The fact is that a career within the electrical sphere is a frequent alternative for many people. Although often assigned to as ‘Electro-Mechanical Engineering”, we will simply refer to this as the Electrical Industry. Furthermore, we will focus on the UK market and the domestic and commercial elements rather than those from elsewhere around the world. By starting on the main subjects and checking the ‘add-ons’ later on we can review the centre of the electrical industry.

The electrical market has in our opinion two methods of entry. The primary route is the apprenticeship which is considered the more traditional and then we have the second phase for those who are joining at a later stage. Throughout this document we will simply refer to two types of people the ‘Junior’ and the ‘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. Alternatively, ‘Junior Entrants’ will pick up lots of their work place skills by working with an already reputable electrical company. Upon leaving school many apprenticeships provide a fast learning curve for young adults looking to boost their auxiliary skills.

The distinct types of entry have differing styles of training - Junior Entrants are heavily linked with NVQ’s (or the Scottish equivalent - SVQ’s.) Whilst the core syllabus is relatively similar to non-NVQ commercial training, there is a particular requirement to attain the actual NVQ qualifications as part of the overall training program. This requires being in a directly-related work program or apprenticeship of some type, so as to meet the testing and course-work requirements.

Many mature students gain entry into the market without the NVQ element, and simply choose the most commercially practical route to self employed work. Instead most of them aim for the techniques that will get them up and running as quickly as possible and give them the best return against the cost to train in the first place. 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. The question remains as to how much work per week a self-employed person puts in - for the sake of this review we assume that it is full time. Salary options are often affected both by the know- how and the knack for doing things as well as any perceived formal levels of understanding.

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. ‘Mature Entrants’ salaries though are often more difficult to work out, but can rise to 70.000 and above as reported in UK newspapers. 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. In the UK there is a lot of work for electrical professions due to a short fall of current skilled people. Without a doubt, the market would allow for some people to work a full seven days a week. It should be understood that the 70-100k figures that we see thrown around in newspapers are not easily achieved, and would either require working long hours or having assistants (or both.)

To be fair, most Junior and Mature electricians experience very different working hours to each other. ‘Junior Entrants’ would normally be required to work Monday-Friday 9am-5pm. That aside the Mature market is equally affected by when their clients are available - this is especially so within the domestic sector, where evening and weekend work predominates. Although by testing and installing various business systems, many self-employed electricians manage to work during a normal working week.

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. 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.

A new trade example is that of the ‘Green Engineer’. This new service to the industry could fit into the overall skill-set of an electrician. 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.