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44 E L EC TR I C AL CONNEC T I ON
S PR I NG 20 1 6
residential job might actually have
mixed circuits or mixed actives and
neutrals which can be dangerous for
anyone, let alone someone who hasn’t
had much experience. One wrong move
can put an apprentice in immediate
danger, cause a fire, or result in injury
or death.
Undoubtedly the best training is
one-on-one, which not only gives
apprentices the best chance of
developing skills to assist them in their
career but also ensures safety measures
are understood and followed. If you’re
working one-on-one with an apprentice
you know what they’re capable of and
can more easily make a judgement
as to whether they require direct or
general supervision. With the benefits
of direct supervision and training
clear, it raises the question of whether
direct supervision should be more than
recommended, but a legal requirement.
According to the new requirements
for the Effective Supervision of
Apprentice Electricians, released by
Energy Safe Victoria (ESV), direct
supervision is necessary for third year
apprentices carrying out basic fault
finding and fourth year apprentices
carrying out advanced fault finding
and confirmation of isolation. It’s
worth noting here that in all cases,
the supervising electrician shall
be responsible for carrying out
isolation procedures, confirmation
of isolation, compliance testing and
commissioning/energisation.
The ESV standards are a great
initiative and I’d like to see them
become national. It makes sense for
employers to make a judgement about
whether direct or general supervision
is needed on other tasks as you can
have some apprentices who are a lot
savvier and competent who can be
trusted to do certain activities once
they’ve demonstrated the task over
and over again.
The new standards then of course
raise questions of competency. In
addition to ESV, Queensland standards
also reference competency levels
stating that the level of supervision
required depends on the work, level
of training, and competence of the
apprentice. However, in my experience
apprentices are prone to overestimating
their capability and as an employer it’s
our role to give constant feedback to
manage expectations of what they are
and aren’t capable of achieving.
There are a whole host of
competencies that need to be checked
off before someone can ‘graduate’
and the big theory test is the capstone
which a lot of apprentices fail. With
this in mind, the best way to see if an
apprentice can move from direct to
general supervision is to check and
monitor their work. Some apprentices
make the same mistakes over and
over again so it’s really important to
keep a close eye on their activity and
constantly review it to make sure bad
habits don’t set in.
The way I was taught, and have seen
others taught, is through observation.
I remember that during my first six
months I was bored, because I wasn’t
allowed to get in and do stuff! But
ultimately given the consequences of
a basic mistake it’s important to take a
‘better safe than sorry’ approach.
If you give an apprentice too much
responsibility and freedom too
quickly, that’s when accidents happen.
Particularly in the early years it’s a
good idea for apprentices to stand
back and observe as it’s a great way
to learn, and later in their career they’ll
think so too.
Another key component in ensuring
apprentices are as safe as possible is
ensuring the right person is supervising
their activity.
Determining who the best person
is to supervise an apprentice should
always be done on a case by case basis.
According to the regulations, once you
have your electrician’s ticket you’re able
to supervise an apprentice. On large
jobs, recently fledged sparkies often
supervise the first years and in some
cases it’s perfectly ok for someone
who’s just finished to look after a
younger apprentice. What troubles
me though is when an electrician who
has only just passed their exams has
the sole responsibility of mentoring
a younger student one-on-one.
Personally, I’d like to see a few years’
experience before and newly qualified
sparky can undertake an apprentice.
Overall, safety standards are
changing and that’s a good thing. While
a lot of the responsibility sits with the
supervisor, the apprentice also has a
role to play in developing their skills
and their safe practices. My advice to
apprentice electricians who want to stay
safe while progressing as quickly as they
can is to test, test, test!
The first thing we’re taught is test
your tester and test again. Even when
you have tested a circuit and it is
testing dead, still assume it could be
live and treat it as being a live circuit.
Don’t ever trust your sparky when
they tell you a circuit is dead – test!
Combining this approach with the
change in the industry, we should start
to see safety practices improve across
the industry.
An electrical apprenticeship is one of the only jobs
where you can get killed in the first few days of work.