Volunteer Development Work
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When I was living in California I decided I was going to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity to do electrical work, as in design and wire the houses for free (I'm an Electrical Engineer). I set out to figure out what I had to do to obtain an electrician's license in the state. Low and behold, they make it VERY difficult to get licensed and there's no exceptions for engineers, which doesn't make sense to me (same amount of time for an engineer to get licensed as for someone who has NO experience at all). You essentially have to be in an apprenticeship for some ridiculous amount of time (7 years if I remember correctly). So... I ended up not doing it. Don't understand the crazy regulations some states have. It almost sounds like they're controlled by a union.
Most work like that *is* controlled by unions. In many states the use of a Car computer Diagnostic reader is free. It's a minimum $49 just for it to get hooked to your car in Calif.
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Most work like that *is* controlled by unions. In many states the use of a Car computer Diagnostic reader is free. It's a minimum $49 just for it to get hooked to your car in Calif.
Unfortunately, I know it is controlled by unions... that's what makes it worse, because in those cases there's no rhyme or reason other than the unions either getting a cut or keeping tight control. I'd be willing to bet they push all electricians into joining the unions or else they won't get licensed.
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Albert Holguin wrote:
it should allow you to quickly learn what you need to if you decided to get into that line of work
So in college exactly which class taught you the following? - Exact gauge of wire to run to the kitchen light, the kitchen oven and the dryer? And the type of wire that meets code? - Where in a joist you can run a wire? - How many and far apart electrical sockets are needed to meet code? - How do you run a wire around a pipe? Around a corner? - What sort of junction box do you need in a bathroom versus against a cement wall versus in drywall? - What paper work do you need to present when the home is inspected? Myself when I took my classes in Electrical Engineering I learned a great deal about how to prove what an idealized magnetic/electrical fields should do, how an ideal refrigerator should work and a lot about calculus and quite a bit more about literature, social theory and psychology. Far as I can recall I had about two semesters total of "electrical" labs one of which involved building a bread boarded computer and another which built trivial amplifiers. I got through the later because my two lab partners were 'working engineers' whose company insisted they go back to school to get a real degree. Now it might be quite possible that an above average person doesn't need 4 years of actually working as an electrician to do the job. But by definition the vast majority of people are not in fact above average. And it seems rather unfair to allow someone's house to burn down because someone insists that they are in fact the exception to the rule, based on nothing more than their word that they are above average. Not to mention of course that just because someone is familiar with some aspect of science that that means that they are completely competent to undertake everything else. If that were the case then everyone would need do nothing more than train as a mathematician and everything else would follow. Same holds for a civil engineer. I simply do not want to drive across a bridge built by someone who did nothing more than pass a test regardless of how certain that individual is that they are competent to build that bridge.
Albert Holguin wrote:
I'm not against testing, but to categorize an electrical engineer in the same way as you would someone fresh out of high school
All I can say is that you must have had completely different c
jschell wrote:
Other than that learning the practice is not that hard but it takes time because one must encounter all of the cases that might occur in the real world. For example one might need to deal with buried cables or overhead wires. Or acquiring right of way. Or dealing with water in unexpected places. Or recognizing that some product is substandard. And yes a high school graduate who is enthusiastic can in fact learn all that with experience. And someone with a bunch of theory under their belt isn't going to learn that by studying up for a written test.
Takes you 7 years to learn that? Same thing with the whole wire gauge comments above, that's all small potatoes stuff that wouldn't take you very long to pickup. Pretty sure all that has to do more with the union controlling who gets licensed than how long it takes someone to learn something.
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jschell wrote:
Other than that learning the practice is not that hard but it takes time because one must encounter all of the cases that might occur in the real world. For example one might need to deal with buried cables or overhead wires. Or acquiring right of way. Or dealing with water in unexpected places. Or recognizing that some product is substandard. And yes a high school graduate who is enthusiastic can in fact learn all that with experience. And someone with a bunch of theory under their belt isn't going to learn that by studying up for a written test.
Takes you 7 years to learn that? Same thing with the whole wire gauge comments above, that's all small potatoes stuff that wouldn't take you very long to pickup. Pretty sure all that has to do more with the union controlling who gets licensed than how long it takes someone to learn something.
Albert Holguin wrote:
Takes you 7 years to learn that?
Are you claiming that it would take a high school graduate that long to learn that?
Albert Holguin wrote:
Pretty sure all that has to do more with the union controlling who gets licensed than how long it takes someone to learn something.
Quite possible. But a electrical engineering degree doesn't teach one how to do it either.
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Unfortunately, I know it is controlled by unions... that's what makes it worse, because in those cases there's no rhyme or reason other than the unions either getting a cut or keeping tight control. I'd be willing to bet they push all electricians into joining the unions or else they won't get licensed.
Albert Holguin wrote:
I'd be willing to bet they push all electricians into joining the unions or else they won't get licensed.
The reality is nothing that one does can insure that licensed professionals are actually competent to do the work. So at best one strives to make it more likely. And as with everything involving humans politics are part of it. But despite both of those allowing someone to just start doing it solely because they think they are competent is not going to work either. So claiming that the current system is inappropriate is not an excuse to completely eliminate the system.