where even professional electrical engineers with their advanced qualifications and decades of experience are banned from installing a power point or a light switch in their own home.
sounds like the uk.
Wrong side of the equator. It's Australia.
You can have all the knowledge and qualifications under the sun, but if you don't have an Electricians Licence, you can't touch a power point, light switch or any other fixed wiring. Even then, there are classes of licence, depending on where the required work is within the network (think Cat ratings on your meter).
The strange thing is that if you go to TAFE, do a short course, & get an "R" licence, you can then happily "remove & replace devices connected to a 3ph supply", provided this is in connection with the practice of your trade or occupation", or something along those lines, but you can't replace a power point, light switch, etc.
Radio /TV Transmitter techs, who worked for a Commonwealth organisation, were conveniently ignored by the States, & those who worked in similar jobs in the private sector "sort of rode along" on this.
After all, they, too, had a Commonwealth qualification).
Some years back, some "suit" in the WA electrical licencing authority discovered the horrible truth---- Radio Techs didn't just fix pocket transistor radios, but played with bigger scarier stuff!---Aaaaiiieee!
Hey Presto! We had to go get an "R" licence!
Pretty much the same story in the other States, too!