I would like to know,what do you feel, are the most important skills required of an Electrician (Qualified), these days, with regard to Installation and Repair work?.
At the top of my list would be:
*Isolation and Disconnection Procedures
*Basic Safety Practices!!
Please,Feel free to add your own-


[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 12-21-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 12-23-2002).]

I'll add that one should have a good knowledge of electrical fundamentals and basic electrical theory.

Knowing rules and regulations, and that a circuit should be run a certain way is all part of the deal of course, but I firmly believe that a good sparky should know WHY he is doing something and be able to explain what is happening every step of the way.

Paul,
That's a VERY good point, mate.
Regulations and rules are useless, if you don't have the basics of Electrical Theory in your head.
I undertake regular re-training in things I don't normally use during a given working year, things like Power Controls and PLC's.
It's always good to give the grey matter a decent work-over.
Ask any Electrician, to explain the meaning of the words Voltage or Ampere, the answer may suprise you.

I would also move to recommend Basic Wiring
Practice, I've lost count of times I have been up in a roof void, to find cables wrapped around nails, or not even clipped.
It is a true tradesman who takes pride in thier Installation quality.
The first tool that an apprentice uses when working with me, is the Claw Hammer and Pin-Clips, I had to do this when I started my time, and I have never neglected to clip a cable since, maybe I may seem too, high and mighty, but with other trades putting holes through walls and cielings, after the house is finished, it could be looked upon as good insurance, and cheap too!.

How high on the scale, would you place,
knowledge of RF principles, for those who try to install TV Aerials and Amplifier equipment(mast-head or Distribution).
Have fixed heaps of these jobs up.

For anyone installating TV equipment, obviously some sort of basic RF knowledge would be a good idea. My telecoms/electronics background may make me a little biased on this one, but I've often seen very bad wiring: Belling-Lee plugs poorly fitted, extra outlets wired by just paralleling the coax into the back of an existing socket, etc.

A worthwhile aspect of training [in the US under OSHA; e.g., "1910.331-.335" regs] in the last fifteen years has been for tradesman to be capable of looking at equipment and (safely) determine its voltage class—to avoid deadly mistakes.

To varying degrees, mandatory training is law; to avoid mistakes like applying a 600-volt multimeter to an energized 15kV system…with likely violent consequences.


[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 12-28-2002).]

For my sins I teach part-time. One thing I have noticed over the last five years with respect to apprentices is a steady decline in academic capability. This would be less of a problem if it wasnt coupled with low interest level!
I remember my own lecturer many years ago talking about harmonics. I didnt understand at the time and I couldnt wait to get home and search the many text books I had bought for the course.
There is a danger that these young people will make nothing more than wire-men since few would have the capability to become an electrician in the real sense of the word!

Lyle,
You raise an excellent point about "low interest level."

I've always firmly believed that one of the most important prerequisites for learning something is the desire to learn it.

I was the same when I was a kid and got interested in all things electrical/electronic. I would eagerly devour every book I could find at home, at the local library, in second-hand shops, etc. To this day, I still like to pick up old technical books and read them in my spare time.

Lyle,
We have a problem over here in NZ, with the training of people at Polytechnics, who want to be chosen, to undertake an Apprenticeship as an Electrician.
The polytechs, being money-driven, have no real entry exams, and the course is not really, what I would call a "fair-idea", of what working in the Industry, is like.
It's more or less, an approach of "bums on seats", which means at the end of the course, we get prospective Apprentices, who cannot read or write properly and only have the most basic of Mathematics skills, not good for a person who needs to use complex Algebraic formulae and Trigonometry.
It's the industry that suffers, in the end.