To bring this back to the original post
My understanding from school (many years ago)...
309 could work in any environment in a contracting role.
442 were supposed to be trained and limited to the specifics of the area that they were trained in...as an example, a 442 trained in automotive could move from plant to plant that was related to automotive, they could not move to say…food processing. A steel mill guy could not move to building maintenance and no one could move into construction.
309s had more freedom to move around and could be hired by both "Industrial Employers" and ECs. The endorsements when I went to school allowed you even more mobility, so as a 309D I could work in just about any situation possible. There was no doubt that "back in the day" there was a definite difference in the training that the 442s and the 309s took. I am not sure that is the case today however. Prior, during my training 442 were not trained in services, residential wiring methods, demand calculations etc. They spent their (shorter) in school portion focusing on motor control, motor calculations, troubleshooting, etc. I don't even recall if they even did blueprint reading or not, but I don't think so.
I think that the market is so depressed for tradesmen, likely most places are happy to get a person that knows how to hold a driver…
Now to hijack the thread, I can see both side of the permit issue…I for one am totally in agreement of the permit and inspection process. I thin it is critical. What I don't agree with is now that I am not an EC I cannot work, even for my family and obtain the necessary permits aboveboard. Sure there is the whole homeowner permit process…yeh whatever, the important part is that the work is inspected and passed, and done by qualified people.
If they really want electrical work to be completed by qualified people, then as mentioned previously, they would legislate the sale of electrical equipment to certified trades only.
One of the previous posters mentioned that they are getting $2 million in PL-PD for $750 a year. Would you mind posting who you are dealing with or send me a PM on that. The last price I was quoted was $5000 per year. For $750 per year, I take that up.
Cheers
