« Xbox 360 Home Fix | Home | Insights Into Plumbing NVQ and Technical Certificates For Adults »
An Analysis Of Courses In Plumbing
By Jason Kendall | February 14, 2010
The salaries of Plumbers are often highlighted in the national press. 30-70k p.a. is often talked about because of the lack of Plumbers. Is this really a fib – or is this in fact accurate? Certainly this level of payment is both possible and achievable for the correctly qualified Plumber. Those taking the more conventional ways to work will find it hard to reach the incomes of 70-100k p.a. that are sometimes achieved by the self-employed.
If you enter the traditional work environment, primarily working for an established employer, then working hours of Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm are standard. From UK companies comes the standard reward such as holiday pay and sickness allowance and a potential wage of between 15k and 30k p.a. Whilst the ability to earn more than through normal means exists, the self-employed plumber usually has to consider working longer hours. This is clear when self employed plumbers have to work evenings and weekends, where their domestic clients are working during the day.
On a personal level remains the issue self-employment, something that does not become everybody. Equally there is a need to manage good ‘business sense’, with items such as advertising & marketing factors as well as correctly assessing your own hourly rate. Likewise self-employed people need to consider the implications of costs relating to materials and transport as well as legal and accountancy fees etc. While these can mount up, (although they should always be a very small proportion of your earnings,) so can the benefits received. And the positives virtually always beat the downsides!
From the outset it’s the double offer of teaching them from experience and covering most of their working needs that Student Entrants are looking for in employment. Equally the Self Employed Entrant needs to increase their list of qualifications within a reasonable time frame. Having said that, we should bear in mind that the majority of self-employed workers tend to migrate towards the narrower ‘domestic’ market, rather than the commercial sector. (Not all, just the majority!)
With reference to education in Plumbing, there is a likeness needed by each part of the industry in relation to the certification elements. It is when the issue of NVQ’s (SVQ’s in Scotland) is considered that a considerable discrepancy becomes clear.
From the beginning the Student Entrant instead of the Self Employed Entrant is much more reliant upon the NVQ requirements. By calling upon a wider range of qualifications Self Employed Entrants will be able to meet their clients’ needs from the start. The self employed person needs to consider the wishes of their household clients and use the relative domestic-centred qualifications to satisfy them. Once they have covered the core parts the Student Entrant will often carry on their study not dissimilar to an apprenticeship in the workplace (where the NVQ element can be appraised.) Considerable savings potential exists to the Student Entrant by taking on this cheaper form of study. Nevertheless by taking a more commercial viewpoint and gaining qualifications faster than the Student Entrant, many Self Employed Entrants gain greater financial rewards and within a shorter space of time.
It is the required financial rewards that drive the urgency of clear careers discussions, whether they are overall study or certification requirements. It is often the issue of 3 years in low-paid apprenticeship work, alongside going back to college that many adults having to look after their family and with say 20kp.a requirements find difficult. Furthermore, many Student Entrants have their studies paid for them whereas the self-employed students fund the variety of course themselves. It is often the course structure and the level of certification that can run into costs of around 3k-10k+.
Self Employed Entrants can consider a wide range of private technical colleges as opposed to the reliance on further-education colleges and that differentiates them from Student Entrants. It is through well known educational paths that many commercial training companies can offer routes into correct qualifications and skill-set requirements. The ability to train in evenings, part-time or in self study classes allowing people to continue with their existing job and maintaining their current financial situation remains one of the key advantages to Self Employed Entrants. Considering so many options on hand it is clever to gather data from as many sources as one can. Having provided an option for you to come back and review the links and adverts from several sites, why not book mark this page (CTRL-D).
Many plumbing students will increase their ‘marketability’ through the use of further courses. These courses can provide a range of additional certifications in areas such as Gas, Green Energy and Electrical. A typically popular route for Plumbers is Gas training, especially as this forms part of the usual commercial and domestic heating system.
Gas Training is considered a dedicated training program with key subjects followed by important NVQ’s. For those who trained as a plumber these schemes offer many options for further development and can clearly seen to add additional skills to the table. It is from this position that many believe the mix of Plumbing/Gas Training is more apt to the mature student. Indeed, for the Mature Student, the path appears to be centred on adopting the core subjects and completely dropping the NVQ elements.
It is from this particular training program that the self-employed professional gains ground. The attraction is certainly the chance to gain a wider range of skill sets and earn money from them. This alone can add to their industrial viewpoint, as opposed to relying on sub-contracting core elements to third parties. Sub-contracting can not only reduce the earning potential of a job, but also erode the value in the customer’s eye, as they may have to wait for key stages to be handled by someone else before the final completion of the job. To have a higher value within their client base a Plumber needs to consider their relative skill sets that they offer.
In conclusion, the Self Employed Entrant can enjoy a much higher (and more quickly achieved) income than a Student Entrant, but they would have to work at developing a broader range of certifications (and consider the business side of things too.) Note: This information relates to the UK market, policies and industry requirements alone.
(C) S. Edwards 2009. Hop over to www.CareerQualifications.co.uk/lcarqua.html or Plumbing NVQ and Technical Certificates.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »