Downundergraham

Hi all,

Is there anybody on the forum who could give me details of what it involved in the Stage 3 practical exam for electricians?

I am a UK electrician moving to New Zealand. I have been in touch with a course provider which told me it was just an assessment. I am wondering what is assessed and is there anything to be aware of as there is no guidelines of this on the course providers website.

Thank you in adavance for any help.

Graham.

wakeride

hi Downundergraham did you manage to find any information regarding stage 3 exam. does any one know where you can get hold of a current regulations book from the uk so can start to revise before we arrive as looking to get registered as soon as possible, looking to move to to tatanaki area if any one has contacts for an industrial electrician

Downundergraham

I managed to get a copy of the wiring rules from SaiGlobal. I have just it bought it today. It appears that they are based in the UK so hoping to have my copy of it soon.

I do have a copy of the wiring rules on PDF but it does not have the amendmants so just went ahead and bought it.

I have found quite a few places that run the course and I am hoping to do the stage 3 and regulations in June before going out there full time. Got to complete a first aid course first though, so hoping I can do that before I do the stage 3 or I will have to make two separate trips.

mwhite1962

You basically have to wire up 3 ph and 1 ph sockets ,switches, contactors, relay's and stop/start buttons and obviously prove they all work ok, that's the 1st part, after that you will be wiring up single and three phase motors through contactors and overloads and breakers proberly about 6 in total, then after that wiring up lights ( florescent), the internal wiring i.e through ballast and choke and starters, after that is rcd testing and finally appliance testing possibly using a meggar. This should be completed in a week.
I did my course over 2 weeks and I managed to do the first aid and the electrical safety course one evening after the day class, was pretty full on and I did fail my regs first time around, open book so no excuse really but I had a lot of stuff going on at the time so not possible to revise which you do need to do.
It reads like your doing your course in the uk, didn't knowthey did that ...but things change.. good luck

wakeride

thanks for that info the practical parts sound fine just need to get over and get it done when find job

Downundergraham

Mick, do they give you drawings / circuit diagrams to wire up the motors or do you have to know them off the top of your head? It's easy with diagrams, DOL is easy but it might be a good idea to revise some others. Rotation changing is easy, just reverse any two phases on a 3 phase motor or reverse the armature on a single phase.

How was the Reg's class. was it similar to ones in the UK or do you have to do calculations / theory?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Graham.

mwhite1962

They give you a block diagram of positions that they want the switches and conduit( plastic) they never heard of galv conduit, and you just wire it up, and the also put a lighting circuit on there and you have to switch the relay for 2-way etc. They do help out as they do realise as a sparkie you don't necessarily know how to do it all, the awkward thing that I found was wiring up the motors through contactor/overload , epo's and stop/start switches etc was if you were going straight into the contacts on the contactor that's not really a problem, but it done where everything is pre-wired and goes back to a board connected to a female jack plug, so you have a board with a couple of hundred female jackplugs and loads of leads with the male plug, and you pretty much have to test every female jack to see what position it is on the contactor/relay etc, kinda looks like what the old telephone operators used to deal with back in the day.
Regs class was ok, you are constantly doing test after test of old papers and the same questions do reappear so all good but like I said in the previous email you do have to put the work in and revise, there are equations but they are usually volt drop and max demand and also like I said its an open book and you can mark up your pages as much as you like, but don't try hiding any workings out on how equations go because they do check your book and will just throw you off the course.
I did my course with ETCO, as to whether they all run the same I don't know, so best take what I have told you as a guide and not necessary the way it will go.

Downundergraham

Thanks Mick. I'm looking at doing it with Weltec in June. Hopefully it should all go ok.

Cheers.

Graham.

shorty_iom

I'm based in Christchurch and not having much luck finding a company that is prepared to take me on in current position. I've been granted a limited certificate by the EWRB up on starting work.

I hadn't considered the option of sitting courses & exams prior to starting work, I assumed I would need a job first. Must check on available dates!

Looking more like we may only be here for a year or 2 so trying to weigh up whether it's worth my while earning crap money whilst training, having to pay for courses & losing out on days wages whilst on courses etc.

BEVS

Tough one.

Does this mean that , in your opinion, Christchurch is not crying out for sparkies then? Or is it that employers only want to offer contract terms not full time perm jobs?

Am interested as Electrician is apparently in Long Term Shortage here in New Zealand. This should mean that there are plenty of jobs for sparkies about the place, regardless of NZ licensing. In other words not enough sparkies to fill the vacancies.

Not the first time, I've read this of Christchurch area though.

Here is an older thread. where someone that has been here 3 yrs was struggling to find work down there. It also has some quite helpful , useful posts .

Here is the link to ETCO

Just like plumbing/gasfitting, it appears these courses and exams don't come cheaply.

Perhaps someone could put up the costs for any overseas sparky looking in, as it would be part of overall costs and budgets for making a move to NZ.

From dim memory , I do seem to think that it has always been possible to do the Health and Safety part in the UK at certain times to gain some sort of temp license prior to arrival.

Downundergraham

Shorty, I just thought it would be easier to complete the courses at the earliest possible time. I plan on doing them in June. You do need to have the electrical safety, first aid and CPR to also gain your practicing license.

As BEVS has mentioned it does appear to be possible to complete the health and safety in the UK, as per the EWRB website although I am not certain of the electrical safety course. ETCO offers the stage 3 practical and wiring regs course in night classes or block courses. The prices are:

Wiring Rules = $916 including exam.
Stage 3 Practical = $735
Electrical Safety, FA & CPR from Life Care Consultants = $166.75

I chose LCC for the safety courses as they offer the complete service in a 1 day course. All 3 are needed for the EWRB to issue your practicing license. There is many other providers for all of the required courses, I have pretty much checked them all out.

What does surprise and concern me is Shorty's lack of work opportunities. I was considering CC myself but have recently been thinking of moving to the North Island. I will be travelling around a bit to get a feel for where most of the work opportunities may be before deciding to settle. Hopefully work choices will be easier with a full, praciting license. Hence, my decision to get everything out of the way before making the move to NZ.

If anyone has any further questions regarding the licencing issues or course providers I shall be more than happy to give any assisstance I can.

Graham.

BEVS

In one of the older threads I linked to , I read that New Plymouth was an area for sparkies.

Good idea to look nationwide.

wakeride

been doing some more research and found some past papers for courses on the ewrb website. the regulations course looks pretty much the same as the 17th edition i done bout 3 months i have seen its open book but struggling to find the books in the uk Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 and Amendment No 1
● AS/NZS 3000:2007 and Amendments 1, 2 and A
● AS/NZS 3760:2010
also do you not have to pay international student fees if you do your course before making the move full time I'm tempted to fly out and get the courses competed in june july if not will have to wait until nov unless any one know if you can do any of it in the uk
I'm going to try and ring SaiGlobal tomorrow

shorty_iom

I would say that I have sent CV's to 10 companies. 1 of which has came back quite positive at the prospect of taking me on, given that certain work they have tendered for comes through reading between the lines. Another company has been in touch to say they would consider taking me on as a Senior Apprentice. I tried to call each of the companies before emailing to touch base with them and they have been receiving a lot of calls from UK sparks in similar circumstances regarding registration.

The biggest problem I face is my girlfriend and I aren't entirely sure of how long we will spend in NZ. It could be until Nov when our visas expire, it could be 10 years! I am finding it hard to commit to paying out to sit the courses & exams when our future is unclear. I know that this is entirely my own doing and probably won't apply to many other people here. Some sort of electricians mate job to get me going would be great.

There looks to be even more jobs advertised so there certainly is no shortages of work. It's just this complication with licensing requirements.

Just as an idea of wages, a company I spoke to informed me $20+/- for Senior Apprentice and $28+/- for registered electricians were the ballpark figures. They were the sort of numbers I expected personally.

Downundergraham

Wakeride, yes there is generally an international student fee. These courses can be completed as an international student because a UK national is allowed to take short study courses less than 3 months on a visitor visa.

When I ordered my copy of AS/NZS300:2007 through Sia Global a UK number was displayed at the top of the screen. This is the number that was shown +44 (0) 1344 636300. I am not sure if this refers to myself to enquire about my order. My order was made on March 5th, I am still waiting for delivery so not sure if it is being dispatched from the UK or NZ.

Graham.