SPECIAL FEATURE
FIRE, SAFETY & SECURITY
FURTHERING SKILLS IS NO CAUSE FOR ALARM David Murfitt of The Fire Industry Association (FIA) explains why electrical contractors may be interested in furthering their skills to become fire detection and alarm technicians, and offers guidance on how they can make this transition.
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here have been a lot of qualified electricians who have left the electrical contracting industry to build their careers as fire detection and alarm maintenance technicians. This has been a regular occurrence over the years, and the fire safety industry now employs many people who have chosen to follow the same route out of contracting into specialising in fire detection and alarm system testing and maintenance. Having spoken with a good number of those individuals, it was very interesting to find out why they had taken this route (more on this below). Electrical contracting tends to be an industry where sub-contracting is common, so many people are selfemployed. While initially this may sound attractive, there are also several pitfalls. Firstly, you don’t get paid holidays. In addition, you likely won’t get a company vehicle, and there’s no sick pay, paternity or maternity leave either. You also need to keep accounts, so will need an accountant, and furthermore, tax returns have to be submitted annually – so it’s vital to ensure you have the funds each year to pay your tax bill. You will also need to carry liability insurance, and have operating polices such as health and safety etc. Generally, fire detection and alarm and maintenance technicians are employed directly, which eliminates many of these pitfalls and makes life easier. However, there are also operational issues. Contracting will put you into building, refurbishment and development sites much of the time, working in amongst other trades and having little or no contact with the customers. Working conditions are sometimes harsh, particularly in the cooler months of the year. Becoming a fire detection and alarm maintenance technician is a vastly different role, where you will be dealing directly with the client, building relationships and taking responsibility directly for the end result. The conditions under which the maintenance and testing are carried out are generally preferable to working on building, refurbishment and development sites, as you’ll typically be indoors.
Specialising in fire detection and alarm maintenance can be very rewarding and interesting, as you will rarely repeat any day and will be working amongst many client types, at differing locations within many types of businesses and organisations. This gives those who have taken this route a great deal of job satisfaction, as their work varies in many ways and life in general is far easier. The overall earnings are much the same.
How to start working as a fire alarm technician There are lots of routes into the sector, and a lot of it depends on your level of experience. Around 80% of people come into the fire detection and alarm sector having previously worked in an electrical field. Some employers may be willing to take you on without any prior experience of installing or maintaining fire detection and alarm products into a building, although many are more discerning and will require particular training or qualifications. As you read through job adverts, you might notice that the job poster asks for Fire Industry Association (FIA) training or qualifications. This is fairly common, since the FIA is the largest fire protection trade association in Europe, and the largest provider of training and qualifications for this sector. There are two ways around this. You can either get the training yourself, or ask your employer to train you. Sometimes, a new employer might be only too willing to put you through a training course, particularly if the rest of their team has completed the same training.
Legislation One thing you should know, is that those that work in fire protection are required, by law, to be ‘competent’, according to the Regulatory Requirements (Fire Safety) Order 2005. It’s an important factor that will shape your career once you decide to make the switch from electrical contractor to fire detection and alarm technician, since a failure to be ‘competent’ could end up with some serious repercussions.
“Becoming a fire detection and alarm maintenance technician is a vastly different role, where you will be dealing directly with the client, building relationships and taking responsibility directly for the end result.”
The trouble is, the law doesn’t define competency – so the industry has come up with its own way of regulating. EN16763, the service standard, sets out the level of education that those working in the maintenance field should have. Quite simply, it points to being educated to the equivalent of Level 3 in the UK, which is roughly the same as A-levels. However, holding the right Level 3 qualification can make all the difference, as a qualification in an unrelated subject (like music, for example) won’t do the trick. The FIA offers a Level 3 qualification in fire detection and alarm maintenance, as well as designing, installing, and commissioning systems.
Getting qualified The FIA offers a series of qualifications developed by our own nationally regulated awarding organisation for the fire detection and alarm sector, the FIA AO (Fire Industry Association Awarding Organisation). Our qualifications have been produced in consultation with industry leaders and employers, matching the needs of the industry with what learners really need to understand. You can gain a qualification in either fire detection and alarm design, install, maintainance, or commissioning through studying four short units in classrooms across the UK. FIA, fia.uk.com
36 | April 2019
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28/03/2019 11:43