As far as the 17th Edition Exam is concerned, Inspection and Testing is not covered massively within the C&G 2382-15 course or exam and with only 4 questions in total, it doesn’t merit too much attention at the moment.
However, Inspection and Testing is in my opinion the most important skill you can have as an electrician, for two reasons.
One: How else would you know if what you have done or what are looking at complies with current regulations – i.e is safe?
Two: It’s good for your career. Senior electricians, foremen, managers and qualified supervisors should all have the 2391, or ‘2394 – 2395’.
In my opinion the industry has been very slow and shortsighted in ensuring the tradesmen involved are fully qualified and experienced. Why don’t they teach Inspection and Testing, both ‘initial verification’ and ‘periodic’ and certification at colleges to the apprentices? I know they do some, but from what I’ve seen it’s very little and quite often wrong – but that’s just FE colleges for you, no real world insight, but that’s another rant for another day.
Could it be that colleges don’t want the apprentices to know how to I & T? That way they can sell them an I & T course a few years down the line! And could the industry ‘watchdogs’ the NICEIC, NAPIT etc encourage this by turning a blind eye? That way they can remain the smartest ‘kid on the block’ whilst the tradesmen who hand over a small fortune every year are deliberately left under trained.
Just a thought.
Paul