Episodes
148
Latest episode
Oct 2026
Language
EN-GB
Multi award winning UK electricians podcast dedicated to apprentices, trainees, trainers and employers. Discussing topics from 2391, AM2, NVQ, 2365, 8202, employer support, apprentice tips, career stories and much much more. Lots of fun and technical chat all rolled into one podcast. We have support from industry brands, bodies, electricians and most importantly trainers and learners.
Lets have a recap on EAS and how this is causing so many people problems in the electrical industry. Are you an electrician having to re qualify to remain in a CPS and take electrician plus courses? Want to come on the podcast and discuss? email mark@apprentice121.co.uk and get involved
We fire the podcast interviews back to life and this time with friend of the community Jason Shear or Jay to his mates! He has had a battle and a half to get to this stage from training provider failures, misselling, assessment disasters and more. But despite that this guy wont give up, he volunteers on community projects alongside his epic employer Dan and friends out in industry. Jay is an inspiration to me and many others in the sparky community. Well respected and despite a total failure of the training machine will make it to qualified! We get into the remote vs onsite assessment debate, sparkies, roofers and plumbers colliding across shared work areas and of course the pitfalls and successes of training from the hard yards Jay has walked. This will be a valuable podcast to anyone retraining as an electrician for many years to come and huge thanks to Jay for doing it! LegendWe will be back gold card in hand for part 2!
We have a huge opportunity during the era of abundance and with some joined up thinking, honesty and combined approach we can change the dynamic around training and outcomes in the electrical sector. In this video I run through some of the challenges, problems and offer solutions. As I say I am far from an expert as some like to point out. All I have is my experience of running businesses in the sector, working in it for 25+ years and carrying out endless training and CPD of my own and those I employ. Combined with a small community called Apprentice 121 and 6 years of running that including the period of Covid. I mean I would say it makes me qualified to offer a view, but hey perhaps not. I think we have an exciting future and its great to see a sector moving in what I think is the right direction with a few tweaks around the edges much needed to iron out the kinks and dams built by the otters #ifyouknowyouknow .... #teamsparks
Neil Phillips joins me to share his route into the electrical industry and subsequent creation of Electrical courses Ltd in Cambridge. You can find Neil online here https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-phillips-345a1a69/https://www.instagram.com/electricalcourses/https://www.tiktok.com/@electricalcourses @electricalcourses
We get into safety of solar and battery systems. We are seeing worrying trends around scare mongering and simplification of cause/effect. But what do you think? Is solar of itself the problem or as discussed more to do with training, specification and how we maintain kit. Get involved in the comments and share your views alongside a couple of designers, installers and users of solar.https://proteusswitchgear.com/solar-pv-consumer-units-saving-time-and-space-on-site/
Let me tell you a tale about A121 training! Are you looking to do solar, battery or EV courses? Get in touch
I am joined by industry power houses Luke Osborne - ESF Technical Director, David Powell ESF electrical installation safety engineer, Paul Collins NICEIC technical director and Sam Donaghy NICEIC head of technical advice. We discuss what WRAG is, its role and one of the topical subjects some people are discussing online atm, namely meter cabinets and single insulated cables. I share my views which are opposing to those of Wrag and best practice guidance but with understanding towards the technical analysis of what a box is and how it can be seen as an electrical enclosure. I guess it boils down to external influences and how these boxes are accessed and operated. Even as skilled people should we be expected to enter areas that could reasonably provide us with insulated and sheathed protection when we cant isolate that "enclosure" pre entering it. I am interested to hear your thoughts and views on this and as I mentioned in the chat these people nail the vast majority of these questions and guidance documents. Which is why this particular issue makes no sense to me. My only hope is to stop seeing so many of these installations carried out on new build homes in particular. When consumer safety and standards matter it simply should not be a thing imho. Thanks to the gents for giving up time on an evening to talk about this topic and maybe we will have the opportunity to discuss other things in the future. A real privilege I am not ungrateful for as this recording was done at 7pm out of working hours.
We got into some topics and half on this one! Huge thanks to Richard and Craig for digging into these topics and sharing views/experience. Loved it and hopefully it is useful to those listening along. Richard sharing his involvement in investigating poor electrical work, Craig designing a global trading room floor and Mark taking Solar!
Was great to catch up with Richard and Craig after a bit of a while! We got into the ESF event, Craigs day job, RCD blinding, Testing for DC leakage and loads more! Also towards the end we discuss A121 training.....
We get into the difficulties employers have in 2025 funding apprenticeships and the huge waste of tax payer funding on full time study routes. What do you think? What are the solutions?
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