the first five months of 2010, the sector continued its recovery, growing by almost 50% compared to the same period of 2009. Examples of residential housing projects set to begin early in 2011 around the capital, include a £9 million, 2 year construction of 157 flats and 2 Commercial Units at Bow Common Lane, East London and a £137 million regeneration scheme in the Borough of Brent to develop 1, 800 units across South Kilburn.
Electricians, plumbers, tilers, bricklayers and plasterers possessing formal City & Guilds NVQ qualifications could be elegible to participate in any number of identical projects mushroomimg around London and the South East, according to experience, employment and apprenticeship status.
NVQ 2330 Electrical Continues As New QCF 2357 Delayed !
City and Guilds have, this month, announced that the new QCF 2357 qualification, which was due to be phased in to replace NVQ 2330 from September 2010, is delayed until 2011. This means that all those who are currently thinking about taking the City & Guilds Electrical NVQ 2330 course can continue to do so.
When finally implemented in 2011, the new QCF course framework will not fundamentally alter the level of knowledge and training requirements, as they are intended to greatly improve learning capability by making the course units easier to understand, more flexible and allow for interchangeable skillsets.
In addition, the new qualifications will also not affect the ability of AbleSkills to take you through a structured course development, in order to train you through the required levels to be fully ready and industry compliant within your chosen occupation.
This applies whether you commence at entry level or if you are in a mid career change! You will still be able to train through to obtain the necessary qualifications, which can take you from ‘domestic-through-to-commercial’ electrical, plumbing, gas installation, tiling or in any of the other associated building trades.
Until the changeover finally takes place, the industry recognised City & Guilds entry qualification for electrician training remains the NVQ 2330 level 2, which is a full time 10 week course of intensive training - 50% of which is devoted to practical work.
At Level 2, all the necessary foundation knowledge is given so entrants can undertake electrical work within Domestic, Industrial and Commercial premises, and covers all the basic principles of electrical installation and understanding of Health & Safety requirements and knowledge of the organisation and structure of the electrical industry.
Many would-be students cannot find the time to train if they are working weekdays so an alternative option is to train at the weekends.
AbleSkills has a long established commitment to assist all students to build their knowledge and skills through set courses in order that they are both correctly trained and qualified to proceed in a fulltime career as an electrician. Upon completion of the City & Guilds 2330 level 2, the next step is the City & Guilds 2356 level 3 and is the natural progression from level 2 and is a requirement for moving forward to the next stage to becoming a fully qualified, ‘competent’ electrician.
All electrical course training facilities, workshops and classrooms are self contained in a dedicated new wing at the AbleSkills training centre, enabling each student to train in their own working unit with all the necessary tools and equipment required.
Training To Be An Electrician Is An Easy Career Switch!
Recent encouraging employment figures show that Britain is managing to hold the fragile recovery from recession. Coalition Government Budget concessions to private enterprise, although modest, are designed to help business start ups and SMEs to move forward, despite of cutbacks in other sectors.
The prospects for those workers currently looking to move out of their current employment situation or for self-employed skilled trades to extend their services, say, with offering green energy assessment and installation look more positive.
Skilled tradesmen are in demand, whatever the economy, and the electrical industry always has a shortage of trained and qualified electricians in both domestic and commercial sectors.
For a first time applicant, you can start training to be an electrician immediately and can be on your new career path within a few short months, even if you have no previous knowledge or practical experience in electricals.
The City and Guilds 2330 Certificate in Electrotechnology Level 2 is the recognised industry standard training course for immediate enrolment at an approved and recognised training centre like AbleSkills.
Once you have completed all the NVQ 2330 course units necessary to qualify as an electrician, you will have built a valuable knowledge foundation to help progress your career prospects further for being accepted on an employers apprentice scheme. This is crucial to developing experience towards future career development and possibly self employment.
The approved and accredited City & Guilds training schedule at AbleSkills is a progressive structure that offers to take you through all the necessary knowledge and practical training modules, starting at Level 2 and onto NVQ level 3. You also have the opportunity to train at other mandatory ability areas , e.g. Part P and additional knowledge upgrading, such as the 17th Edition Wiring Regulations.
At AbleSkills, Level 2 of the City and Guilds 2330 course is conducted in its own dedicated classroom complex with each student fully equipped with all the necessary equipment in their own training areas.
Subject areas covered will include health and safety, basic electrical principles such as resistance, relativity, and Ohms law, a.c. theory, polyphase systems, short circuits, earthing, installation techniques, specifications, and regulations.
Advancing to NVQ 2330 Level 3, each topic is examined in more depth, some subjects being tested separately, and a written examination on inspections and testing, along with a practical assessment.
Obtaining City and Guilds 2330 levels 2 and 3 electrical qualifications ensures that both theory and the practical hands-on knowledge gained during your course training means you are competent and gives you a solid springboard to confidently enter the electrical industry.
From Plumbing To Gas Training - To A New Career
As the UK slowly climbs out of recession, yet facing a long period ahead of austerity cut backs, there is almost certainly a knock on effect to be felt across many industries and workplaces. Traditionally, those working in the utilities, such as electrical, plumbing and gas are often viewed as being immune to much of the worst effects of economic slowdowns.
After all, just about every premises in the UK needs to be supplied with electricity, water and gas and the installation and maintenance of the different types of energy devices.
At British Gas, a major UK energy supplier, for example, positions exist for qualified and skilled individuals of all ages in domestic gas, plumbing and electrical roles.
These include :
- Technical engineers to carry out the annual servicing of British Gas customers’ central heating systems and appliances, as well as system maintenance and upgrades,
- Servicing fitters to service and maintain customers’ central heating systems and other domestic appliances.
- Lead plumbing engineers to carry out the installation, maintenance and repair of all plumbing related equipment and associated pipe work.
- White goods electrical field engineers to undertake a range of duties, including repairs to white goods/kitchen appliances, domestic electrical installation, maintenance and annual inspections on customers’ electrical appliances and installations.
Today, the urgent requirements of adopting a green energy policy across the country mean there is a never ending demand for trained and qualified plumbers and gas fitters who will able to be competent to roll out the new technologies, such as Solar heating and ground source heat pumps in the immediate future, as part of the Government commitment to reduction in CO2 emission levels.
As the cut backs continue, many individuals will be taking stock of their current working arrangements and could be seriously looking to retrain for a more stable career path.
With the green energy revolution gathering momentum, this could be seen as another positive reason to enter the industry by training as a fully qualified domestic Gas installer. One route preferred by many students is by first undertaking the Plumbing 6129 course levels 2 to 3 .
AbleSkills training courses are available with different options on lengths and durations of training time, which are immediately seen as a great help to all those with individual working circumstances, and beginning a new and secure future career path can be organised very quickly between staff and student to begin as soon as a student is ready.
