Electricity regulator moves to license qualified electricians

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the electricity sector regulator, today commenced the second phase of awarding free National Vocational Qualification Level 3 (NVQ 3) Programme for Electricians. PUCSL plans to give this qualification to 45,000 electricians by the end of 2022.

The PUCSL launched this programme in March last year and more than 2000 electricians have obtained NVQ3 under the programme and qualified for the electrician license. NVQ3 is the minimum qualification for obtaining electrician license. PUCSL has scheduled to offer NVQ3 qualification for 1,500 electricians this month and the third phase of the program will begin in November this year with a plan to offer the qualification to another 2,500 electricians by December this year.

Commenting on the launching of the second phase, Janaka Ratnayake, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, said: “There are about 45,000 people engaged in the electrical profession in Sri Lanka. More than 95 percent of these do not have a recognized qualification and due to that they cannot move forward in their respective profession. Also, lack of standardised electricians is a threat to electrical safety of households. The minimum qualification to obtain the license is the NVQ 3 qualification. We launched this programme to provide free NVQ3 to all electricians as a solution to all these problems. Our goal is to offer NVQ3, free of charge, to all experienced electricians within next year.”

PUCSL also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Vocational and Tertiary Education Commission (TVEC), the Vocational Training Authority (VTA) and the National Apprenticeship and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA) to award NVQ 3 for electricians. According to these MoUs, the examinations and course fees of the NVQ 3 are borne by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka on behalf of electricians. A special feature of this programme is that the electricians will be able to qualify for NVQ 3 under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL based Evaluation) system within four days.

The PUCSL together with Construction Industry Development Authority of Sri Lanka (CIDA) has planned to award electricians the professional license after obtaining NVQ 3 level, Ratnayake said.

“In the future, regulations will be imposed where electricians will be required to obtain electricity licenses. The National Electrician Licensing framework has already been introduced for electricians and career advancement under four different grades were introduced through the framework. Many organisations, including PUCSL and CIDA jointly prepared this framework. PUCSL plans to offer NVQ3 level, free of charge to all electricians in Sri Lanka and therefore all the electricians can easily obtain the professional license once they are qualified. We are planning to issue the electrical professional license at the district level from this month.” Ratnayake added.