ESB apprenticeship

ktow14

Hows everyone getting on so far? The first group who had there 2 weeks in portlaoise are ye still there or did ye start in yer appointed areas this week?

PaddyHat

Right so I am going to apply for the esb this year in March.. Anyone recommend the career service day in February??

<Mod snip: As per the forum charter, no discussion of rates please. Thank you. >
Tips would be great &#55357;&#56397;
Thanks

hufpc8w3adnk65

Not sure about the ESB rates but if your going through FAS/Solas and serving your time as an electrian they are more then that. I don't think we can discuss rates openly here but the best advice is too ring Fas/Solas and they can tell you the rates for apprentice sparks from years 1-4. And then when speaking with the esb find out are you joining as a line technician or as an electrician

2011

PaddyHat wrote: »

Anyone recommend the career service day in February??

These are always a good idea. We do not permit discussion about rates of pay on this forum, but you could ask at the career day.

Luckysasha

MrMac84 wrote: »

Not sure about the ESB rates but if your going through FAS/Solas and serving your time as an electrian they are more then that. I don't think we can discuss rates openly here but the best advice is too ring Fas/Solas and they can tell you the rates for apprentice sparks from years 1-4. And then when speaking with the esb find out are you joining as a line technician or as an electrician

No such thing as linesmen/ electricians or general workers anymore in ESB. Unless your applying for a mechanics job or engineering officer you will be employed as a network technician or NT for short. You will qualify as an electrician at the end of the apprenticeship but you could still end up working on overhead lines etc.

PaddyHat

Thanks for the replys,
I now see that I can't discuss rates here.
Don't think I'll be with fas or solas, applying independently and currently working at different job.

bullvine

Hi,

Does anyone know if there will be more apprenticeships becoming available?

Thanks,

EletricMan

Think its supposed to be advertised again next week.

PaddyHat

2016 application is open from 18th of March til 8th of April 2016.

PaddyHat

4th of April, sorry!

Pilchards

MrMac84 wrote: »

Not sure about the ESB rates but if your going through FAS/Solas and serving your time as an electrian they are more then that. I don't think we can discuss rates openly here but the best advice is too ring Fas/Solas and they can tell you the rates for apprentice sparks from years 1-4. And then when speaking with the esb find out are you joining as a line technician or as an electrician

No such thing as a 'line technician' rate for new recruits anymore and Luckysasha has said above, who's clearly a fellow employee NT. Everyone is brought in and trained as an electrician like every other electrician in the country, but also get internal HV/MV line, cable, station and operational training on top of their FAS training. Along with practicing their training from the network training centre in Portlaoise on the job in their 3 month rotations in different departments. A department you are good at or are particularly eager in you will end up back in again during your apprenticeship. This year they are also employing Mechanics for the Fleet & Equipment department, I don't know all the facts behind that apprenticeship, but I can't see the the term or quality of training being much different.

As for rates, while I wont talk figures directly as per site rules, people are under the illusion that ESB workers are minted. Not the truth. You will earn the same as any other apprentice in another company. You just might be fortunate in some sections with major jobs and overtime. I stress might. The quality of the job comes from how steady the employment is during all economic times. There is always work to be done on the network.

I hate to rant so much but I hate this false public perception of NT's. Only a fraction of ESB workers are the lads out there in the yellow vans. The company is also a highly regarded international engineering and consultancy firm and that's what brings the average salary of the company up so high.

Anyway...... Best of luck to all of you applying this year. And you're gonna hear this so much but please to those of you who get the job, please be safe and don't do it of you don't know 100% what you're doing

Farmer5

Has anyone that applied this year received any sort of an e mail from the esb or a link to do the aptitude tests yet?

hufpc8w3adnk65

I applied for the full time role back in November
Got an email February 2nd too say they'd be in touch in a few weeks and haven't heard since.

bassey

MrMac84 wrote: »

I applied for the full time role back in November
Got an email February 2nd too say they'd be in touch in a few weeks and haven't heard since.

Exact same here, not heard anything since that email

hufpc8w3adnk65

bassey wrote: »

Exact same here, not heard anything since that email

Thought I was alone ha ha

Farmer5

Anyone hear anything regarding the apprenticeship positions though? Haven't heard anything since I filled out the form and sent the cv

dingding

I would have served an apprenticship with the ESB in the 80's and we rotated around a lot of different activities as follows:-

• Stations (38KV, 110KV) There was only one 22KV station in my region and I was never in it.
• Area/District, there were 4 different districts in my region.
• Contracts, Domestic and Commercial Contracts
• Appliance Repair
• Metering
• And I worked in Moneypoint for 6 months on the building of the station.

This gave a great range of experience accross all aspects of electrical work.
I am interested in the current tasks that apprentices work on. I would imagine at this stage the appliance repair, contracts and experience like Moneypoint are no longer available and the work is generally stations and Area on the networks.

We were not kept on at that time although I did get a short term contract in the contracts section and I worked mainly on domestic installations, house wiring, storage heater installation, immersion time switches and lagging jackets, power factor correction and I worked on the runway lighting on a number of regional airports.

I had a great apprenticeship, had the opportunity to work with some great people.

What was interesting was that many of my class are not really working in Electrical. About a half went on to different careers and one of the ten is working with the board now.

I would be interested in more recent apprentices / electricians comments, and apologies mods, if this should be deleted or moved please do.

I am interested in the evolution of the apprenticeship over the past few years.

While I would not have been on the tools for nearly 20 years I found it a fantastic experience and I would recommend an apprenticeship.

Interestingly I am working on the development of a new apprenticeship in a non-technical area and it has allowed me to reflect on how great the apprenticeship system is.

Also looking at the breadth and depth of the curriculum particularly in technical apprenticeships such as electrical / instrumentation I think it is been undersold by only getting level 6 on the NFQ.

dingding

Luckysasha wrote: »

No such thing as linesmen/ electricians or general workers anymore in ESB. Unless your applying for a mechanics job or engineering officer you will be employed as a network technician or NT for short. You will qualify as an electrician at the end of the apprenticeship but you could still end up working on overhead lines etc.

Just out of curiosity are all the other grades gone, are all NT's electricians.

In my time 80's there were a range of grades

Electricians
General Assistants
Linesmen
Apprentic Electricians

All with demarkation and different roles.

Is this no longer the case or are there different roles within the NT category.

Thanks

Pilchards

MrMac84 wrote: »

I applied for the full time role back in November
Got an email February 2nd too say they'd be in touch in a few weeks and haven't heard since.

The full time position has been postponed for now I believe. THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL!!!!

Pilchards

FarmerJM wrote: »

Anyone hear anything regarding the apprenticeship positions though? Haven't heard anything since I filled out the form and sent the cv

You have to be patient with the apprenticeship, you won't find out until September if you've got the job and literally thousands apply for the job so just give it time, you will hear back

Pilchards

dingding wrote: »

Just out of curiosity are all the other grades gone, are all NT's electricians.

In my time 80's there were a range of grades

Electricians
General Assistants
Linesmen
Apprentic Electricians

All with demarkation and different roles.

Is this no longer the case or are there different roles within the NT category.

Thanks

For new applications the contract is completely different than the past. We are all NT's but it depends on when you came in. I'm only in the place about 12 years and I'm on a better contract than the new staff, but I'm on less than a 1990 highly regarded linesman. All in all the place is a fantastic place to work that offers development to all staff. I'm an electrician in stations by the way and as I've said before, you can make more elsewhere in good times, but you won't lose your job in the bad times.

Pilchards

dingding wrote: »

Just out of curiosity are all the other grades gone, are all NT's electricians.

In my time 80's there were a range of grades

Electricians
General Assistants
Linesmen
Apprentic Electricians

All with demarkation and different roles.

Is this no longer the case or are there different roles within the NT category.

Thanks

And no, not all NT's are electricians.

Jen Pigs Fly

May 23rd .... Anyone heard anything yet from the April deadline apprenticeship program?

dublindublin26

xxxJennyxxx wrote: »

May 23rd .... Anyone heard anything yet from the April deadline apprenticeship program?

Yeah I got called for an interview today for mid june. They'll be contacting people all this week i think.. Good luck!

ItssDylannnn

Does anyone know if you are still able to apply for this apprentship? If so where can I apply? Thanks for the help guys!

dublindublin26

ItssDylannnn wrote: »

Does anyone know if you are still able to apply for this apprentship? If so where can I apply? Thanks for the help guys! [/QUOTE

You cant apply again until next year around march

ItssDylannnn

dublindublin26 wrote: »

You cant apply again until next year around march

I though I was too late alright

Sparky19

Hey guys, so I completed all my aptitude tests there yesterday, dont think it went too bad. Anyone else do the aptitude tests yet? If so how did you find them?

oisinw87

I completed the aptitude tests today and I found them to be okay. I thought that the hardest one was the numeracy skills. Does anybody know when the ESB issue results for these tests?

Lewandowski89

Does anyone know when we are told the results of the test? And is it an over all mark or do you have to pass each individual assessment?