Lots of people choose a career within the electrical industry because it both appeals and motivates them. Although often assigned to as ‘Electro-Mechanical Engineering”, we will simply refer to this 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. We will begin by reviewing the main issues first and come back to the ‘add-ons’ later, because of the huge number of options available as a career within this subject.
Basically there are two clear ways to gain admission into the electrical market. The first is for those wishing to train via a more traditional apprenticeship route, and the second is for people who are entering the field at a later stage in life. Throughout this document we will simply refer to two types of people the ‘Junior’ and the ‘Mature’ entrants.
Mature Entrants who join the industry later on do so with the aim of working for themselves, usually as a one person business. By contrast, Junior entrants would seek to work with an established electrical firm and build their skill-sets as they train. To be fair, young apprentices leaving school will have a lot of supplementary skills to learn during their early years as a working adult.
Entry has two separate approaches to teaching. Junior Entrants are heavily linked with NVQ’s (or the Scottish equivalent – SVQ’s.) 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. ‘Junior Entrants’ will have to be in an apprenticeship of some sort in order to achieve the testing and course work required.
By opting to work on a freelance basis, many Mature Entrants appear to focus on those areas that provide profitable and practical solutions other than NVQ’s. Having said that, the mature student does aim to gain the necessary skills to do the job, whilst at the same time reducing their training costs at all times. Although this may offer quicker and more commercial options, it does reduce the official requirements set for certain areas of the industry.
Salaries are often simply broken down to those that relate to self -employed people and those in general employment. Obviously, with self-employment, there is the added issue of whether the Entrant is part-time (working around another job) or full-time; we will concentrate on full-time. Skill and knowledge levels can often determine salary levels, although this is equally via a proven ability or certification scheme.
‘Junior Entrants’ can expect a basic salary of 12K at the beginning of their training. With application and experience this figure often more than doubles in time. ‘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. Furthermore, professional items such as accountancy, tax and insurance need to be considered to make the business work properly. Whilst there is lots of available work, a severe skills shortage means electricians are very much in demand. If a student wanted to work every day of the week this would be possible in some areas. To be fair, high salaries bounded about by the press do require long working hours or help to achieve them.
To be fair, most Junior and Mature electricians experience very different working hours to each other. Most of the work for Junior Entrant electricians will be on a simple 9-5, Monday to Friday basis. 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. And yet, a huge number of self-employed electricians operate during the main part of the working week by focusing on office and small business systems.
If a Junior Electrician chooses an electrical career, then the main business actions of their company often dictate the type of expertise that they gain. Alternatively, the mature entrant can gain other training outside of their chosen field, such as gas and plumbing work. 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.)
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.
Copyright 2009 S. Edwards. Navigate to electricaltrainingcoursesgb.co.uk or Electrician Courses.