NEW QUALIFICATION STANDARDS AND TIME IS SPEEDING UP

Electricians Podcast

The hosts discuss the recent implementation of the Electrotechnical Assessment Specification (EAS), which eliminates the qualified supervisor

Key takeaways

• The EAS updates officially end the qualified supervisor model, requiring every electrician to hold individual Gold Card equivalency and specific qualifications for low-carbon technologies.
• Diesel prices have reached £2 per liter, drastically increasing overheads for tradesmen and sparking conversations about cycling to jobs in London despite practical limitations.

Main topics

• EAS qualification standards
• Gold Card requirements

Notable quotes

The QS scheme is gone. And now, if you're doing anything from EICRs to installing EV chargers, you have to have your own NIC or NAPIT...

Conclusion

The episode underscores a critical industry pivot toward stricter credentialing

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) CompuCar. Speaker 2 (0:04) Welcome, it's The Electrician's Podcast. I'm doing the welcome thing, and this is the pre-podcast, isn't it? This is the audio extra bit that we usually do. Speaker 1 (0:13) Oh, yeah. Speaker 2 (0:14) Rick, you need to sit higher, bruv, or you need to move your camera down. You look like an egg. Speaker 1 (0:19) It's just my eyes. Speaker 2 (0:21) You look like an egg. For Speaker 1 (0:24) fuck's sake. How's that? That's Speaker 2 (0:25) better. Speaker 1 (0:26) You know, I can't see myself because I've got the meeting that's being recorded. Is that better? It's better. Speaker 2 (0:31) Do you know what I mean? Speaker 1 (0:32) It's as good as it's going to get, right? Yeah, yeah. This is the limit. You don't do so much for me. You don't have a luxury of the garden shed, do you? No. All the good looks. Speaker 2 (0:43) There you go. What the fuck, man? It's been a mad one this week. Speaker 2 (0:50) Started the job, didn't like it. Mate, it was... Well, we won't get too far into it, but we'll do that in the main show. Sat on my arse sulking a little bit this week. Done a little couple of jobs today. It's just one of them times, man. Fucking nothing's working. Speaker 2 (1:13) We're just talking about this bullshit with, like, what? Like, am I done with the industry? Am I going to move on? Speaker 2 (1:24) Don't know. Speaker 1 (1:25) I don't see. Speaker 1 (1:28) I don't see how you can ever be done with the industry. because how could you earn the equivalent money? And it's a question I've asked myself. I've been there. Do I want to get out of electrical? Do I want to stop PMing? Do I try to do something completely different? I even looked into being a London cabbie. And the average range of them was only about 42, 43. And I thought it was way higher, man. Speaker 2 (1:51) It used to be. It's a tough gig now. It's a tough gig. Is it Uber? Speaker 1 (1:55) Yeah. Speaker 2 (1:55) And then Tesla coming out with their cybercars or whatever the fuck they're called, cybertaxis. It's over. Yeah, for sure. It's done. It's finished. Speaker 1 (2:03) If you're Speaker 2 (2:03) a professional driver and you're not racing cars, you're finished. Speaker 1 (2:08) Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then train drivers, that don't really work. That's not really... So they are only in boo-koo-do. Have you seen what you have to do now? It's so closed. You have to do an apprenticeship. You have to do all this nonsense, right? Which is designed to get a certain... a certain group of people into it, if you know what I'm saying. You know what I mean? It's closed gate because you do this, you do this, you pass this course, you pass this course. We've all been on them courses. We all know the people that attend them courses. Speaker 2 (2:42) You Speaker 1 (2:43) know what I mean? It's closed gate to... Bro, Speaker 2 (2:46) but they've got the best union in the UK, haven't they? Speaker 1 (2:50) True. Speaker 2 (2:51) Like, they're looked after. Speaker 1 (2:54) But I'd argue it's the only union, Sam. I think that's the only union. Real union. It's Speaker 2 (2:59) the Speaker 1 (2:59) only union Speaker 2 (3:00) that Speaker 1 (3:00) sticks it out. Old Speaker 2 (3:01) school. Speaker 1 (3:02) You Speaker 2 (3:03) cannot stop what's coming. No. And like the way AI is now. It's finished for train drivers. Because the average IQ of AI... is 180. Ain't no train driver got 180 IQ. Sorry. Speaker 1 (3:24) I mean, yeah, you know. Maybe the odd, you know. No. Elon Musk ain't got an IQ of 180. I don't know. What's a high IQ? That's Speaker 2 (3:35) Einstein. Stephen Hawking's. Speaker 1 (3:38) Like, Speaker 2 (3:40) that's right up there. Speaker 1 (3:41) Yeah, so that is. I mean, I've got to Google that. What is the... Speaker 2 (3:44) So, there's one person, right? Who has got over 300. Speaker 1 (3:49) Really? Speaker 2 (3:50) Yeah. But they're like, they're so smart, they're dumb. Speaker 1 (3:55) Does that make sense? Yeah, I mean, it says so. Most standard tests, obviously a standard test, if you're smarter than that, they're going to make a test, right? About 70 to 110. No, no. So an IQ test maxes out between 160 and 170. So scores above that cannot be reliably measured. But then how reliably can an IQ be measured? You know what I mean in the first place? Speaker 2 (4:23) I'd done the test a long time ago and I got 140. I was quite happy with that. Don't think I could get it now. Because the test, as you get older, accounts for that. So you do a proper Mensa test, which is like the gold standard. The Mensa test will fucking... It calculates your age and experience as well. Speaker 2 (4:51) So it's harder to get the same score. Speaker 1 (4:54) This is the trouble with an IQ test though, isn't it? Because I'm looking at this now and they say 140 and above, often classified as genius level. I'm sorry, bro. Speaker 2 (5:03) I'm Speaker 1 (5:03) sorry, my bro. I'm not saying you're not a smart guy. You're very knowledgeable on a lot of point of shit. But you've got the knowledge, right? You are Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan interviews all these people, gets all this random knowledge and you can just probably have a conversation with anybody. He's Speaker 2 (5:18) had Speaker 1 (5:18) so Speaker 2 (5:18) much... Do you know what? He's started forgetting stuff now. Of Speaker 1 (5:21) course. You're very, you know, pub quiz intelligent. Yeah, I'd say so. I'd say so. I know a thing about a thing or two. Yes, exactly that. Speaker 1 (5:35) But genius, I don't know. Speaker 2 (5:37) No, no, no. Speaker 1 (5:38) Maybe you are. I Speaker 2 (5:39) personally thought it was like 150 and above is genius. But here's the other thing, right? Speaker 2 (5:46) Could I get that score now? Probably not. And I was really trying to get a good score. So I don't know. Speaker 1 (5:53) I tried to do an IQ test. And I got immediately bored of even having to think about answering the question. Speaker 2 (6:04) Yeah, because it's mad questions. Like, if a polar bear is looking out a window... What direction is he looking at? Speaker 1 (6:12) Yeah, I just can't... It's always Speaker 2 (6:15) south, isn't it? Because there's no polar bears in the Arctic. Speaker 1 (6:18) But you know, like, the water tank question. So you've got a water tank, and you've got three holes in it, top, middle, and bottom. And the water tank's full, and it's empty in. Which hole's going to have the most pressure? And it's a simple answer, but I don't know it. Top, middle or bottom? Speaker 1 (6:34) And I'm pretty confident it's not the bottom. But that's what you think. Because it's to do with the air ratio or something going into the tank as well. So the bottom one... If there's a hole above it, is it necessarily the one that has the most water coming out? Speaker 2 (6:50) Someone Speaker 1 (6:51) will be able to answer that. I can't. Speaker 2 (6:52) I think it's Speaker 1 (6:53) the Speaker 2 (6:53) bottom one. I think it's Speaker 1 (6:54) the Speaker 2 (6:54) bottom one. Because if you push down, is the bottom going to start pushing? Is there going to be a force pushing back? It's probably the middle one. It's probably the middle one. It's Speaker 1 (7:04) tough, isn't it? Speaker 2 (7:05) Because if you're pushing down, and then there is going to be an opposing force pushing back. Speaker 2 (7:11) Where's it going to spill out? Yeah. Or is it the top one? That's one of Newton's laws, isn't it? Yeah. But every action, there's a reaction. I can't remember what one. I think it's the fourth law. Speaker 1 (7:22) If you know it, if I learned that once, I'd know it forever. And I'd know the reason why. But I've just never learned it. Speaker 2 (7:29) Lose. Speaker 2 (7:36) Let's see this quickly All right, boom. Speaker 2 (7:42) Why the fuck wouldn't it just give me the first or second? All right, boom. Speaker 2 (7:48) For every third law. Speaker 1 (7:52) Hello, Pickle. So, so... Lovely. Top, top, middle or bottom? Speaker 1 (8:03) I Speaker 2 (8:04) personally think that there is going to be an opposing force to the pressure going down so there might fuck knows I think it's the middle it's got to be the middle the Speaker 1 (8:13) trouble is why would it be why would it could be the bottom though Speaker 2 (8:20) Yeah. Speaker 2 (8:23) Where is my... I'll tell you where it is. Speaker 2 (8:28) The pressure coming in. Speaker 2 (8:32) The hole at the top. Speaker 2 (8:35) Not the top hole. The top of the barrel where the pressure's coming. Speaker 1 (8:40) You've said every hole so far. Speaker 2 (8:43) I never said the top palm. What I'm saying is the hole where the pressure's coming in. Speaker 2 (8:51) See, that's called lateral thinking, see? Speaker 2 (8:57) What one is it? Speaker 1 (9:00) So, and this is, I had to do this. Typical Jack GP team, right? So I said, water tank, three holes, top, middle and bottom. Which hole would have the most pressure? Which is the bottom hole has the highest pressure? And then I said, I think it's the middle hole. You may be thinking of which hole makes the water travel furthest, in which case the middle hole can indeed be the answer. I could go, I think it's the top hole. Oh, well, have you seen that? Is it Family Guy? with the AI robots walking next to him. I Speaker 2 (9:30) don't watch Family Guy. I think it's really shit. Speaker 1 (9:33) I've never, but I watch the memes. Oh, okay. Speaker 2 (9:35) I Speaker 1 (9:35) don't sit and watch Family, but anyway, so he's walking in and he's got this AI robot and he goes in, good morning, sir. It's Speaker 2 (9:41) a Speaker 1 (9:41) great day. He goes, I think it's a crap day. You're absolutely right. It's a crap day. That's a great tie. I hate this tie. Yuck. It's disgusting. And it goes on and then it conflicts itself and it just, heads just explode. Speaker 2 (9:52) Because it Speaker 1 (9:53) keeps just agreeing. It's so agreeable, isn't it? Speaker 2 (9:56) Right, should we get into this and actually do a podcast? Or should we just continue chatting shit? Speaker 1 (10:01) Well, that is the podcast. Speaker 2 (10:02) Yeah, it is. Right, let's boom this. Right. Fucking took me ages to update everything today. Long. All right, boom. Speaker 2 (10:13) I've got to cut the hedge tomorrow. I've got to fucking fill in a hole on the driveway. I've got to fix my window on my car. It's fucking long. Speaker 1 (10:23) I've done the old garden last week, to be fair. I might get out and do the front, cut the front grass. Speaker 2 (10:30) I hate cutting grass. It's like one of my worst things. Do you know what Speaker 1 (10:35) annoys me? You have to do that stuff before you can do the stuff you want. That's the chore stuff, isn't it? Cutting the grass, cutting the hedge. You have to do all of that before you can actually go, I'd like to do this. Speaker 2 (10:49) All right. Speaker 2 (10:52) You good? You finished or you done? Speaker 2 (10:56) What's that from? When you finish, are you done? Speaker 1 (10:59) No idea. Speaker 2 (11:00) Have some respect. Put some respect on my name. You finish, are you done? Speaker 1 (11:05) Go on. Who? Where? Tell me. Speaker 2 (11:08) Right. Boom. Electrician podcast, we're back. It's Friday night. Ricky's not happy. It's Friday night. But I had to drag him out. I needed to do a podcast. I've been putting it off. things up and down you know working not working uh life and i don't so there's a theory right you know they turned off Do you know what CERN is? Son. Speaker 2 (11:38) No, it's a large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, right? And what it is, they send particles around this circle close to the speed of light and they crash them into each other and they make like black holes and shit like that. Speaker 1 (11:54) And Speaker 2 (11:54) there's a lot of Speaker 1 (11:56) conspiracy theories around it. Speaker 2 (11:57) Now, CERN was turned off for a while and now they've turned it back on. And what they said is when they turned it off, like... time slowed down again. Like, everyone, like, it's just like a normal thing. But now they turned it back on. Mate, my weeks are going like, before I know it, it's Friday. And I'm like, what the fuck? Like, I ain't done a podcast this week. So I blame CERN and the Large Hadron Collider. There's a whole list of conspiracy theories about it. Go and check it out. You'll know what, you know what time it is, yeah? I just blame you being a lazy motherfucker. Have you heard of the Mandela Effect? Yes. That's all to do with CERN. Because what they reckon is they've been firing around these particles. Fuck something up. And boom, they split the timeline. And that's why we're getting all these irregularities. Speaker 1 (12:52) And that's why there's not been a podcast for three weeks. I blame them. Yes. I mean, it's a stretch. It's a stretch. I would love to hear what your sick excuse is. Monday morning. And you go, I can't come in today. What's up? You never believe me if I tell you. Speaker 2 (13:15) Listen, mate, I don't know. So there's, listen, we've got to do the intro. Speaker 2 (13:22) No, we haven't. We've got to do the sponsor. EV Blocks. Now, you hear me talk about this every time. EV Blocks are designed to make your life easier. And anything that makes your life easier is an awesome thing. But importantly to me, they are designed, manufactured in the UK. They are a UK brand, made in Britain. Unbelievable brand. Unbelievable story. We're going to get the guy on soon to tell us where it all come from, how it all come about. We're going to do a little bit more around that sort of stuff. We're also going to have the guy from Viper on. Talk about Dragon's Den and why he invented the Viper gun and stuff like that. So, back to EV blocks. They are incredible. I think, personally, a simple solution that... makes life easier is a no-brainer so if you're installing any ev chargers and they're freestanding or you just think oh do you know what i want to do a freestanding ev charger Speaker 1 (14:27) use Speaker 2 (14:28) an ev block make Speaker 1 (14:30) your life easy use ev block all Speaker 2 (14:32) that punting about with postcrete and all that and then it not going off properly or going off wrong cracking and all that is long ev blocks right boom Speaker 2 (14:45) Why? Right, so what are we talking about today? Speaker 1 (14:51) Well, I think we've gone around the table a little bit, haven't we, about potential topics? Yes, we have. And we've got a bit of doom and gloom. We could go that way. We could go a little bit about some regulation changes I think you wanted to go down. Right. Speaker 2 (15:05) Let's just start with this, yeah? I know this don't affect you, Speaker 1 (15:08) but Speaker 2 (15:09) it is full on a piss tank, yeah? £2 a litre for diesel. Speaker 1 (15:15) Yeah, man. And they're saying, don't they, now, that the... you know, the white man van. Sorry, white van man? White van person. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, tradesperson, whatever. They really start to struggle. The construction industry naturally has a knock-on effect, doesn't it? Because people just can't afford... to be driving around London. It's £35 extra a week Speaker 2 (15:39) to get around now. Speaker 1 (15:41) So, Speaker 2 (15:41) not just that. And this is what people don't realise. The knock-on effect goes on to your groceries. It goes on to everything that you consume is now going to get a bit more expensive because everyone's got to pay an extra 50p a litre because of some nonsense going on. Now, we don't talk about religion or politics on this podcast because it's... Not really something that I want to do. And I don't think, and it's a lot like. It's an unwinnable argument, arguing politics and religion, so I don't do it. It's just opinions, and you can't... There's no set format of words that I'm going to say to someone that's going to change their opinion on their God or their politics. It's a fucking foolish endeavour. So we don't talk about it. But... But I will talk about... Speaker 1 (16:35) Fucking Speaker 2 (16:35) £2 a litre is wild. Speaker 1 (16:39) Like, Speaker 2 (16:40) that's wild. I remember when I first started driving, it was like 69p. And I remember being fumed when it went up to 75p. And then it took, there was some other bullshit, something happened. And then, boom, it went from 75p straight to like 97.9. And I was like, that's got to go over a pound. And when it goes over a pound, it's never going to come back down. Now it's gone up to two Speaker 1 (17:05) pound. Do you remember the blockades when it went over a pound? Yeah. Do you remember the lovage? What's happened to all of that? Why doesn't it happen? They literally blocked. No one could get fuel. No one? It was just like, nope, done. It was like the equivalent of the people gluing themselves to roads, right? But they actually stood for something then. Actually, you know, trying to bring prices down. There's none of that anymore. Speaker 2 (17:29) It's mad. Mad. I was... At the time, I was doing Pizza Hut deliveries in the evening in my car. And allegedly, yeah, we'd like, I couldn't get any petrol. So it was my shift. But two of the mopeds at Pizza Hut had full tanks. I was like, well, I'll take you one of them then. And the guys at the time were just like, go on then. I didn't have a license, nothing. I just got on it and started going out on the ped, allegedly. Speaker 2 (18:01) That's how I managed to work through it. But, yeah, fucking £2 a litre is death. It's death. Because it's gone up from, what was it? Roughly about £1.70, wasn't it? For diesel. Speaker 1 (18:14) No, I think even that crept up. I think it was like £1.50. Petrol was, you know, £1.30-ish. Because we went through COVID, didn't we? We went through that boom. Then it came back down again. And I think it settled around £1. you know, mid-150s. That's what I seem to remember. And yet it