domestic electrical apprenticeship offered over three years focusing on dwellings
is that something that's possible
and today i'm back in chelmsford i'm joined by simon and i'm joined by luke from the eca
to answer that question i'll start with you luke can i do a three-year domestic electrical
apprenticeship this is the intention from uh uh from easter next year hopefully there will be
the release of the domestic electoral apprenticeship it's currently in development
by industry and uh yeah it's going to address lots of new low-carbon tech all right so
let's start there so you're going to spend three years teaching somebody to fit sockets
light switches and down lights that seems a very long apprenticeship and probably one the college
would like to deliver because you'd have loads of times in order to do that simon yeah i mean
certainly our currently apprenticeship is four years so if that reduces the time that'd be very
attractive to some individuals some employers and will meet a lot of local need yeah especially for
those companies only focusing on domestic it's not that simple is it what other elements have
have they added to that apprenticeship well this is where it gets uh exciting for me anyway um
it's it's looking to incorporate because it needs to differentiate from the existing
apprenticeship so it's going to incorporate the elements of electric vehicle charge points
elements of solar pv ideally uh energy storage systems so batteries and lots of low carbon
solutions that are out there okay i'll just stop that i've talked in fee for 19 years i've
hit the panic button and i've hit it for you simon because that's andy like very expensive stuff now
having to be installed in colleges to train those learners yeah i mean certainly there will be an
added resource cost fair i mean we do get funding for our resources but that's quite a lot of new
resources we need to fund um where we we can with our apprenticeships we will work with employers
and it may be for some of these resources you work on site with employers resources
and utilise their training areas or their development areas or they invest in partnership
with some of the kit with us yeah absolutely and but it's exciting so let's take the cost
out of it because obviously that's going to be an issue but that's exciting i can now perhaps
focus in on those areas with an apprenticeship that actually covers dc storage solar pv
and even come out of that without apprenticeship however it might be over time luke that actually
i work in a more commercial industrial setting but i've only got effectively a very good three-year
domestic qualification is there anything we can do about that yeah as part of its development there
will be uh the the bridging course to to bring that up to a full commercial uh electrician status
and importantly as well this domestic electrician apprenticeship will lead to a
domestic electrician gold card as well right so it makes it easier to vet uh fully qualified um
yeah individuals okay so at the minute your apprentices are aiming towards am touring to
s their endpoint assessment and obviously you're preparing for that endpoint assessment with the
rigs that i've seen around your college will there be any additional endpoint assessments
for this domestic electrician uh yes it will be a different uh it will be similar a similar
am2 but obviously focused on this uh this specific version of the apprenticeship um so obviously
when when they're doing the endpoint assessment it doesn't uh assess everything that's covered so i'm
unsure what will be covered in that but hopefully practical uh versions of the dc generation storage
systems and for you simon that means obviously more rigs you've got to build in order to
help the learner get to that endpoint assessment what about your staff do you believe your staff
currently may be able to deliver stuff on dc storage solar pv and eva are they equipped to
do so yeah i mean there's always a training need with new technology new developments all the
apprenticeships of the epa and we're continually developing those epas as apprenticeship standards
evolve for willow industries um but yeah there will be a training requirement and we
are continuing up dealing out updating our staff particularly in electrical a lot of them are still
working out in industry a lot of them still work closely with a lot of employers and of course all
of our assessors are out weekly with our employers seeing a new technology so we are continually
involved in the new developments yeah and that employer link now becomes even stronger doesn't it
if you've got an employer that's sending an apprentice in that style of apprenticeship
they're obviously doing that type of work actually it might be a case of deploying
some of the staff with them actually to continue that on-site training i know i did it when i was
in an effie setting that you actually go back onto the tools in order to get your own skills upgraded
absolutely and we encourage all our staff to do that a number of them do yeah which is really good
so opportunity continue on that story why is it so important that we add these extra skills into
our domestic electrician in this world where maybe we're looking to reduce our carbon look um because
the electrical contractor is definitely part of the solution to the problem of climate change
you've got the next generation that are very in tune with this issue and being able to showcase
how they can develop their skills to deliver these technologies is going to be critical we
need increased numbers in this industry and showing them the that it can be an exciting
career a stable career a long-term career as well as being able to save the world all right
i like that save the world the electrician's going to save the world yeah absolutely well
i think the t-shirt says electrician saves the world the one that i'm getting pretty myself
however i might be out there i might have got uh some electrical experience in a domestic setting
i may not have done a full qualification over the years and the rules keep changing but i'm
finding myself in this emerging world is there anything like the old grandfather rights in order
to as a maybe a more experienced person take on this domestic electrician route yeah there in
parallel with this there is the development of uh experienced worker assessment right which is
which will be able to assess the current skills um identify the gaps and then um
earmark any additional training that's needed i mean it's really important that
we move away from just anyone being able to come in and do these short courses and then they become
an xyz installer it's fine to be cpd for an existing electrician but you can't just
have these short courses it's going to lead to um yeah dumbing down of the industry and
unsafe installations and what i've seen here is that we don't dumb down the qualification i've
seen some great practice and that's testament to the staff that i've seen in your electrical
department and obviously one of those ads have also been nominated for um tutor of the year which
is really nice and the college is up for college of the year so remember to make sure you get your
e-fix award nominations in there do you see this as as an opportunity or do you see it as another
challenge that fe is facing with obviously all these emerging uh technologies having to be
embedded in courses no definitely an opportunity and we need to reflect what's happening in
industry there's a lot of new build going on around chancellor central essex a lot of new
houses a lot of domestic installations so i think there will be a real need in the local area for us
um and we need to reflect what employers are demanding yes all of a sudden now we've created
a course that's for a domestic electrician that isn't done in three minutes five weeks seven weeks
it's a three year proper apprenticeship with an endpoint assessment similar to am2 and focusing in
on the modern house which i think is fantastic and like we said we can upskill that one what's your
finishing thoughts on how exciting our industry is at the minute with all these changes luke
i'm very biased i love new tech i'm very into the green agenda but i think for any school
leavers anyone unsure of what they should be doing with uh with their future it's a really exciting
time you've got all the smart technologies they're saving the world the it's not just
under floorboards connecting wires and sockets you're now integrating and programming and yeah
the world's your oyster out there yeah and when we say about programming we're actually going to
have a stored energy maybe in our car that can be fed back to the grid as well as batteries within
our house which is another exciting opportunity so if i wanted to take one of these courses how long
do you believe it is before this course will be available that we can be taught out of a college
to become an a domestic electrician well we're hopeful this should be live by easter so it's
it's already going through the development process so it's an industry-led um group that is putting
it together so it's been uh yeah pre-approved and uh yeah pulled together as we speak and just like
to reach out to the government there from the college's behalf of someone would like the funds
to be able to deliver the quality course that the staff are doing currently in the the guys that
we've got of these electrical qualifications thank you very much jen for joining us today thank you