With the summer holidays over and the children back at school, many of you may have completed PAT testing in schools over the summer.
If however, you haven’t managed to get a contract in a school this summer or you are new to PAT testing, don’t worry you can get ready for next year.
Usually, schools will book the same contractor as the previous year if they were happy with them but there are always other schools are looking for a new PAT tester to complete their work for them.
The key thing is to ensure you send out proposals and queries in plenty of time but not so early that they aren’t considered. This is a tricky thing to gage and all depends on individual schools and what their timetable is.
Also don’t just focus on schools, there are colleges, universities and other training facilities which may also want testing at the same time. This means that you can then book in a series of jobs for the summer months.
In the meantime, while you’re planning your bookings for next summer, it is important to consider what testing in schools entails. On the whole it is pretty similar to testing in an office environment and will usually contain equipment such as; computers, monitors, printers, communication equipment, kitchen kettle’s, etc. The one major difference is that office testing does not tend to be as seasonal as school testing.
Obviously the biggest danger when testing in schools is the same as testing in offices in that it is important to be careful not to damage the sensitive electronic equipment. If possible, try to get the systems shut down whilst the tests are completed, or seek permission to test the equipment from the person in charge of the area.
The other issue is accessibility of equipment located under desks and in other difficult to reach places, also if your tester is mains powered finding easy access points could be another issue.
If you are planning to make school testing a regular seasonal contract, you may be wise to invest in a battery operated tester to allow greater flexibility and ease of movement from place to place.
Written by Sara Thomson
