Tuning Club

Due to the exciting choices available, the electrical industry offers jobs that many people choose. Often (and more correctly) referred to as ‘Electro-Mechanical Engineering’, we’ll simply refer to it as the Electrical Industry for the sake of simplicity here. Furthermore, we will focus on the UK market and the domestic and commercial elements rather than those from elsewhere around the world. 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.

Really there are two main ways to enter 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. We have to reference individuals so we will plainly do so by ‘Junior’ and ‘Mature’ entrants.

Many Mature Entrants enter the market so they don’t have to rely on others, especially when they can work on their own building ideas and not have to pay for anyone else to help them. On the other hand, to gain further credentials and experience ‘Junior Entrants’ tend to work for a recognised electrical firm. Often a young apprentice will be in their first job since leaving school, and will therefore have a host of ancillary skills to learn during their first few years as a working adult.

The different ways into electrical work have two distinct types of training: NVQ’s are the key factor for all junior entrants. As part of the training program an NVQ would be a requirement to attain. 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.

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. For example by concentrating on those qualifications aimed at giving them the best return from their training costs. 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.

Salaries are often simply broken down to those that relate to self -employed people and those in general 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.

‘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. 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’. Irrespective of this salary level many self-employed people also need to manage extra business costs such as tools, clothes and vans. In addition to this they will also have to allow for items such as accountancy and personal/professional insurance. However, the driving force remains the UK skills shortage and this means that there’s a load of work available. If a student wanted to work every day of the week this would be possible in some areas. Whilst figures of seventy to a hundred thousand are often bandied around in the press, they do not often inform you of the long hours you would need to work to achieve this.

There is often a considerable differential between the working expectations of Mature or Junior Entrants. For a ‘Junior Entrant’, most work is on a simple working week basis. While on the other hand, the opportunities in the domestic market (where mature entrants often work) can be heavily dependent upon when the clients get home. This alters quite a bit, with lots of self employed electricians gaining much of their income from small office work, which is predominantly Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.

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. However, many mature entrants gain extra skills by learning those trades such as gas and plumbing work. This gives them the chance to complete work for domestic clients without having to sub contract jobs out every time.

An area that is relatively new to the industry overall, yet requires new expertise is that of ‘Green Engineering’. 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.

(C) 2009 – S. Edwards. Hop over to Part P Electrical or Electrical Certificates.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 11:29 amand is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.