New 2357 electrician qualification looming...

Yes alright, it really has been a long time this time. I do continue to update the site as frequently as it is warranted but time, as ever, is at a premium. Having lost my Dad, got a new job and had my first child, it has been a bit of a roller coaster 9 months all said and done.

Anyway, I am currently picking through the 2357 syllabus released by the Guilds to see what it is all about. Early indications suggest that the content has pretty much remained, but the delivery time has been substantially shortened. The emphasis will be on the learner to make up over 100 hours that will be missing. That equates to somewhere between 15 and 20 days teaching (or more than half a year). That's a hell of a lot of time for the student to catch up on. On top of this, further education faces huge cuts in funding following the spending review. It doesn't take the resurrection of Einstein to work out that the course is going to be about 33% shorter than it currently is (meaning that 33% of people who deliver the apprenticeship may well be knocking on local contractors doors). I suppose this would not be so bad if all the students who came through to study were mature, A level standard types. The reality is that a lot of apprentices are 16/17, have probably never been responsible for their own study and have the capability, but not really the inclination. I'd be lieing if I said I was any different at that age myself. I can foresee problems with timely completions already, the same problems that had been pretty much dialled out with the NVQ will be returning in a new guise. With timely completions now being the soup du jour, you can see how everything is becoming tighter and tighter.

My biggest issue is that this qualification smacks to me of the rather infamous C&G2351. A qualification that the entire industry thought was shocking. A qualification introduced because the C&G2360 was too difficult and the completion rate of apprentices was about 50%. They dumbed the electrician qualification down far enough that a chimpanzee war veteran (who'd lost an arm during Battle for the Planet of the Apes) could still get through provided they had the patience to sit the internally multi choice paper for the umpteenth time. It took some supreme effort to fail the 2351 believe me. In fact, anyone who did fail it should have been given the qualification for showing sheer determination in the face of mediocrity.

We are led to believe that the 2357 is the qualification that has been requested by industry. I believe that in 10 years time we may well add the the 2357 to the list that contains the 2351 and EALs Part P as the "Things other people thought were great but everyone else couldn't wait to see the backside of".

I hope that I am proved wrong...

Check out the new information site at www.cg2357.co.uk for more information on the new qualification and up to date news.