Welcome to the third article on National Vocational Qualifications. In the last article we looked at a mandatory unit which all candidates who take the qualification must complete. If you have had the opportunity to look at the performance criteria (i.e. what the candidate is required to do), you will see that all that is expected of a candidate is to carry out their normal duties whilst on an installation or service.
The great advantage of an NVQ is that you can obtain a qualification for life by simply doing your everyday job.
We will now look at one of the optional units, which a candidate would select if they were an Installation technician. In the 1870 level 2 NVQ this would be Unit 5 (see last month’s edition for a complete rundown of all the units). The title of the unit is ‘Install Security and Emergency Systems’, and it consists of three ‘elements’.
This simply means that it is broken down into three areas which are:
As you can see from the task titles 5.1 to 5.3 is a logical order of work that you would carry out. Firstly installing the cable, fitting the detectors and finally clearing the site.
The performance criteria (what you need to do to show that you are competent) are in this unit:
1: Plan your work and carry it out in accordance with the agreed schedule.
In order to demonstrate this a candidate would need to show the assessor how the installation is organised and planned against the agreed schedule of work. This could be by, writing a plan of action, discussions with the customer, discussions with the supervisor and confirmation that the schedule of work is correct.
2: Ensure all cable and containment is properly secured as the specification states and in accordance with applicable codes.
A candidate would need to show that while installing cable and containments, relevant codes of practice and standards are applied to the particular areas, and that the candidate understood the current standards and code of practice applied to this area.
3: All cables and terminations are identified, marked and protected from physical damage.
In order to demonstrate this, a candidate would ensure that cables were identified by marking the cables and identifying terminations in junction boxes and that where cable runs are in areas prone to cable damage, for example a roller shutter door, that the cable is afforded protection.
4: Any delays or deviations from the agreed schedule are reported to relevant authority.
Here the candidate would be expected to show the procedures that he/she would implement if any deviation or delay in the agreed schedule were to happen, for example the candidate would demonstrate who they would contact and how they would advise.
5: Cabling is systematically tested.
In order to demonstrate this the candidate would be required to show use of hand tools and test equipment. The candidate must be able to understand the readings obtained and identify the relevant circuit.
6: Health and Safety requirements appropriate to the work being carried out are to be followed.
Here the candidate would be expected to demonstrate their knowledge of H&S issues, for example, if work is being conducted on a building site, that the candidate is wearing the correct items of clothing as required by the site conditions.
Remember, apart from the performance criteria, there is also a ‘range’. In the range for element 5.1 there are 5 items.
These are:
A ‘fair spread’ of your work
The range attempts to cover all the possibilities and a fair spread of that which a technician will generally cover on an installation. On some installations, technicians may cover work outside the range specified but an assessor will only be interested in checking the items in the range. We have considered the performance criteria and the range of tasks that a technician will be required to achieve.
The final section a technician will be required to cover is Technical Knowledge. Technical knowledge is the understanding that a technician will be expected to have to enable him/her to install equipment and wiring paths.
Examples of this are:
In addition to the technical knowledge candidates are required to demonstrate ‘Other Knowledge’.
The term ‘Other Knowledge’ covers such areas as:
Although you will notice there are a lot of areas covered in the ‘range’ only two different types of site are required to be covered, three different types of cable containment and two different types of services and structures.
An assessor would normally require a candidate to demonstrate the competencies on three separate occasions involving at least two different sites.
Other requirements
Candidates that have considerable experience and can provide sufficient evidence could however be exempt from at least one on-site observation.
Candidates who are not able to undertake the work on a suitable site may be permitted to undertake a simulated assessment providing that simulation does not exceed fifty per cent of the assessments.
It is worth noting two issues in the preceding paragraph; firstly in a simulation it is only the environment that is being simulated and not the actual performance criteria being assessed.
Secondly, for anyone considering undertaking an NVQ, it is worth keeping records of installations since they may qualify for exemptions from some sections of the qualification.
