[Question] Required Qualifications in South Africa

[Tracer]

Hey All,
Unlike most I am currently in the UK looking to come back to South Africa.

I have a couple of City & Guild qualifications and was wondering wether they would be recognised in SA. I ask this because I see C&G advertise on the SA Forum home page.

My current Qualifications:
C&G 2381 - Wiring regulations
C&G 2391 - Certifying new & existing installations
C&G 2377 - PAT Testing (appliance testing)

I would really appreciate it if anybody can help me out with this or even tell me who I need to get in contact with to find the answers to this.

Kind Regards,
Tracer

[Dave A]

I ask this because I see C&G advertise on the SA Forum home page.

That would be the magic of Google Adsense - advertising just for you!

There was a discussion on UK electrical qualifications being accepted in South Africa here and a related discussion on South Africa's skills crisis which may account for it.

[Tracer]

Thanks Dave!

Much appreciated.

[Dave A]

I'm just not sure how much it helps.

[Tracer]

Think I Got It.....

Hello Dave,
I actually came across some posts that skatingsparks made in the UK aswell and it now looks that SAQA will only accept a Level 3 NVQ or a higher national diploma.

Thank you for the help, it did put me in contact with the right people.

Cheers

[Dave A]

Thanks for the feedback - that helped too

[skatingsparks]

Any joy??

Hi tracer

Did you have any joy with SAQA or that chris guy at ECA. I go back this week to Jo'burg(South African girlfriend just won't leave SA) with a few more papers under my belt. I passed the 2391 testing and inspecting, 2391-02 design and verification, the 2382 17th edition(are they serious, my mum could have passed that exam) and the NVQ 3.

If that ain't good enough for SAQA and the ECA then i really don't care, I'm coming back to the UK and she can stay there.

Skating sparks

[Tracer]

Hey Skating sparks
Good to hear from you, hope all is well in SA!!
No luck with SAQA yet, but theres no suprise. Will give them a chase again later this month. I also just finished my exams on 2382, yes pretty standard! Still a great feeling to have done with it. I think i will have to follow you example and do my NVQ and 2392 test and inspect (which one did you do - 2391 is for domestic only isn't it?) Please let me know what the feed back is for those qualifications back in SA.
Any "spare notes" that you can forward on the NVQ3? Sorry to be so cheecky! lol.
Best of luck with you ventures in SA and we need to keep in touch over the various forums, I will definitely need some more advise in the future!!!
Cheers
Tracer

[skatingsparks]

Hey Tracer

Don't quote me on the NVQ thing. SAQA asked for a Part 3 qualification which I took to mean Level 3 City and guilds. By the way the testing and inspecting course you asked about, 2391-10, one is "Fundamental Inspection, Testing and Initial Verification" is a Level 2 course where as the 2391-10 Inspection, testing and Verification covers Periodic inspections and is Level 3 which is the one I did, If you know how to do testing might as well go for the level 3. Would say you need to have done a bit of testing but I don't think its a requirement. Its not as easy as the 17th Edition exam and would say it was harder than the design and verification course. I'd go straight for the Level 3 one, pass rate country wide is 60% (ish) apparently so don't expect an easy ride.

The NVQ 3 I did through Delta Training, I just paid my money and got on with it. You basically do work, write up how you did it and try and cover as many areas required by the NVQ. I don't know what kind of work you do but There are 8 different areas you have to have experience in. If your a working sparks doing more than just house bashing you will be fine. I did it in 11 weeks but this is because the work I was doing was covering a lot of the required skills. It is quite a lot of bull^&$%, for example you have to prove you know how to use a ladder.

I don't realy have any notes that could be of use to you on the NVQ 3 front. You have to prove that YOU did the jobs. Check out this

http://www.mediafire.com/?ndumz2yl3zo

This is one of the write ups I did. Its so basic, but check out the log book. At the top of each page you'll see performance criteria that can be claimed against a job. In the same table it tells you how many of each you have to prove you have done. The NVQ assessor tracks which Performance criteria you have left to do and it reduces the number of jobs you have to write up. Just concentrate on getting X'x in those boxes and it doesn't take long. Just take a digital camera to work and take a picture of yourself doing part of a job your writing up, ie bend a bit of plastic tube, snap take picture and submit that as evidence. Simple.

They won't let you do it in less than 10 weeks. I think its more aimed at people who are just starting out, if you have been working a couple of years you'll fffllllyyyy through it. I took jobs I did in the first 5 weeks of work and spent 5 week, in the evening for a couple of hours a week putting it on paper and adding pics and photo copies and scans about the job.
I heard of a thing called quick step, where you submit all your evidence on line and you can see on line what you have left to do.

http://www.quickstepv2.co.uk/

Don't know much about it but a few people have said its a quick way to do it but when I say that, these people were time served electricians and were just doing it so they could get there JIB card sorted.

I did the testing course through Connaught Electrical training and have to say they were frikin good. They covered thing really well paying extra attention to things that they knew usually came up in the exam. I Also had a book called City and guilds Exam Success Inspection and Testing 2391

City and Guilds Exam Success: Inspection and Testing IEE Wiring Regulations: Amazon.co.uk: Jonathan Elliott, Mark Coles: Books

VERY useful. It has 2 sample papers for you to try and also explains what the markers of the exam are looking for and how best to present your answer. If your going to do the course this helped no end. Some of the questions even came up in the exam.

My NVQ is in the post and I am hoping it doesn't get lost or stolen(like my Christmas cards I sent, a CD, and my birthdays cards) in the South African postal system. Should be here this week. I'll be taking it SAQA with my other papers this week. I'll let you know what they say.

Hope this all helps.

skating sparks

[Tracer]

Thanks Skating Sparks!!!
Much appreciated.
Good luck with SAQA!!!
Speak to you soon.
Tracer

[skatingsparks]

Hey tracer, more stuff from SAQA web site. Says something about UK equivalents near the bottom

http://regqs.saqa.org.za/showQualification.php?id=72051

Looks like NVQ 3 is pretty much equated to N4

Can't find anything on 2391, 2381.

Still waiting for my NVQ to arrive, think its lost in the postal strike.

[skatingsparks]

Finally 21 months later

Howsit Tracer

Right, hand delivered all my papers to SAQA on the 15th of August. NVQ 3, testing and inspecting, design and verification and new 17th edition wiring regs. They told me 10 working days. I phoned EVERYDAY(every working day anyway), to make sure there wasn't something they needed or if something was missing and was told all was ok everytime. After 12 days of phoning everyday, being assured that i didn't need to pay more, didn't need any further papers i gave up phoning. I'm a calm person, takes a lot to P&%$ me off but I was unable to speak to them in a civil, polite manner anymore. This has been going on for 21 months since i first handed my qualifications in, being told they were not good enough(by the the way they should have been but thats another story), going back to the UK getting the above mentioned qualifications etc etc.
Anyway long story short after I gave up phoning,(seriously have spent a few 1000 rands on phone calls to sort this, seriously!). My girlfriend took over and hassled them non stop. Eventually we found that they had lost my paper that I had handed in on the 15th. They kept asking for a part 3 qualification(the C course which was like the technician course which was stopped in 1998 or 1996... any way you can't get it anymore). Having told them dozens of times it doesn't exists anymore and this was the reason I went back to the UK to get the above mentioned papers because it says on there webs site that the NVQ 3 equates to and NQF 4. After a lot of phone calls it was discovered that SAQA had 2 files for me with the same reference number so when I phoned up they were looking at my old file. My girlfriend started complaint procedures and said she had contacted "Special Assignment"(a TV program) about there incompetence. The managers then got on the case and my file was found again. Last week I was told my papers had been assessed and were ready to be collected. So just over 2 month after i handed them in I managed to collect them. All of the above qualifications equate to an NQF 4. Its the NVQ 3 you need. Now that it equates to a NQF 4 it means that I don't have to do a trade test because NQF 4 is what comes after the trade test. It says on the SAQA certificate that the level of my qualifications are "Gereral Certificate of Education(Ordinary level)(regarded to be at a level below that of the South African Senior Certificate)". I thought that was a bit of a frikin joke. An NQF 4 level can be gained in 40 weeks!!, to get City and guilds 2330 pt 2 and pt3 and all the above qualifications would take at least 3 years serious hard graft.

The next stage is to try and convince the ECA that my Testing and inspecting qualification covers everything needed for the units of credit for testing and inspecting in SA. Which it more than does. If i can get them to write a letter saying so then I can apply for my wiremans. Thats todays little job.

So there ya go. Get the NVQ 3 and you'll be on your way.

Good luck.