Understanding Electrician Certifications – The Basics
The fact is that a career within the electrical sphere is a frequent alternative for many people. From here on we will use the phrase of Electrical Industry to explain the more accurate term of “Electro-Mechanical Engineering”. Furthermore, we will focus on the UK market and the domestic and commercial elements rather than those from elsewhere around the world. Because of the vast number of options available for a career within the electrical industry, we’ll start by concentrating on the main topics, and come back to the ‘add-ons’ later.
We consider that there are two ways to enter 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. To clarify, we’ll label each of them as the ‘Mature Entrants’ and the ‘Junior 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. Upon leaving school many apprenticeships provide a fast learning curve for young adults looking to boost their auxiliary skills.
The different ways into electrical work have two distinct types of training: It is the involvement with NVQ’s (or SVQ’s for Scotland), that differentiate the Junior Entrants. The training itself is similar to non NVQ training, but completion of the full programme means getting the actual qualifications. 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.
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. 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.
In terms of typical earnings, we have two clear routes – those relating to employment and those for self-employment. With self-employment a person may be working on a part-time or full time basis -to that end we will assume they are working full time. The aptitude and talent for getting things done can affect the levels of salary as well as any experience or knowledge gained.
With the right level of experience, ‘Junior Entrants’ salaries can rise considerably from twelve to thirty thousand pounds per annum. ‘Mature Entrants’ salaries though are often more difficult to work out, but can rise to 70.000 and above as reported in UK newspapers. Often costs such as tools, clothes and even transport need to be assessed and included in the business mix overall. Self employed people also have to allow for added expenses. Whilst there is lots of available work, a severe skills shortage means electricians are very much in demand. Working 7 days a week is totally achievable for most people if they want it. It should be noted that figures of 70-100k p.a. advertised are not necessarily easy to come by and would require some long working hours to obtain them.
It should be noted that the working week for most electricians differs between the Junior and Mature Entrant markets. Most ‘Junior Entrants’ do not work at the weekends. 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. 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. Without a doubt the extra skills help them in their overall employ whether this is commercial or domestic work.
An up to the minute angle – involving a new level of skills – is that of the so called ‘Green Engineer’. The curiosity of both Junior and Mature Electricians to this new industry is well founded especially when considering the power of the UK and the EEC markets in areas of growth and governmental projects.
(C) S. Edwards 2009. Hop over to www.CareerSkillsAdvice.co.uk/jcaskadv.html or 2391 Courses.