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7 Feb 2010The fact is that a career within the electrical sphere is a frequent alternative for many people. Within this document we will not use the full term of Electro-Mechanical Engineering but use the term Electrical Industry instead. Also, for ease we will concentrate on those principles that sit within the domestic and commercial markets for the UK. 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.
Basically there are two clear ways to gain admission into the electrical market. Along with apprenticeships for school leavers, students entering the field at a later phase in their life now have an alternative to more traditional amateur routes. 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. 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. As part of the training program an NVQ would be a requirement to attain. This requires being in a directly-related work program or apprenticeship of some type, so as to meet the testing and course-work requirements.
Instead of seeking a work-based training environment, the Mature Entrant often seems to focus on working as a self employed person where different qualifications to NVQ’s are preferred. 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. 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. 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. Certainly, whilst salary levels can be affected by knowledge and qualifications, they can also be affected by competence and aptitude.
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. However, with incomes of 70,000 or more a year, a ‘Mature Entrants’ salary can often be more difficult to judge. Often costs such as tools, clothes and even transport need to be assessed and included in the business mix overall. Furthermore, professional items such as accountancy, tax and insurance need to be considered to make the business work properly. Aside from that, the current skills shortage within the UK still means that there’s lots of high value work out there. Working 7 days a week is totally achievable for most people if they want it. 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. For a ‘Junior Entrant’, most work is on a simple working week basis. The Mature market is however often reliant as to when their client base is available, especially in the domestic sector. 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. Alternatively, the mature entrant can gain other training outside of their chosen field, such as gas and plumbing work. They can take on larger jobs and do all the work themselves then – which is a particularly great benefit to domestic clients.
One fresh approach is that of the ‘Green Engineer’. The chance to win some big employment and business advantages within the governmental as well as the traditional growth sector means that this area could be attractive to both Junior and Mature Entrants alike.
Author: Scott Edwards. Go to City and Guilds Electrical Courses or CareerRetrainingCourses.co.uk/qcareco.html.
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