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Understanding Electrical Colleges – The Basics
By Jason Kendall | February 16, 2010
For many people, an interesting and varied choice often means a career within the electrical industry. Although often assigned to as ‘Electro-Mechanical Engineering”, we will simply refer to this as the Electrical Industry. As there are a wide variety of global standards, we will focus on those from the UK and in particular those relating to the domestic and commercial markets. 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.
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.
People who do not want to pay any extra salaries, but want to enter the industry with the focus of being self employed are who we refer to as Mature Entrants. By contrast, Junior entrants would seek to work with an established electrical firm and build their skill-sets as they train. Upon leaving school many apprenticeships provide a fast learning curve for young adults looking to boost their auxiliary skills.
Clearly these two options have both differing training styles and methods of entry. The Junior Entrants syllabus involves NVQ/SVQ’s as well as proving working skills. The training itself is similar to non NVQ training, but completion of the full programme means getting the actual qualifications. This means that work programs or apprenticeships have to be sought in order to arrange the necessary course work and testing phases of work.
Mature Entrants do not appear to seek the NVQ element but instead they go after the most commercially suitable qualifications. i.e. Those certifications that will get them up and running with the best financial return from their training investment. This system does meet the purposes set out and therefore often provides a faster and more direct route into a trading position.
With regard to regular earning potential we have two clear paths – one for employees and the other for the self-employed. Obviously, with self-employment, there is the added issue of whether the Entrant is part-time (working around another job) or full-time; we will concentrate on full-time. Income levels are also dictated by experience and knowledge gained – usually proven via an accredited proficiency or certification level.
‘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.
Any specialist knowledge the Junior Entrant gains whilst in someone’s employ is usually down to the sectors of industry that company works in. Then again, the mature entrant can even go outside of the electrical field to gas work or plumbing work for example. Certainly if they are employed within the domestic sector this makes it easier to take on work without having to rely upon other people.
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 opportunity to provide both employment and potential service contracts, especially in the UK and the EEC sectors, mean that this area is of interest to both Junior and Mature electricians.
Copyright Scott Edwards 2009. Visit Part P Electrical or Electrical Certificates.
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