Lots of people choose a career within the electrical industry because it both appeals and motivates them. Whilst the original term is ‘Electro-Mechanical Engineering’ we will simply refer to the subject as the Electrical Industry. 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. 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.

The electrical market has in our opinion two methods of entry. Whilst many candidates opt to join later on in their life, there still exists the more traditional route of the apprenticeship. To clarify, we’ll label each of them as the ‘Mature Entrants’ and the ‘Junior 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. Whereas the ‘Junior Entrants’ train alongside regular electrical employment to pick up practical work place skills as they gain their qualifications. 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 – NVQ’s are the key factor for all junior entrants. There is a particular requirement to attain the NVQ qualifications as part of the overall program. 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. Such as obtaining documentation that gives them the best chance to gain from their training endeavours and thereby the best financial rewards. This system does meet the purposes set out and therefore often provides a faster and more direct route into a trading position.

In terms of typical earnings, we have two clear routes – those relating to employment and those for self-employment. Whilst we will focus on full time employment, there exists the issue as to whether self-employed people are doing this full time or part time. The aptitude and talent for getting things done can affect the levels of salary as well as any experience or knowledge 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. Conversely, the UK newspapers often report experienced mature electricians can expect an income of anything up to 70.000. Regardless of all that is the need to cover off additional costs such as tools, clothes and even a vehicle and all that goes along with that. Earmarked within this is the need to cover additional expenses such as accountancy or insurance. Aside from that, the current skills shortage within the UK still means that there’s lots of high value work out there. Without a doubt, the market would allow for some people to work a full seven days a week. 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.

In light of the above, it is often understood that there is wild variance between the working expectations of Junior and Mature Entrants. Most of the work for Junior Entrant electricians will be on a simple 9-5, Monday to Friday basis. The Mature market is however often reliant as to when their client base is available, especially in the domestic sector. 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.

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. Then again, the mature entrant can even go outside of the electrical field to gas work or plumbing work for example. 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 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 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.

Copyright Scott Edwards 2009. Check out electriciancoursesuk.co.uk or Electrical Training.