I see 2 issues here. One is the idea that you want your electricians to be qualified and the other is there really are people who can't take a test.
I have seen a number of people who were really good at their jobs but blew the test time after time. I feel bad some time because tests are easy for me, even when I don't really know as much as the guy who fails. I am not sure what the answer is but maybe the tests should be structured to be more understandable to the kind of folks who get into the trades. I understand the government likes electronically scored multiple guess tests but that may not really be the best way to test for the skills an electrician needs. In a lot of cases it is actually more of a reading comprehension test than a trade skill test. Unfortunately the bureaucrats who set these things up tend to be the ones who did well on their SATs and got a degree from college but they don't have a clue what they are actually talking about.
Where I am that is all moot anyway. All we need here is one guy with the EC license and everyone is just an employee. You can show up with a rusty pair of Kliens and a mouth full of wire nuts and you are an electrician.
I am watching a 4 plex going up now for a friend and the crew consists of a lead man who is pretty good at what he is doing but his skill may not go very deep. Then there are a half dozen or more other guys who seem to just do one thing each. One guy hangs boxes, a few guys string Romex, another guy does strapping and sealing etc. This is more like an assembly line than what you think of as an electrical job
They do go fast tho and the work is pretty when they finish.
The EC cruises through now and then, usually when the GC is there with issues or questions.
I walked the job like an inspector, looking around and it all seemed to be legal.
