Well Brian, a bit of a conundrum. I suppose you have a male name, so suggest you get a real beard, it would be more convincing, joking aside, from what you say, can I ask, have you tried enrolling with a CPS such as NIC or Napit? You may not be very far off what is required to sign off your own work. As to feeling as a female it is harder to get in the trade, can I point you to NICEIC and their initiative to get more female electricians. They offer funding to assist in courses/equipment. I have had two female trainees who sadly did not last long. But then they were probably younger than you? I found that bottom line they did not have the physical strength to do certain tasks. I also found that about 2 p.m. they had run out of energy and could not complete a days work. Maybe that is something that could be built up in time but they felt discouraged (not by me!) Having said that, I am absolutely all for female electricians.
Ah I was watching a documentary about Queen when I signed up. Hence the nod to Mr May.
Yeah physical strength is definitely a thing. It depends on the individual really. I do TES for festival stages so carrying scaffolding, trussing, lights, amps and speakers, hoists... box pushing and rigging have made me pretty strong but it does take time. Even I struggle with wall chasers on occasion.
I'm definitely not far off but I also don't know enough about domestic work to be confident in just going for it and getting a CPS in to evaluate.
I should probably answer the OP and say that I think no matter what the more training you have the better. It all adds to the CV.
I'll stop hijacking now ?