here at eFIXX we love a story about how somebody's retrained to become an electrician i'm joined with
Kyle from Powercor who's a proud owner of a black ECS card you're also a proud owner of
the gold one that we're used to seeing but can you tell me how you change from being
originally in retail to become an electrician let's talk about that journey for us can you
yeah so early on uh when i was about 25 decided i wanted to get into the electrical industry
not an easy journey i went through various different training courses and companies
eventually i went to a college got trained up to level two did my NVQ level three that allowed
me to get a gold card and then once i was in the industry i did my triple STS and i have had enough
experience with that with the gold card did my two three nine four nine five inspection and testing
that allowed me minimum requirements to get a black card okay black not gold i'm desperate to
say gold card that's a black card now that process so at 25 you left your job and you were taken on
by Powercor who like to take on the slightly older person looking to retrain as well as young
apprentices i think you said you got five on at the moment apprentices yes probably the age of
about 16. now that's only a ten year journey and you seem to have done a lot of things in 10 years
in order to be effectively running a team now is that correct correct yes so i've been given a lot
of opportunities at Powercor they're very keen on training personnel up and giving opportunities
in various fields uh when they see somebody that's excited in the industry and they want to learn
they're happy to help you along on that journey so let's unpack that qualification center at 25
you got a job with Powercor and they sent you to college to do a level two is that correct
i had started that journey myself before getting into the electrical industry and once i had
secured a job with Powercor they put me through the level three training to get my gold card now
when you talk to me previously about this you actually got the level two at college but you're
level three the college stopped providing level three you had to do that online is that correct
yes so i had to switch to an online company to be able to get that training complete
because the college were not offering it anymore and once it was quite a journey a lot
of information being online you have to provide a lot more information because somebody's not there
with you yeah so that's talking about completing an NVQ so effectively you were building your own
qualification you got a level two you then went online and did your level three and an NVQ and
you said that was quite onerous the amount of evidence you had to generate in order to get
your NVQ you didn't stop there so you've got your NVQ completed and you said you went and
did the two three nine four two three nine five can you just explain to people what that is yes
so that's broken into two sections of that the old two three nine one which is inspection and testing
and the verification so when i completed those two that gave me my inspection and testing
then after that i could do my triple STS which is required on large commercial sites to just
explain what that is because obviously people are listening to that and going i don't know what it
is yes so that's basically a health and safety course when you're managing a group of people
you are the senior person and it gives you the qualifications to understand what is required on
site okay so that's an additional qualification and all these little additional qualifications
you got were you aware that you could go and get a black card was that something you were aiming for
you obviously had a gold card was that the the journey that you were taking initially no but
once i had all the qualifications uh it was made clear to me that i could apply for a black card
which puts you into a more senior role okay and that's senior role now what is your role
here at Powercor uh my role's technical project manager okay sure okay technical project manager
and that's in 10 years so let's let's go back to that so 10 years ago you're working in retail you
took a level 2 on your own then that got you the job with Powercor in such a short space of time
because you personally invested in yourself and your own training supported by Powercor
that you've actually moved yourself up through effectively being an electrician to now running a
team of electricians yes incorrect is a fantastic achievement to anyone watching this it's there's
no traditional route so we'd like to say we'd all be 16 like the people that you take on and
they go through that traditional apprenticeship i think you use the JTL scheme do you yes we do you
didn't do that okay you still got to your end end goal which was initially to own a gold card i know
a lot of people out there want to own a gold card you've moved it onto a black card but you haven't
done that in that traditional way so there was an element of night school there was an element
of online learning and then there was an element where you were sent i was supposed from Powercor
to do additional courses yes yeah it's not it's not an easy route and there are various routes you
can take so it's not a one fits all but there's options out there for anyone in any walk of life
at whatever period they are in their life what would you say the effort you're putting in the
last 10 years is a lot yeah you've said off-camera you've probably thrown yourself into this haven't
you yes it's not going to happen overnight if i was sitting watching this and said i want to be
an electrician or potentially in your position running a team of electricians that was not an
easy journey but it was one that you faced head-on because you wanted to do exactly yes okay so out
there we're always interested in your stories have you become electrician using a slightly different
route as Kyle has today have you got a black card something that i didn't know existed until about
half an hour ago we'd love those comments below and we'll try and get back to as many as we can