INSPECTION & TESTING of ELECTRICAL INSTALLATIONS

CITY & GUILDS 2391/2394/2395
(The 2391 is being updated to 2394/2395 during 2012)

COURSE 340: 5 DAYS + examinations: Max 8 Candidates

Aimed at electrical personnel who either carry out (or supervise) the testing and inspection of installations, this course is designed to meet the needs of those required to sit the City & Guilds 2391/2394/2395 examinations. Most importantly, participants gain the skills and knowledge necessary to actually perform the inspection and testing procedures. The course also satisfies the NICEIC & ECA requirements for Qualified Supervisor status. The course is subdivided into two parts to help prepare candidates for the written and practical examinations separately.

PARTICIPANTS

Prospective candidates should have recently completed the IET Wiring Regulations (City & Guilds 2382) qualification, course 310.

COURSE PRESENTATION

The emphasis is on achieving success and Technical Training pride themselves on their success rate in the examinations. Participants are able to practice on purpose-built training rigs of simulated electrical installations. Full course documentation is provided.

PRACTICAL INSPECTION & TESTING

Course 340P: 2 DAYS + PRACTICAL ASSESSMENT(S)

The Practical Part of the course assumes no prior knowledge of inspection and testing, but candidates should be practicing electricians and should have already achieved the City & Guilds 2382 (17th Edition) qualification. During the course, candidates learn how to inspect and test using various training rigs simulating real electrical installations, and are then given the opportunity to perform the initial verification, inspection and test individually. Candidates then attend a half-day C&G practical assessment. On successful completion of the practical part of the course a self-study package is issued to help prepare candidates for the theory part.

THEORY of INSPECTION & TESTING

Course 340T: 3 DAYS + WRITTEN EXAMINATION(s)

Candidates for the Theory Part of the course should be practicing electricians and need to have passed the City & Guilds Practical Assessment before attending this Part. During the course, candidates learn about the complex background technical information concerning the many issues associated with inspection and testing. Many practical examples of the sorts of questions that might come up in the examination are provided and advice on how these should be answered is provided. This prepares candidates to attend the C&G written examinations.

Successful completion of both parts of the course leads to the award of the Level 3 City & Guilds 2391: Level 3 Certificate in Inspection and Testing of Electrical Installations or 2394: Initial Verification of Electrical Installations and/or 2395: Periodic Inspection, Testing & Reporting of Electrical Installations.

What do candidates on the inspection and testing courses actually do?

COURSE 340P: PRACTICAL INSPECTION AND TESTING

We begin by looking at how electrical installations should be visually inspected, bearing in mind the type of inspection (minor works, periodic, or 'initial verification') required. Candidates are provided with course notes to guide them. Candidates go through the long list of inspection items that should be checked, practicing this on demonstration boards that we have specially designed for the course.

The course then looks at the required testing, and again we have specially designed practice boards that the candidates perform the testing on. These boards are also used for the live tests.

In order to perform the tests we use a range of industrial test instruments. We favour individual test instruments for the testing, rather than multifunction types as we find the candidates learn how to use these more efficiently at this stage of the training.

Isolation procedures are a crucial part of the inspection and testing course. Voltage testers and proving units are used for this (as well as the necessary padlocks, mcb clasps etc). Without a sound appreciation of the procedures the risk of injury is heightened and any unsound practices lead to failure in the practical assessment. (Many of our candidates already know all about this but we need to ensure that they will perform the isolations to the criteria listed in the C & G assessment.)

The candidates are also taught how to correctly complete the IET paperwork - an important part of the 2391/2394/2395 assessment - so we give them the opportunity to practice this too. Below is one of our voltage testers and proving units used on the 2391/2394/2395 practical course and an example of some of the IET paperwork that one of our candidates completed:

The half-day practical assessment takes place at a convenient time shortly after completion of the course itself. The practical assessment is conducted on specially-designed rigs which simulate a real electrical installation. The following is the board used in the last part of this assessment, on which candidates have to perform a full inspection and test, completing all the necessary IET paperwork as they proceed:

The other parts of the C & G 2394/2395 practical assessment are 1) A visual inspection of a small installation with several deliberate faults inserted which candidates are expected to find 2) An exercise where candidates practice making insulation resistance tests on healthy and faulty circuits and 3) An exercise where candidates practice making earth fault loop impedance tests on healthy and faulty circuits. During parts 2 and 3 the candidates are expected to use the test equipment correctly.

Our examination rigs (and all the practice boards shown above) are all specially constructed so that they can be moved around the British Isles to provide the inspection and testing course on employers' premises.

In order to track the candidates' progress through the practical assessments we use an assessment record sheet so that we can be confident that every candidate is meeting the criteria laid down by City & Guilds. This also helps to boost the candidates' confidence because they feel that they are making progress through the assessment process.

Below is one of our C & G assessment record sheets and an example of one of the candidates' completed test results schedules:

The above assessment is quite a difficult task for many candidates (particularly those who do not have much practical experience of inspection and testing) but we find that our candidates do quite well in this assessment as they pick up all the necessary skills and understanding in the 2 days of the course that precedes it.

On completion of the practical part of the 2391/2394/2395 course, candidates are issued with a pre-course study pack consisting of our electricians guide to inspection and testing books (this pocket-sized book contains all the most useful reference material about inspection and testing of electrical installations) and a workbook with an example of the written examination paper that they can expect to be confronted with when they sit the examination. This workbook has suggested answers to the questions posed. Prior to the course, candidates can work through this and contact us for help or guidance to help them to prepare.

COURSE 340T: THEORY of INSPECTION AND TESTING

On the first day of this part of the course, candidates are fully debriefed regarding the answers that they have provided in the pre-course study notes.

We also provide reference sheets to help in the process of revision for the examination. The following are examples of our revision sheets and advice pages for the written exam:

Candidates are provided with course notes to guide them through the various other subject areas and of course they have their own copies of our electricians guide to inspection and testing books to refer to.

To help prepare candidates for the written examination, we pose a comprehensive set of typical questions that they may encounter, and some of these are shown in the following extracts from the course notes:

The written examination takes place at a time allocated by City & Guilds (normally on a Thursday evening between 6.30pm to 9pm). We try to arrange for this to be the day after the last day of the theory part of the course, so for example the theory course is often scheduled Monday to Wednesday and the theory exam would be on the following Thursday evening, but this is sometimes slightly different due to bank holidays etc.

The C & G written examination itself is notoriously difficult, with a very poor success rate across the UK. This is partly because City & Guilds insist that the examination is done without referring to any reference material: it is a 'closed-book' test. Our candidates do quite well in the written examination (much better than the National average of 30% to 40%), since by this stage they will have learned all about the practical side of inspection and testing and had some time to prepare before attending the theory part. The following are examples of some of our candidates' written examination papers:

Some employers prefer that candidates learn about inspection and testing of electrical installations without having to undergo the City & Guilds examinations: Please call us if you would like to discuss this.

If you would like to see some of the equipment used on the inspection and testing course for yourself, then please call us to arrange a visit to our offices in Kent. Alternatively, we can visit you anywhere in the British Isles.