Trumpy, Pass mark is circa 45%. But I will let you into a little secret. Many college lecturers are under so much pressure to get their students through exams (because the college funding is based on "successful" output), that they actually tell their students the answers to the questions. And you know what? Some of the blighters still fail! Oops sorry, I mean they are still "not competent"!!
If this lot go out on electrical jobs and have to test whether a circuit is energized or not, I sure hope they can get the right answer a greater proportion of times than that!
Paul/Lyle, The unfortunate thing about this whole thing, is the fact that some experienced, well trained person, is going to be killed, eventually, by some-one (a trainee), that is not going to know the difference of Isolation and Re-commissioning. Who would you blame?. Just as an aside, do your apprentices go straight to Training, before the apprentice starts an apprenticeship, as they do over here?.
C-H, Generally,these days schools over here, are starting to listen to Industry, who are saying that they want trainees that know the basics of Electricity, Electronics and Workplace Safety. You still have to have at least 3 years of Secondary School Education to Qualify as an Electrical worker over here. We now have a "Competence-Based" training system, which would take years to explain clearly, but basically, what it means, is that trainees who have more common-sense and iniative(sp?), will do better and will pass through the training than, say someone who can't even add 1+1 to get 2. Normally the choice is made at school, these days, as to what the said student wants to do, whereas when I left school, the decision was made afterwards, and you took what you were told to take. My mother nearly fainted, when I told her I was going to be a Fire-Fighter!.
Well, I'm one of the fortunate few (having wired my own extension cords since the age of 5 or 6); and indeed ironically seem to be way more of an engineer than many of the newbies put in charge of recent standards amendments (which often end up taking costly and ineffective "shotgun" approaches, to problems that could be fixed properly at lower cost with a better understanding). The original standards themselves, developed from the beginning into the 1980s, were generally much better thought-out from what I've gathered; and of course the biggest dangers are from junk which meets no standard.
Here's hoping that at least a few people will follow my example, so simple items can be held to the same high standards as more complex technology (and therefore become as trouble-free as they rightfully should be).
So next time you get a student in electrical class who decides that 240V into 10 ohms gives 2 amps, don't tell him he's wrong, just say he has "a unique perspective on the problem" so as not to cause him the terrible humiliation of getting his sums wrong.
And given the Dumbplex heater as included in my recalls thread, it looks like pauluk called it there. By now it's a wonder that anything basic ever gets done well...
I should really wish that electricians learned more about how things work.
I will not in any way claim that my temporaily solution for the broken pressostat on my water pump is safe, but it works and nobody else is close to it. Hopfully the new pressostat is arriving soon, even when I have to use another type than the original.
A plastic bottle expands with the pressure, and hits the switch :-)
If the moderator has a better place for this in the forum, pleas move it.