I get asked the question a lot what books should I read to become an electrician first of all I say
to everybody you should read the books recommended by your college to suit the course that you're
currently sitting and to read those books is not just to buy those books so it's like subscribing
to a YouTube channel I've subscribe to a YouTube channel is like buying a book and never reading
it if you're asked to buy books at College please make sure you read them if you're not
going to read them don't purchase them and save the money however books that I would recommend
along with your course are a couple I've got on the table plus one that I haven't been able to
show before which I have got which I'll show you later on in the video first of all let's look at
the books that you're likely to be required to buy throughout a 4 year study program as
an apprentice or a three year study program as a fulltime learner the first book that you're likely
to require is the On-Site Guide and remember as you watch this video it will change over time
we're currently on BS7671 18th Edition amendment 2 which is stated down here and that's denoted by
the brown cover on three of the books I've got however at the time you're watching this video
this may have changed to Amendment Three and then the 19th Edition and so on so please make sure
you buy the latest edition to work out whether it is the latest one you'd ask your college and also
if it's too good to be true on price it's likely to be an older version of the book On-Site Guide
is a book that I recommend to my learners they have to buy when they're on the course but you
should read this book this is a book that can be read one of the books on the table here I don't
recommend you do read it and you only use it for reference but this book here the On-Site Guide is
a book that you should read and it's fantastic as you go through when you're thinking about things
like test and inspection which is this section here okay and we got things like bathrooms and
other things that are very um makes you put it into context if you look at the section in
here on bathrooms it brings it into context when you're looking at your own bathroom so that's the
On-Site guide as you move through your course and you go for your test inspection elements
of your course so this is likely to be at level three or second and third of an apprenticeship
the apprenticeship is always only at level three we've got the guidance notes three here it might
be expected to buy other guidance notes there's not just only guidance Notes 3 that are other
ones but this one is about inspection and testing and you notice the version also has a brown strap
on it to denote that it's for Amendment two of BS7671 18th Edition and then we have the 18th
Edition now I never recommend anyone rushes out and buys this book before they start a course cuz
the likelihood is you will not need this straight away and it could be that this book changes before
you actually need it on your apprenticeship so if you start year one of your apprenticeship you
might not need this book until years 2 three and four and it might be that the book is changed and
considering this is a very expensive book to buy yourself I would never buy it until I'm asked to
buy it by the course and this is the book that I suggest to Learners that they don't necessarily
read it it's used for reference only you can see already no pictures we're already panicking
as learners I can't see a picture anywhere as you go through this book and this would be the
only book that I'm going to show you today that I say you use for reference and work alongside your
course but you only buy it when you're required to buy it and it might be by the time you buy it
it might be Amendment Three or the 19th Edition and the colour will change accordingly now books
to help you along your course these are my two favorite ones and they're endorsed by the City
and Guilds and the IET so this is book one there is two books in the series and this one is really
for when you're starting out at level two and level three on your course might be that you've
joined a level two course as a full-time learner or you've just started out your apprenticeship
which is at level three in year one this is the book that I recommend and it states down here
some of the courses that it certainly matches to it also matches to courses from the EAL so
this is for really City and Guilds courses but if you're doing an EAL course this book is also
fantastic for that and it's nice and logical so as we look inside here at the contents we
go health and safety makes logical sense you like to do every course at the very start of the course
then you've got your electrical science in section two three and four are what I would usually call
installation theory so about wiring systems and wiring methods and then section five here
is communicating with others so that's a very logical process to work your way through and I
100% you recommend that you read this book so as you start a course off you're going to be doing
health and safety and you clearly can see there some of the signs you're expected to understand
what they mean based on colour and shape in those early weeks of a study program if we jump forward
now and we look at another section let's just randomly find something and see what we can come
up with maybe in the science and principles section so what section are we in here we're
in the blue section that should be science and principles yep so here we go as we come through
this section there's some calculations there's things on area bit of trigonometry for us as I
flick through let's find something that may be ah so we've got classes of levers okay there's
three classes of levers and you can work your way looking at mechanical advantage by looking
at levers as you can see here we've got class two levers and class three levers and it's where we
put the fulcrum in this case which is the triangle in position to the actual load itself which makes
it one of the classes of levers if we throw ourselves forward to another section this is
more the installation theory stuff so here we have a list of tools that we'd be using in different
applications so whether we'd be threading conduit marking out trunking or working with insulated
cables these tools are denoted for which type of application that we need to use them floor
and then as we come to the very back of them we can actually see the principles of these tools so
here we have some making off of some fiber optic cables here so that's good and again fiber optic
cables are mentioned but not necessarily done as part of the course currently so you'd be
expected to know things like fiber optic cables transmit light and the light is transmitting an
information data information by having a light either on or off and that uses a binary code
so ones and zeros light is on or light is off but you'd get a little bit of an understanding of how
to make off fiber optic cables from that section there so that's book number one and I recommend
you book that look at that one notice also it's in its second edition so when I did this video a few
years ago this was obviously on the first one so we're on the second edition of this book here so
again when you go to buy these books make sure you look for the latest edition of the books so we're
on the second edition here so it's revised and updated it's normally updated at the same time we
change between amendments or regulations say we go on to 19th Edition or Amendment Three that's
when this book gets updated but it also updates to ad in other courses and you notice now and
it's going to be very uh very much out there in the public domain the T levels course so T levels
have been added to this so this also covers stuff that people are working at T levels T levels is a
2 year level three course and it's a full time course with a huge amount of work experience so
that's a new course coming out as well this is the book that I would suggest if you're an apprentice
this would be book that you'd buy in years two three and four so you'd be using it then where
book one would be your first year and it's similar to the one before when we look at the actual
layout of the book obviously in our contents we got environmental technologies a more in-depth
science and principle section here so it takes it a little bit further and then we start looking at
the wiring regulations and things like that so again if we jumped into section two electrical
science okay as we come in here obviously we're going to get a little bit more detailed as we
look at machinery so you start looking at motors and machines great pictures lovely text in order
to work through and there's a knowledge check in each section so you can keep up to date with your
own learning and it's a brilliant way of either keeping up with your study program by using these
two books or using it as a pre-teach for yourself so in other words you're going into a lesson on
science and principles you're reading the section in whichever year you're in and therefore you've
got understanding of some of those complicated words maybe inductive and capacitive reactants
words you've never heard before but if you've used the books correctly you'll also understand these
terms as you start those lessons that's a great way of doing a pre- teach the book I've never
managed to show you before is this one here which is a students guide that the I produce it looks
like the on-site guide from its physical structure okay and we know that it's the up-to-date one
for me at the moment because it's denoted by Amendment 2 of BS7671 with this brand strap in
here this continually changes so the book tends to say black but the strap on here will change as
we go for Amendment Three and then on to the 19th Edition and what I like about this is it's a very
easy book to follow through there's also knowledge checks in this between each section but it adds
lots of colour pictures which student find really easy so if you weren't using these books you could
use this as an alternative or as an additionality I do like this book so if we do health and safety
nobody really likes health and safety but there's covered in section two and as we come through
there'll be some stuff in here that we're really familiar with when we think about GS38 our test
leads and test probes so that's something that obviously is taught at the start of the course
under health and safety but pictorially here goes through again maybe the maximum tip exposure being
4 mil something that you'll talk about under GS38 flow charts do with safety but this is what I like
as well simply identifying hand tools so when you turn up at a college you might not be aware
of all the tools I'd like to think we know what a hammer looks like but do we know what pliers and
side cutters are and what the difference are as we go through those sections there there's some
fantastic stuff in here that links back to BS7671 in all sections so here we've got the
heights of switches in dwellings so the maximum heights of light switches and socket outlets Etc
within dwellings again nice pictorial um help for you for the explanation and again when we
come here to switching when we start looking at one two um way switches and intermediate
switches we actually start looking at them and they show you by making and breaking the arms or
the common to L1 connection whether it be open or closed and those positions and then we can add in
the conductors when we can work out that the blue with brown is say a switching line it goes through
the switch the permanent line comes through the common it actually starts explaining to you how
basic switching systems work and builds it up as you go through to two-way and then two-way
and intermediate and this is not available in the on-site guide even though this book looks like the
On-Site Guide this sort of stuff is not in there when I go back to section 11 at the back here this
is common calculations and links nicely to your electrical science and principles so it feels like
it's a book more about installing wiring systems and the regulations but in section 11 it gives you
some help on your uh science so here we've got the formula for ohms law one of the formulas for power
here and it shows you how to use the triangle in order to work out with whether you're multiplying
or dividing to find one of your actual elements so if you're trying to find current you cover
over current it's voltage divided by resistance and that's why the division signs there if we
were trying to find power P for power it would be current multiplied by voltage and it shows
you how to use that triangle in this book here so this is one that if you're in a good position to
be able to afford enough books this would be on one of my lists it might be that you celebrate um
Christmas and therefore in December you might want to put it on your list of books to have
I would first of all say to you buy the books required from your college once you've bought
those books and make sure you read them the only exception probably is the wiring and regulations
that use it as a reference book but you can read it I just don't want to put people off
On-Site Guide is a book you should read these two books here should be considered to be purchased
alongside your course if they're not recommended by your college and as a little bonus I recommend
this one here from the I the students guide we mentioned Ohms law in this video so if you want
to check out a video where I use that Ohms law calculation check out the video on screen now