A Guide To Electrician Qualifications

For many people, a career within the electrical industry remains an interesting and varied choice. Within this document we will not use the full term of Electro-Mechanical Engineering but use the term Electrical Industry instead. Furthermore, we will focus on the UK market and the domestic and commercial elements rather than those from elsewhere around the world. Since there is such a wide list of choices in the electrical industry, we\’ll start by looking at the main themes first and then come back to any \’add-ons\’ later.

Basically there are two clear ways to gain admission into 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. For the sake of clarity throughout, the first will be known as \’Junior Entrants\’ and the second simply known as \’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. Those who join as Junior Entrants, on the other hand, appear to do so with the aim of joining an established electrical firm – in order to gain further qualifications and experience whilst picking up practical and other work-place skills. To be fair, young apprentices leaving school will have a lot of supplementary skills to learn during their early years as a working adult.

Clearly these two options have both differing training styles and methods of entry. Junior entrants go through NVQ training in England and Wales, and SVQ training in Scotland. The training itself is similar to non NVQ training, but completion of the full programme means getting the actual qualifications. New employees gain the necessary course work and testing elements through an apprenticeship or some form of suitable work program.

Mature Entrants, with the possible aim of entering the market from a self-employed perspective, seem to focus on attaining the most commercially viable qualifications (without the need for the NVQ element.) Having said that, the mature student does aim to gain the necessary skills to do the job, whilst at the same time reducing their training costs at all times. Although this may offer quicker and more commercial options, it does reduce the official requirements set for certain areas of the industry.

Between self-employment and general employment we have two routes to consider in terms of typical income. Whilst self-employed people can choose the hours that they work, we assume that they are working full time for the purpose of this review. Certainly, whilst salary levels can be affected by knowledge and qualifications, they can also be affected by competence and aptitude.

Basic salary for Junior Entrants can start at around 12 thousand per annum, often going above 35 thousand after several years in industry. 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\’. Often costs such as tools, clothes and even transport need to be assessed and included in the business mix overall. They will also have to make allocations for personal or professional insurance and accountancy. Aside from that, the current skills shortage within the UK still means that there\’s lots of high value work out there. Certainly, working a full week is a realistic possibility for those who want to. 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. \’Junior Entrants\’ would normally be required to work Monday-Friday 9am-5pm. But due to the needs of the domestic market the Mature Entrant is often more reliant upon when their client base gets back from work. Although by testing and installing various business systems, many self-employed electricians manage to work during a normal working 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. Then again, the mature entrant can even go outside of the electrical field to gas work or plumbing work for example. They can take on larger jobs and do all the work themselves then – which is a particularly great benefit to domestic clients.

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

Written by Scott Edwards. Browse around Part P Courses or CLICK HERE.