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Due to the exciting choices available, the electrical industry offers jobs that many people choose. For simplicity’s sake we will use the phrase Electrical Industry to cover off the more accurate term of “Electro-Mechanical Engineering”. 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. 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.

On consideration, we observe two forms of access into the electrical market. Whilst many candidates opt to join later on in their life, there still exists the more traditional route of the apprenticeship. Throughout this document we will simply refer to two types of people the ‘Junior’ and the ‘Mature’ entrants.

People who do not want to pay any extra salaries, but want to enter the industry with the focus of being self employed are who we refer to as Mature Entrants. Alternatively, ‘Junior Entrants’ will pick up lots of their work place skills by working with an already reputable electrical company. After they leave school a young apprentice will have many skills to learn during their first few years of working life.

The distinct types of entry have differing styles of training – The Junior Entrants syllabus involves NVQ/SVQ’s as well as proving working skills. The core syllabus is similar to non NVQ commercial training, but the certification is compulsory. As a result students often have to find their own work programmes to give them the relevant testing and course work covered by most apprenticeships.

Many mature students gain entry into the market without the NVQ element, and simply choose the most commercially practical route to self employed work. Instead most of them aim for the techniques that will get them up and running as quickly as possible and give them the best return against the cost to train in the first place. Whilst this may seem to reduce the overall qualification set, this meets the trade requirements for the areas involved, and thus provides a quicker and more direct commercial route to the market.

So we have two defined routes laid out – one being for general employment and the other centred on self-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. Income levels are also dictated by experience and knowledge gained – usually proven via an accredited proficiency or certification level.

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. However, with incomes of 70,000 or more a year, a ‘Mature Entrants’ salary can often be more difficult to judge. That aside, many added costs need to be remembered by self employed people in order to make their business work. 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. In light of the above, a full seven day week is available to most people should they want it. Although by working very long hours and having assistants to help, the figures of 70-100 thousand advertised in newspapers might be achieved, it wouldn’t be easy.

It should be noted that the working week for most electricians differs between the Junior and Mature Entrant markets. Monday to Friday 9-5 would be the working week of most ‘Junior Entrants’. 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. There are however lots of opportunities for self-employed electricians to do work on small business systems during normal office hours.

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. But by securing work within the fields of gas or plumbing many mature entrants can gain knowledge outside of their chosen path. 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.)

One fresh approach is that of the ‘Green Engineer’. With expected growth through new employment contracts and business options, this new entity is extremely attractive to many Junior and Mature Electricians, especially when considering the UK and EEC support overall.

(C) 2009 S. Edwards. Pop to 2392 Courses or www.RetrainingCourses.co.uk/orecourse.html.