FAS Electrician training

TheSegal

Hi,

First of all i'm not sure if this is the forum I should be posting in, so I'd like to apologise in advance if it need to be moved to another forum.

My question is does anybody know the maths syllabus for electricians within FAS? A friend of mine wants grinds for his course and i'm not sure what level of maths is required, what the exam looks like or what topics I will need to cover. If anyone knows anything about this could you please post it?

Thanks

2011

I served my time over 10 years ago, but I don't think the maths has changed much. If you are able for pass leaving cert you will be fine. Electrical apprenticships are designed so that someone with only a junior cert will know enough maths to start their training although some employers will not give you a job unless you have your leaving cert.

glic83

electrical science and electronics are the main 2 that involve maths,basic enough in phase 2 then gets progressively harder but so does the rest of the corse it help if your handy at maths but like everything else a bit of hard work and he will be fine,

.G.

Curriculum is about to be changed and the minimum level required will be leaving certificate to begin an apprenticeship.Maths in phase 2 is reasonably handy but gets a lot harder in phase 4 and 6.Knowing how to transform formulas is a big help,after that its just a case of putting the number in the formula's and away you go.Get an electrical science book like electrical craft principles 1 and 2 by john whitfield and you'll see the stuff thats required.The current curriculum is largely based on these books but like I said the curriculum is about to get changed.

links to both books in PDF format can be found with a quick google search.

2011

Curriculum is about to be changed and the minimum level required will be leaving certificate to begin an apprenticeship

I would be surprised. That would mean that anyone that only does the Junior Cert can't get a trade. Have you a link to this?? Where did you hear this?? I agree that having the Leaving Cert is an advantage, but not essential to do a trade.

AFAIK solving right angled triangles, transposition of formula, quadratics etc. is as bad as it gets in terms of maths. Perhaps that has changed since I did it, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Nothing much beyond Junior Cert and nothing beyond pass leaving cert maths.

.G.

Its just electrical I'm talking about and it came from a DIT employee.The curriculum changing is a consequence of the Dept of Education now being in charge of apprenticeships.The DIT's have been wanting to make the curriculum more relevant for some time but couldn't as FAS controlled it and they have also noted the problem in the maths area which is the reason for the leaving cert thing but its not certain yet as far as I know.They may go down the road of a having to pass a maths exam in order to begin an apprenticeship in the first instance.

As for the maths,leaving cert is a good thing IMO as the amount of people who struggle badly when they arrive at phase 4 is ridiculous.Its a waste of time and money training these people for 2 years only to find out they can't pass the science paper in phase 4 due to poor maths ability.You're right in what you say about whats involved with the maths but the thing is you either get maths or you don't,If you do get it then its hard to understand the difficulty others have with it but if you do struggle with maths then those maths problems that are prevalent in phase 4 are the sorts of problems you'll have trouble solving,hard work can help you scrape by but in general if you haven't a head for maths you'll struggle and the fact that there is a lot of maths involved in the training is something that alot of people dont even consider when they think of becoming an electrician IMO,I know I didnt.It should be more widely publicised that Maths is a significant part of the exams you'll be required to pass.I have people asking me about the apprenticeship saying they'd love to be a sparks but they aren't good at maths and is it a problem etc

2011

Its just electrical I'm talking about and it came from a DIT employee

Ok, that makes it a bit more credible.

The curriculum changing is a consequence of the Dept of Education now being in charge of apprenticeships.The DIT's have been wanting to make the curriculum more relevant for some time but couldn't as FAS controlled it and they have also noted the problem in the maths area which is the reason for the leaving cert thing but its not certain yet as far as I know

No offence intended but I have been in and out of DIT for a long time now (I was a 1st year apprentice in 1990) and as far back as I can remember this has been suggested.

.G.

2011 wrote: »

Ok, that makes it a bit more credible.



No offence intended but I have been in and out of DIT for a long time now (I was a 1st year apprentice in 1990) and as far back as I can remember this has been suggested.

Yeah but now they are actually in a position to do it as they now control the curriculum.In the last government reshuffle control of apprenticeships was give to the Dept of Education. They have given the curriculum revamp to the DIT's.

So the DIT's say anyway:D

2011

Sorry if I sounded dismissive in my last post. I did not get a chance to finish, I was called into a meeting. What I wanted to say is that you may well be right, but I have heard it all before so I will believe it when I see it.

The funny thing is that some of the best electricians I know did not do the leaving.

I agree that maths is important, but the level required during an apprentiship is not a problem for someone with Junior cert maths although some will need to work at it more than others.

.G.

Sorry if I sounded dismissive in my last post. I did not get a chance to finish, I was called into a meeting. What I wanted to say is that you may well be right, but I have heard it all before so I will believe it when I see it. .

Agreed.No need to apologise.

wrote:

The funny thing is that some of the best electricians I know did not do the leaving.

I know a few myself.In reality in a normal days work unless you are actually designing a job or working as an engineer than the maths is not something your going to use much,if ever.This is also a factor in what leads to surprise when people actually train to become an electrician and find out that maths is heavily involved cos you really don't see it used much in the trade except for basic stuff like cable sizing,power usage,current draws etc.

I agree that maths is important, but the level required during an apprentiship is not a problem for someone with Junior cert maths although some will need to work at it more than others.

Agreed too.If you pass the junior without much difficulty you should be grand but the people who scrape the junior maths with a D3 or whatever will then find the going tough when they get to phase 4.I was in phase 4 recently and some of those who struggled and subsequently failed had leaving cert maths.

deafroadrunner

2 be honest i think half of it is pointless as you may never use half of wat ur told in collage. esp de mathes, when doing a job everything ya do ya wil of done somewhere else so it wil be a common pratice.

deafroadrunner

I know a few myself.In reality in a normal days work unless you are actually designing a job or working as an engineer than the maths is not something your going to use much,if ever.This is also a factor in what leads to surprise when people actually train to become an electrician and find out that maths is heavily involved cos you really don't see it used much in the trade except for basic stuff like cable sizing,power usage,current draws etc.



i agree with that i was shocked when i went collage an saw level of mathes but u never use it. plus with regards to thoery. some can be great sparkys but when it comes to de thoery it goes ova theere head.

2011

i agree with that i was shocked when i went collage an saw level of mathes but u never use it

Yes, but IMHO if you can pass your exams it shows that you have the ability to learn and being a good electrician means that you have to be able to constantly learn as technology advances. It also gives you a better understanding of what is happening and why.

I have worked in ther countries on large projects where apprentice training is minimal and it shows. The standard of some of these local electricians was very poor and this was reflected in their wages. All of the Irish electricians on these projects were better paid because they recoginsed that our training is superior and part of that is down to the maths.

It is a necessary evil. I never liked it myself and I had to go and get extra classes in maths for some of the electrical courses that I did. But I got there in the end and it was worth it. To be honest I have forgotten much of it now but I remember the principles behind it and that is the bit that stays with you and helps form time to time.

deafroadrunner

it is easy to forget alright. if you the mathes infront of me now id have to think about it for a bit. well it will be fresh in my memory come september for phase 6 anyhow

richierichballs

Maths in Phase 2 is pretty standard easy enough I found it,
I am currently repeating Phase 4 Science, I didn't realise there was such a high fail rate,
It is a lot harder then the maths you would of done in phase two,
So you've been warned keep your down and you'll be fine though.