21 Jul
2006
21 Jul
'06
3:06 p.m.
On Friday 21 July 2006 17:51, Don Y wrote:
C Fernandez wrote:
What I was intending (but worded poorly) was that having an
apprenticship isn't generally required for being an electrician, but I
do see your point. You're speaking of an "Electrician" and I'm
speaking of "someone you pay to do electrical work under an appropriate
building permit."
Patrick Finnegan wrote:
> I'm not trying to piss off anyone here, but really only
> "card-carrying union-member" electricians do apprenticeships.
> Purdue (for example) hires non-unionized electricians, who haven't
> necessarily been through any apprenticeship program (though some
> of them work just as effectively as Chicago card-carrying union
> electricians... ;).
> My point is that an electrician has formal training for the trade,
> and a handyman type maintenance person does not. A friend of mine,
> was attending the local community college for his electrical
> training while working under a local electrical contractor for his
> apprenticeship. I don't have any reason to believe that the
> contractor was union.
Is this a question of "electrician" vs. "Electrician"?
It was my understanding that Electricians (licensed as such)
go through a formal apprentice-journeyman-master process.
Whereas "someone who fiddles with wires" mayn't even know
the first thing about electricity (and, in some localities,
wouldn't be allowed to work on an electrical system in a
residence or commercial building).
*Is* there such a formal process *required* to become a
"licensed Electrician"? Or, is it simply "take a test,
pay the fee" (in the US).
'round here, I'm pretty sure it's the later. Personally, I've never
gone through an appprenticeship (but have had some direction, and have
experience), and am a lot better electrician than most of the ones in
the are... It pisses me off immensely when I find somewhere that the
electrician reversed hot and neutral... the most annoying so far was a
lightswitch, where the idiot that built the place switched neutral
instead of hot. That made the simple act of changing a broken
lightbulb a dangerous proposition...
FWIW, as a student employee at Purdue, I did a fair amount of electrical
installation work (an 'electrician' not 'Electrician').
I have a cousin who is a Master Electrician and I know
went
through those "stages". Though I never thought to ask if
that was a requirement for licensure or just a practical
consequence of employment.
I think it has a lot to do with who you work for (and their
requirements), or if you're a union member.
(e.g., Don't MD's *need* to do internships?)
I think there's a HUGE gap between the requirements for being an
electrician or an MD...
Pat
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