For many people, an interesting and varied choice often means a career within the electrical industry. Whilst the original term is \’Electro-Mechanical Engineering\’ we will simply refer to the subject as the Electrical Industry. As there are a wide variety of global standards, we will focus on those from the UK and in particular those relating to the domestic and commercial markets. 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.

Essentially, we see two distinct forms of entry into the electrical market. To being with we have the older apprentice course and then secondly we have the option for those who wish to make a career change to join the industry. To clarify, we\’ll label each of them as the \’Mature Entrants\’ and the \’Junior Entrants\’.

Mature Entrants who join the industry later on do so with the aim of working for themselves, usually as a one person business. 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. To be fair, young apprentices leaving school will have a lot of supplementary skills to learn during their early years as a working adult.

The two different ways into the industry have two separate methods of preparation. It is the involvement with NVQ\’s (or SVQ\’s for Scotland), that differentiate the Junior Entrants. As part of the training program an NVQ would be a requirement to attain. Often, this means that students have to gain an apprenticeship in order to be able to realise the course work and testing requirements of the job.

By working independently and without the need for NVQ assessments, many Mature Entrants can concentrate on those areas that provide the biggest profit and offer the largest practical solutions for themselves. In the main the person will aim to gain the best from their investment costs against the return for that training. This method may appear to reduce the levels of knowledge overall, but it does allow for an increase in the speed by which people enter and become more prevalent within the market.

In terms of typical earnings, we have two clear routes – those relating to employment and those for self-employment. The question remains as to how much work per week a self-employed person puts in – for the sake of this review we assume that it is full time. It is recognised that competence and qualifications add to income levels as well as experience and information gained.

Although starting wages for \’Junior Entrants\’ are around 13k p.a. they can rise above 30k p.a. but this does depend on their level of experience. \’Mature Entrants\’ salaries though are often more difficult to work out, but can rise to 70.000 and above as reported in UK newspapers. Regardless of all that is the need to cover off additional costs such as tools, clothes and even a vehicle and all that goes along with that. In addition to this they will also have to allow for items such as accountancy and personal/professional insurance. That aside, whilst the work is open to market-forces to some degree, the current skills shortage in the UK means that there\’s a high work-load available. Working 7 days a week is totally achievable for most people if they want it. It should be understood that the 70-100k figures that we see thrown around in newspapers are not easily achieved, and would either require working long hours or having assistants (or both.)

In light of the above, it is often understood that there is wild variance between the working expectations of Junior and Mature Entrants. Electricians who are \’Junior Entrants\’ would work a simple 40 hour working week. Whereas the Mature market can be more dependent on the domestic market for some – i.e. weekend and evening work, when their clients are available and back from work. With many self-employed electricians the core of their income comes from items such as business testing and installation and as such operates during the main part of the week.

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. They can take on larger jobs and do all the work themselves then – which is a particularly great benefit to domestic clients.

An up to the minute angle – involving a new level of skills – is that of the so called \’Green Engineer\’. 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.

Author: Scott Edwards. Look at Click HERE or Electrician Courses.

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