Diary of Practical Training Week 4

Monday 4th July and i am back in Featherstone for week 4 of my practical training there are not so many students this week and i am in a group of three. Our main task for the week is an airing cupboard fitting a hot water storage cylinder, feed and expansion tank also running a single hot feed to a hand basin, this is part of the requirement for city & guilds 6129 course and is assessed but there is no photo and summery required, also you can have two attempts to complete this task but if you are happy with your first install it is not necessary and you can move on to other things.

We don’t need a materials list for this task so its straight to work on the install, we can install this system any way we see fit and the only information given is that we must use as many machine bends as possible so as not to slow the flow of water, this is quite a task as a great deal of the pipe work is in 22mm which is difficult to bend by hand, but after last weeks LCS I am feeling pretty pumped up and find it less difficult than my first attempts with 22mm pipe. By lunchtime I am well into the install and have the feed and expansion tank completed and the feed to the cylinder also. After a catch up with the other students over lunch were back to work fitting the primary vent pipe which is the most complex of all the bends as it has a bridge, offset and two 90  ̊ bends all in one piece of 22mm tube this takes the best part of an hour to work out and pull accurately  but once complete the rest is plain sailing and by the end of the afternoon I have the system filled with water and soundness tested

   

Tuesday Having soundness tested the install the previous day and left the system filled overnight Robert our tutor assessed the install and passed it with some nice comments on neatness and the quality of the bends and said that it was not necessary for me to do a second install and that I could decommission and move on the decommission takes a long time as there is a large quantity of water in the system so the morning soon passes. During lunch I spent some time with a group of students on there first week of training and am able to give some advice on what to expect during there week and hopefully helped them to avoid some of the mistakes people were making when I was there for week 1, this was good because it allowed me to realize just how beneficial the first weeks were to me and how much I had retained to memory. In the afternoon Robert did air testing drainage systems with me and I got acquainted with a manometer, I also did two test papers ready for the exams the following day which I failed miserably much to my disgust, so out came the books and I spend the rest of the day doing some serious revision in the canteen.

Wednesday Feeling pretty tired today did another 2 hours revision when I got home last night and am just hoping I haven’t done to much and bamboozled myself with facts and figures, I am given another task by Robert a Soil and Waste fit in one of the bays its not a long task but there are two photo’s, a written summary and a materials list needed for this task. It really helps me clear my head and distracts me from worrying about the exams as I excel in the practical parts of the course. And I am feeling much more relaxed by lunch.

 During lunch talking with fellow student I realise its not only me who has been dreading exam everyone failed the mocks and spent a long night of revision but are now all feeling pragmatic about them pass or fail, my own attitude is failure is NOT an option.

 

1pm Exam time today we have Sanitation systems and Central Heating Systems both are about 30 questions multiple choice and computer based with about 60mins allocated for each which again is more time than is necessary and even spending lots of time over the papers I’m out within the hour relieved that there over with. The rest of the day is to be a Rain Water System install again not a very long task but photo’s, materials list and a written summary is required for my portfolio, the install only take 30mins and the remainder of the day is spent doing materials lists and summaries for the last two tasks. We get our results from our exams quite late in the afternoon and I’m very pleased to say I passed both CHUFFED!!!

Thursday Today is about getting my portfolio up to date and making sure everything is signed and dated correctly absolutely everything has to be signed and counter signed by the tutors so Robert spends a whole morning going through our files with us, he also dose some talks on Solvents, Scaffolding Erection and The Safe Use Of Power Tools so that they can also be signed as completed. He has also given us a talk on what to expect on our final two weeks and it sound like its going to be very intense with lots of summaries to do.  I am all up to date with everything completed so there is no need for me to attend for the Friday. Friday’s seem to be for resist’s of exams and alsoany work that needs to be completed, so far I haven’t needed to attend on Fridays hope I can continue in that manner.  Hope you have enjoyed the read I have 4 more TMA’s to complete the level 2 then 2 more weeks practical so am hoping to be back with parts 5 & 6 of the diary soon. Regards Cliff

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