Board of Examiners Seminar on Oct 10, 2013

These are some notes that I made at the Board of Examiners Seminar on Oct 10, 2013 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. 

The need for licensing electricians.

It was pointed out that if there is a fire in a building, insurance companies will not compensate them if their electrician was not licenced.

The vast majority of electrical installations are carried out by unlicensed electricians.  There is no point turning away and ignoring them.  There is a need to train, license and regulate them. 

The need to update the code, the examinations and to make other changes.

The syllabus for the electricians' licensing examination must be updated to make it more relevant to current needs.

The Jamaica Standard 21, 1992 code (JS21) is outdated and will be replaced by a new code that will be based on the National Electric Code (NEC) 2008 and the needs of the Jamaican situation. 

It is the practice for some licensed electricians to allow an unlicensed electricians to carry out most or all of the installation and then for the licensed electrician to sign the relevant documents, taking responsibility for the installation. This practice should be stopped. The licensed electrician should carry out all or most of the installation or supervise any unlicensed electrician during most or all of the installation.

International companies that operate in Jamaica are now employing their own electricians because those companies place their confidence in their countries' electrical codes. It is therefore essential that Jamaican electricians' licenses be recognized internationally.

Electricians should be trained and licensed to not only work here in Jamaica but also to be exported to work in other countries. This highlights the need to adapt an internationally recognized code.

The Cayman Islands and some other Caribbean countries have, in the past, recognized the JS21. However, they have adopted the NEC as their acceptable code. This highlights the need to adapt an internationally recognized code.

There will be more than one categories of electrician's licenses. There will be a license for electricians to limit their work to domestic, 120 V, 240 V, single phase loads and generators. Over 75 percent of installations in Jamaica are domestic. There will be another category that permits the electricians to serve domestic consumers and also on to serve commercial and industrial customers. These electricians will be permitted to work on voltages higher than 240 V, three phase, motors, standby generators, transformers and perform other work for these consumers.

Points for Educational Institutions to Note.

The Board of Examiners is not an educational institution. Educational institutions such as schools, HEART NTA and community colleges are being asked to take on the task of preparing unlicensed electricians to sit the electricians' licensing examinations.

The pass rate for the written electricians' licensing examination has been 5% or less for the past 10 years. This needs to be increased.

Another educator in attendance pointed out that the document that the board of examiners called a syllabus was really not a syllabus, it was just a list of topics as it lacked objectives and other items that a syllabus should have.

The electricians' licencing examinations will no longer test the candidate's ability to remember the electrical code. A code book will be available to the candidates during the examinations.

The board of examiners will require stakeholders to submit examination questions and solutions for electricians licensing examinations.