The electrical market has in our opinion two methods of entry. 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. Throughout this document we will simply refer to two types of people the Junior and the Mature entrants.

Many Mature Entrants enter the market so they dont 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. However, people who join as junior entrants like the fact that they can join a recognised firm to pick up the bulk of their practical and work based 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.

The distinct types of entry have differing styles of training – 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.

By working independently and without the need for NVQ assessments, many Mature Entrants can concentrate on those areas that provide the biggest profit and offer the largest practical solutions for themselves. 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. This method may appear to reduce the levels of knowledge overall, but it does allow for an increase in the speed by which people enter and become more prevalent within the market.

Salaries are often simply broken down to those that relate to self -employed people and those in general employment. With self-employment a person may be working on a part-time or full time basis -to that end we will assume they are working full time. Certainly, whilst salary levels can be affected by knowledge and qualifications, they can also be affected by competence and aptitude.

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. On the other hand experienced self-employed electricians have been known to earn around 70 thousand or more within the UK. Often costs such as tools, clothes and even transport need to be assessed and included in the business mix overall. Furthermore, professional items such as accountancy, tax and insurance need to be considered to make the business work properly. In the UK there is a lot of work for electrical professions due to a short fall of current skilled people. If a student wanted to work every day of the week this would be possible in some areas. It should be noted that figures of 70-100k p.a. advertised are not necessarily easy to come by and would require some long working hours to obtain them.

To be fair, most Junior and Mature electricians experience very different working hours to each other. For a Junior Entrant, most work is on a simple working week basis. Whereas the Mature market can be more dependent on the domestic market for some – i.e. weekend and evening work, when their clients are available and back from work. 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. Whereas the mature entrant can gain knowledge from any trade source – even one outside of the core of electrical work. Without a doubt the extra skills help them in their overall employ whether this is commercial or domestic work.

Green Engineering is another area to consider. This requires new skills and working knowledge and is one of the fastest growing areas today. 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.

(c) 2012