By Anon - A Professional Australian Cable Jointer

By Chris Dodds on 14th September, 2015

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"I am concerned that without a minimum standard, the cable jointer as we know it will cease to exist," commented Stewart Cornelius (LV-HV Cable Jointer) recently on LinkedIn.

Stewart is a third generation jointer - he is as qualified to talk as we are obliged to listen. 

Cable jointing is in his DNA and he like many other jointers take "massive pride" in their work.

I believe his heartfelt remark probably elicited the following full length article I received earlier today by private email from an internationally respected cable jointer in Australia. 

Although the words just made it online today the thought has occupied professional cable jointers across the globe for years.

 

Professionalism & Privacy Please

The author has requested that their identity remains private.

Please respect their wishes and let's also not speculate about who or who not it may be.

Let the person reassure you, "understand that I am committed 100% to what I have said, but I cannot be bothered with the deluge that will surely flow from people who can’t handle the facts."

Perhaps this will galvanise some form of industry action or at least spark some further debate towards strengthening the status of Professional over Cowboy cable jointers. 

The following is reproduced with kind permission of Anon (A Professional Australian Cable Jointer).

"I have noticed lately through LinkedIn that you have shared in dialogue regarding the ongoing fall in standards across the cable jointing spectrum. This is a subject that I have given considerable thought to in recent years. If you will permit I would like to share some of those thoughts with you outside of the LinkedIn forum.

There are a number of factors that combine and contribute to the steady rise in the number of inadequately experienced operatives throughout the voltage range. 

The number of people that can tell the difference between a job done and a job well done in our trade is in decline. In the not too distant past the decisions regarding the choice of service provider laid with people who had proven, time served experience within the industry. It was often a decision made from an engineering view point. As the market has changed and become steadily more competitive these people have been displaced by those from commercial backgrounds who have little experience and make their decisions from a financial perspective only.

This opens the door for those with little experience and inadequate skill levels to exist and offer substandard services at low prices, a trend that makes it difficult for the time served experienced operative to maintain an identity. In short once the people that know the difference disappear, there will be no difference. 

Training is another contributing element to the overall decline in standards. From my apprenticeship days the practical training I received was delivered by instructors who possessed, through many years in the field, a skill set of the highest order.

I can never once recall being asked to do anything that was not demonstrated skilfully by the instructor. Not the case today. These people have given way to the modern trainer, often an individual with limited experience in the industry with a poor command of knowledge and skills. The end product is often, through little fault of their own, a poorly advised poorly trained operative.

Nationally approved industry training courses, such as those available here in Australia, may sound like the answer. Sadly though they are provided by organisations that are more focussed on generating revenue than producing accomplished tradesmen.

I can assure you that even with the nationally approved courses here in Australia, the problem remains. The very organisations that are being set up to support a trade, if truth be known, are letting it down. Of course you can buy training but the key element, being experience, you cannot buy. Training on its own, regardless of how good it is, is not the answer it must be combined with experience to reverse the current trend. 

Combined with your great and I’m sure much appreciated efforts to highlight what is often a little understood trade as well as the work of the guys that operate with great skill in the arena, maybe standards can be lifted. I hope so.

Food for thought………."

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Established since 1985, T&D distribute the most extensive range of LV, MV & HV Cable Jointing, Terminating, Pulling & Installation Equipment - contact us today for a competitive quotation.

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