Lots of people choose a career within the electrical industry because it both appeals and motivates them. Whilst the original term is \’Electro-Mechanical Engineering\’ we will simply refer to the subject as the Electrical Industry. Also, due to a wide variety of qualifications and standards throughout the world, we\’ll focus on those that fit the UK domestic and commercial market. As this is such a wide ranging subject matter we\’ll begin by sticking to the main area first and come back to the \’add-ons\’ later.
The electrical market has in our opinion two methods of entry. Whilst many candidates opt to join later on in their life, there still exists the more traditional route of the apprenticeship. To clarify, we\’ll label each of them as the \’Mature Entrants\’ and the \’Junior Entrants\’.
Principally, Mature Entrants join the electrical workplace later on, and focus on becoming self employed. This means working on their own and not having to pay salaries to anyone else. Those who join as Junior Entrants, on the other hand, appear to do so with the aim of joining an established electrical firm – in order to gain further qualifications and experience whilst picking up practical and other work-place skills. Upon leaving school many apprenticeships provide a fast learning curve for young adults looking to boost their auxiliary skills.
The two different ways into the industry have two separate methods of preparation. In essence, the Junior Entrants follow an NVQ syllabus, or SVQ syllabus in Scotland. Whilst the core syllabus is relatively similar to non-NVQ commercial training, there is a particular requirement to attain the actual NVQ qualifications as part of the overall training program. New employees gain the necessary course work and testing elements through an apprenticeship or some form of suitable work program.
Many mature students gain entry into the market without the NVQ element, and simply choose the most commercially practical route to self employed work. Such as obtaining documentation that gives them the best chance to gain from their training endeavours and thereby the best financial rewards. This system does meet the purposes set out and therefore often provides a faster and more direct route into a trading position.
Between self-employment and general employment we have two routes to consider in terms of typical income. With self-employment a person may be working on a part-time or full time basis -to that end we will assume they are working full time. Certainly, whilst salary levels can be affected by knowledge and qualifications, they can also be affected by competence and aptitude.
Wages for \’Junior Entrants\’ can become as high as 30,000 or more per annum with the right experience, although starting salaries are around 12,000. That said, due to the UK press telling people that electricians can get salaries in excess of 70k p.a., it is more difficult to gauge incomes for \’Mature Entrants\’. Often costs such as tools, clothes and even transport need to be assessed and included in the business mix overall. In addition to this they will also have to allow for items such as accountancy and personal/professional insurance. However, the driving force remains the UK skills shortage and this means that there\’s a load of work available. Certainly, working a full week is a realistic possibility for those who want to. It should be noted that figures of 70-100k p.a. advertised are not necessarily easy to come by and would require some long working hours to obtain them.
It should be noted that the working week for most electricians differs between the Junior and Mature Entrant markets. Electricians who are \’Junior Entrants\’ would work a simple 40 hour working week. To be fair, if the Mature electrician is focused on the domestic market then they often find themselves working out of hours, especially to support their clients when they get home. There are however lots of opportunities for self-employed electricians to do work on small business systems during normal office hours.
Once a career in electrical work has been chosen, a Junior Electrician is often at the mercy of their employer when it comes to learning new skills and expertise. Then again, the mature entrant can even go outside of the electrical field to gas work or plumbing work for example. If they are working mostly in the domestic market, this makes it easier for them to take on larger jobs across a range of disciplines (without having to sub-contract.)
A new trade example is that of the \’Green Engineer\’. This new service to the industry could fit into the overall skill-set of an electrician. This could be an area of interest to both Junior and Mature Entrants, and with the expected growth and governmental (both UK & EEC) support, it could provide some highly lucrative employment and business opportunities.
Copyright Scott Edwards. Hop over to Electrician Courses or electricaltraininguk.co.uk.
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