On Thursday evening, you're off to do your shopping after work so you can get home on time with the last tram. As always, everything goes smoothly and you can enjoy your well-deserved dinner. But who actually makes sure that the supermarket car park is lit up late at night so that you don't have to walk around in the dark? And how come the electricity flows through the catenaries and the tram can run? You owe all this to the installer of the electrical system, who makes sure that we don't suddenly lose energy and therefore electricity! If you want to know exactly what you do during the training to become an electrical system installer, you should definitely read on now.

What does an electrical fitter do?

Electrical fitters know generators, transformers and distribution systems like the back of their hand. If you decide to train as an electrical fitter, you will become an expert in power, security and lighting systems. For example, one of your tasks is to check the responsiveness of fire sensors. Safety and attention to detail always come first in your work. Whether for private individuals or for large companies: electrical fitters help set up assembly sites. You will learn about the parts lists as well as the installation and circuit diagrams and can then plan the work processes. Depending on what is to be installed, different materials are of course required. Other working materials such as clamps or pliers are also collected so that the electrical connections can be made.

You also calculate how much time you will need for the installation, so that you can tell the customer the price of your work. Before you can start working on site, you must first plan and prepare. In the workshop, you shape sheet metal, metal or plastic profiles with the right tool or connect them with a welding machine. You may assemble entire devices and subsystems from many different parts or electrical assemblies. When you have finished with this, you can put everything together. This could be emergency call systems, sockets, lighting systems or fire sensors. Often you work alone, unless it's heavy electrical wiring.

As an electrical fitter, you also carry out maintenance and repair work on behalf of customers on broken installations. You check whether the systems are working properly. You can test the system with special measuring devices. Does the emergency button work? Do the fire sensors react to smoke? With the help of circuit diagrams and calculation tables, you can see if there are any deviations. If there are, it is up to you to readjust the functions and eliminate the causes of the deviations. For example, you change wearing parts or repair components.

How is the training to become an electrical fitter structured?

The training to become an electrical fitter is a dual training. This means that it is carried out in parallel in the training company and in the vocational school. The courses at the vocational school take place on certain days of the week or in blocks. The training lasts three years. After the first half of your training, i.e. in the middle of the second year of training, you will take an intermediate examination; the final examination then follows at the end of the training.