Hi all. This is a very nice opening to a subject that is quite in-depth. At the start Criag quite rightly said his information is likely out of date and considering he's been out over 10 years, there have been changes but surprisingly the main points are much the same. Jamie was right on the differences between services and Cap-Badge for being different type of sparks. The Royal Engineers electricians work mostly in fixed installs where the Royal Signals Power Engineers work in temporary install field with generators. Similar but wide ranging differences in skillset, access and training. The information about the IET is slightly wrong too. What Craig said about getting EngTech PR automatically only applies to certain trades within the Signals, as for membership - serving soldiers can claim the membership fees back via HR. Although not in my resettlement period, I have converted my experiences into civilian recognised electrical qualifications as my time within the military is drawing to a close. So far I have completed my NVQ3, 2391-52, 2396 and attempted my AM2E (resit Saturday). I also hold BS7909 competency via SparkyNinja. Happy to discuss further with anyone.
Cheers Lawrence, we are going to revisit this more often as a lot walk this path. You would be more than welcome to come on for a chat? Sharing experiences and knowledge is what its all about. This is not a strong subject area for myself but I loving learning all about it to try and help others. Well done on the qualifications and I am sure AM2 will soon be done and dusted!
@@A121podcast thank you for the offer amd yes I would love to jump on when you revisit this subject. If you give some prior warning I can do some detailed digging into the subject too.
Great comments. Great points made. I've served 26 and half years in Para reg and other things. Went right through a short course, now working on the NVQ. It's taken a lot of banging on doors to get site experience. Easily out work the apprentices on the same site. The resettlement teams are rubbish. All my courses are down to my efforts and research.
Depends on your interests and how you see the next 10-20 years for yourself. Loads of options but renewable stuff will be a boom during most of that time in my opinion. If you prefer heavier stuff, industrial, instrumentation and petrochemical/generation are always in demand areas. Best advice with a training route is to make sure you could attain a gold card even if you never get one. That should always ensure you have the quals needed most of industry will accept as a benchmark.
Start gathering evidence of your work as soon as possible mate. Generally the portfolio is done towards the end on full time study but is throughout a traditional apprenticeship
Thanks for the reply’s guys getting any information out of my local college is like getting blood from a stone I’ve put off signing up with them as no one gets back to you Thanks Dan
Oh boy does this open a can of worms Haha. Jamie banging on about his army background to find he was just a toy soldier. Just because the airforce haven't spent weeks digging holes with a spade doesn't mean we don't have hand skills. While I can't say what the current state of leavers are like, but when I served we had to deal with a whole host of equipments, EngTech EL and prior as in the three seperate trade group 3 elements TC (radio) AD (radar) AF (airfield) had to work on army equipment as they were buying new kit and the navy stuff as they still used stuff salvaged from the arc. We had to build new containment systems, fault find to levels the average sparky can't and work safely on equipment from static sensitive equipment to 11kv generators. I've done working at height courses to safely do that work up a 100ft plus tower, data communication courses at c&g level (and to see some sparky's wire in a cat 5 socket is like asking a dog to wire a plug you have no understanding of twist ratio and minimum bend radius) and c&g courses in fiber optics in both single and multi mode instalation and termination. Not to mention 4 years teaching electronics including these hand skills, that you don't think exist, interpreting results and fault finding skills. Oh and I also did some manual handling where you have to guide the crane operator to safely place loads. But having completed level 3 2365 and 18th edition regs I'm only fit hump and dump cables and make tea. Fault finding is my skill and I've fixed equipment and cable systems in days that others have already spent weeks on. Rectifying faulty systems in the electrical world is not something that daunts me the way it did every instructor on my causes. A methodical approach, break it down and map it out. Maybe it's just because I can visualise these things that makes it simple. But the airforce taught us to think rather than monkey do what I say. That's why when I had to question an officer he listened to my appraisal of the situation and consider it. I know the army don't have this approach, the senior rank makes a desision and the grunt does it. (oh and I hope real service personnel understand the banter here, I do respect the parallel trades in the services. Each service has to do it the way they do because lives are at stake.)
@@A121podcast One of the great thing the forces have is we can rip the **** out of each other for way we work or just generally background differences, but put us in a position where a job needs doing and our backs are against the wall and watch us work together defending each other till the problems dealt with, then we go back to digging each other out for how much effort the other did.
