For many people, a career within the electrical industry remains an interesting and varied choice. Within this document we will not use the full term of Electro-Mechanical Engineering but use the term Electrical Industry instead. In addition, we will stay with the UK market and especially items relating to the domestic and commercial sectors rather than global issues. Since there is such a wide list of choices in the electrical industry, we’ll start by looking at the main themes first and then come back to any ‘add-ons’ later.
Essentially, we see two distinct forms of entry into the electrical market. Initially there’s the more traditional apprenticeship approach, but equally there is now an alternative, suited to those who are keen to enter later in their life. For the sake of clarity throughout, the first will be known as ‘Junior Entrants’ and the second simply known as ‘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. Whereas the ‘Junior Entrants’ train alongside regular electrical employment to pick up practical work place skills as they gain their qualifications. 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 distinct types of entry have differing styles of training – 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.
Mature Entrants do not appear to seek the NVQ element but instead they go after the most commercially suitable qualifications. Such as obtaining documentation that gives them the best chance to gain from their training endeavours and thereby the best financial rewards. Although this may offer quicker and more commercial options, it does reduce the official requirements set for certain areas of the industry.
So we have two defined routes laid out – one being for general employment and the other centred on self-employment. Whilst self-employed people can choose the hours that they work, we assume that they are working full time for the purpose of this review. It is recognised that competence and qualifications add to income levels as well as experience and information gained.
The basic salary for Junior Entrants tends to start around the 12-15k mark, but rises regularly to around 30k with the right level of experience. 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’. It should be remembered however that a self employed person must often bear additional costs for items such as vehicles, tools and clothing. Furthermore, professional items such as accountancy, tax and insurance need to be considered to make the business work properly. 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. If a student wanted to work every day of the week this would be possible in some areas. 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.)
For the most part there is a strong difference between the Junior and Mature Entrants’ working week. Most of the work for Junior Entrant electricians will be on a simple 9-5, Monday to Friday basis. That aside the Mature market is equally affected by when their clients are available – this is especially so within the domestic sector, where evening and weekend work predominates. 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.
A Junior Entrant that has chosen to adopt a career within the electrical trade is more than likely to gain follow up expertise within the particular field they fall into, often dictated by the main business activities of their employer. Then again, the mature entrant can even go outside of the electrical field to gas work or plumbing work for example. Certainly if they are employed within the domestic sector this makes it easier to take on work without having to rely upon other people.
One new, fast growing area – one that invokes a wide array of skills sets and is new to the industry overall – is that of the ‘Green Engineer’. The opportunity to provide both employment and potential service contracts, especially in the UK and the EEC sectors, mean that this area is of interest to both Junior and Mature electricians.
(C) 2009 Scott Edwards. Navigate to Electrical Qualifications or Click HERE.
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