and from Cambridge assists today he's got a really interesting story behind the camera
I've got over 50 learners of level one level two fulltime learners and our apprentices are on the
top looking down at what we're doing today Andrew thank you for coming in welcome and thank you for
taking that time out of your busy schedule yeah a busy schedule that has only just changed you
from being a trainee and now into a qualified electrician indeed can you tell us something
about that journey because you don't look sixteen seventeen eighteen or nineteen if you don't know
you say a little bit old amazing now I really did sort of like stumble into this kind of trade
really I was very unwell for basically about six seven years started obviously get my health back
up and running and I got to that point where you get into that age like I need a goal I need
something to continue I don't want the mundane jobs of office I was quite good at my hands
because that's what you still work with John Lewis doing installs on home entertainment systems so
there was a bit of knowledge there and that sort of things so I've currently my boss at the moment
knew myself and said do you want to come and work for me for a little while I was like yeah I'll
give it a go can we put an edge on that moment in life at that time I was 33 right so I think when
you get to 33 you've probably got a few family commitments or at least a property commitment
is that something you had car everything like that so obviously some of you guys when you go
onto that apprentice money you think oh that's not too bad but when you've got to pay mortgages
and bills three pound thirty-three pounds seven years before so luckily I had a very good boss and
literally started me on not a fantastic wage but enough so I could pay my bills at home so I didn't
quite have that worry of doing an apprenticeship and not being able to afford it unfortunately
when you start off at my age you have to pay for your whole thing through college so you paid for
your qualification yes I think initially that was 1,500 pound straight off the bat and that
got you all your qualifications and your AM2 exam and luckily with the college I was at CRC if you
then failed your AM2 they still put you through for your resets okay so it's just to clarify
for the people in front of us AM2 being your end skills test of your apprenticeship so you'll do a
three-stroke four-year apprenticeship encompassing a document about the work that you've done over
that time they used to call it an NVQ it's not now it's just a documentation of work and then
you have to do a two and a half days skills test three days three days skills test and only at the
end of that of which you can pass or get a credit of distinction so just a straight pass and fail
you literally finished your AM2 and either that night or the next night at 8 o'clock on the dot
you get an email you log into it and it will show you your seven sections what you failed and what
you've passed that is it so when we're especially the lads that we're gonna talk about a extensively
later on then maybe we'll record that video that's a lot of pressure isn't it that's not a driving
test is it's not one hour can you drive a car what you really want to do we're talking the three-day
assessment to say that you can be a qualified electrician and of course then we know the money
goes up and obviously we go off on our journey so don't think when you finish college and I'm sure
Andrew will agree with this that it's over you've got to get through that AM2 and then lifelong
learning afterwards yeah basically what my boss said he goes you pass your AM2 then you start
learning like when you drive in you soon as you pass through test you start learning and my boss
says you're a confident electrician at least two three years after you've passed your AM2 you can
do the job but it's when you can go out on a job and literally look at job and go I know what to do
I know this I know that and you're not contacting them quite as much for that verification it's
having that confidence to do it as well but so with the people in front of me not being
quite as old as you now you think they're made of really good decisions to embrace it a younger age
definitely I I could go back in time I'd say I'd be like these lads and do it but again at that
time in life I didn't really know what to do it it took a few life experiences to think oh I want to
do this and it's a fantastic job one day you'll be with a nice old lady and she brings you a cup
of tea and a biscuit while you're just changing the socket and the next day you'll be trotting
through a dike to sort the mains cable coming into a building it's so varied and it's an amazing job
yes it is hard graft but when you get home at the end of that day and you are shattered and you're
like I've just wired a house someone has got power there now watching TV there now this it's just
so fulfilling in that sense and when you've had other jobs away from the electrical industry you
appreciate more so we've got people in front of us that probably won't appreciate other styles of
working because they're actually working towards being hopefully all of us electricians and they
won't have had that or remember when I did moment no I was working in John Lewis soon as somebody
was moaning that socks didn't fit and now all of a sudden you're actually constructing wiring systems
at your own knowledge that's really good so it's a little bit of a backstory of what took Andrew
from an adult learner through to complete needs an apprenticeship okay and obviously we're now trying
to do it from a younger person point of view so I think this is the time we can open it up to a few
questions from the floor so let's see who's got a question that I'd like to ask Andrew so we've got
one down in nice and loud Louis so what's your favourite job to do then from honest probably
people hate his steel conduit yeah nothing more satisfying literally I was in my first job we
went out to do some conduit I had to put about 100 metres worth in literally straight off the
bat and when you stand back and go yeah I've done that and it looks good and it looks nice I prefer
commercial if I'm perfectly honest don't get me wrong house bashing and things like that you
learning your skills you're learning you two ways you're learning you consumer units but when you
get to commercial you I think you've got to think a lot more about you've got a look at your volt
drops and you in your cables you all commercial is it's just it's on a bigger scale and I think you
personally in me you get so much more satisfaction when you just look stand back up yeah I've done
that wow and all that containment systems you can see so if you rewire a house and it's buried
in fabric a building never sees it you mess the same domestic board an asset that's sort of the
customer sees really really good question so steel conduit and when we get to it a lot of people call
it can't do it so we'll give you conduit start with you can't get the right band you leave a
burr on it your threads bad and people guts up in their hands in the head hey these are easy skill
to get but once you've got it it's a lovely one to install yeah just install loud at the back sir
all sounds very similar to what we just had but do you prefer if you were choosing between
industrial and domestic not commercial which you said you loved which would you pick out that I'd
go industrial along I love working in people's house in interact to that side but I just prefer
the big installs really I like 3 phase boards mainly because it's just they're easier to work
on to start with yeah and there's a lot more room in a lot better systems I feel and what
we got here is obviously the younger people in front of us and they're desperate to work
in a house so they see choices the thing however when I was doing it I did that the weekends maybe
obviously claiming the tax and all the rest just get that out how far can they go back and so but
you see that yeah like the weekends but averaging commotion doesn't work in a week you don't want to
lift floorboards you don't want to you know bend underneath toilets all day every day you don't
want to be crawling through lofts no you know half a year it's roasting not up there yeah things like
that so at the moment I know you think you do but once we get off the domestic wiring systems which
we will do on about week 12 we start looking at conduit and trunking etc you'll think oh this
is a lot easier a lot better you know it holds its position you know it's easy to fabricate ect
thank you next question any at the top as well come on apprentices at the top nice and loud
Ben so is asked how do you find in find doing the AM2 to exam which we're going to come back to but
the time this look at the time factors involved we were just discussing this on a coffee break
no coffee mentioned it's the time issue when you go to do your AM2 you've proved that college you
can do the theory you've proved you can do your practical it's just the sheer pressure of doing
it to time when you're on site yes you've got to get that house done but in another time but you
can stay an hour late or things like that on that AM2 you have got literally a stop clock right next
to your room and when you finish you install you like that and you know it's the pressure at the
time if you can handle the time and apply yourself the AM2 is a lot more simple but it is a stressful
three day so there's no getting around it it's a stressful thing and you've got some lovely
information to feed on we're going to do that with you separately just because there guys not
even close to get into that point but they will get there so if we can record that we've got some
lovely tips that we're gonna try and pass on to you and we've spoke about on the phone for some
time ago another question for us down here on the ground or upstairs upstairs give us a nice loud
one Oh have you used much smart technology yes and no obviously I've dealt with the Nest systems
in houses and the Hive and things like that and to be fair it's not much to them they are just
simply a Wi-Fi receiver and a thermostat it's just the wiring is exactly the same as the hardwired
systems it's just a Wi-Fi my friend who I went to college with Callum he does a system called
control four which is extremely high-end which that is fully automate if you have there like 90
pounds of switch you can run everything from your iPad it's very clever but some of the grow rooms
we do is BMS control systems so that's not for marijuana though before we go no that's nothing
didn't let the grown-ups are the way this is for like you're gonna be in things like that where
basically these guys are testing all different environments and things through grow rooms okay
so the BMS side of things is all smart technology but in a commercial side of things so the problem
with that sort of system you can get a call out on a fault you can spend hours and hours and hours
trying to find an electrical fault to then find at the end of it it's a software fault so smart
technology has its place but so does hardwiring something hard as us as electricians going to a
hardwired system you're trained to know what the faults are but you go to a bit software it opens
a whole new can of worms but I've been saying to these lot that we should be looking at the
third fix so we install the wiring systems cables we second fix the accessories whether
they be smart or not third fixes to be maybe where the next real growth is financially for
the electrical industry and I'm sorry adding to that when you go out to a customer's house it's
that interaction with the customer spending that extra five 10 minutes at the end to explain to
them that it's working and that's when you'll get people coming back to you because oh he sat there
for an extra 20 minutes explained to me and then you'll walk for especially with Hive and things
like that where people who just used to press in advanced or turning thermostat they do off
the phone now and it's upselling as well if you think okay after the second fire alarm we just
have which is really good timing we were just at the point where we said about upselling so
you're going to domestic dwelling the people behind me this is a good upsell for you they
want in sockets maybe LED downlight as etc and we may be thinking about switches that work with
no cables and no batteries may be working on kinetic energy which feels a little bit smart
but maybe we can upsell some stuff come when we look at you know the Hive thermostats and
easy upsell in it so all of a sudden people are in the house rewired and not replacing like for
like light in each room socket in each room etc that after it they get the ability to have some
connectivity through maybe the Bluetooth maybe radio frequency or maybe actually the Wi-Fi
system itself okay thank you very much for coming in we appreciate your time thank you