Standards For Electrical NVQ ’s

Due to the exciting choices available, the electrical industry offers jobs that many people choose. For simplicity’s sake we will use the phrase Electrical Industry to cover off the more accurate term of “Electro-Mechanical Engineering”. Also, due to a wide variety of qualifications and standards throughout the world, we’ll focus on those that fit the UK domestic and commercial market. We will begin by reviewing the main issues first and come back to the ‘add-ons’ later, because of the huge number of options available as a career within this subject.

On consideration, we observe two forms of access into the electrical market. Whilst many candidates opt to join later on in their life, there still exists the more traditional route of the apprenticeship. Throughout this document we will simply refer to two types of people the ‘Junior’ and the ‘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. Alternatively, ‘Junior Entrants’ will pick up lots of their work place skills by working with an already reputable electrical company. After they leave school a young apprentice will have many skills to learn during their first few years of working life.

The distinct types of entry have differing styles of training – The Junior Entrants syllabus involves NVQ/SVQ’s as well as proving working skills. The core syllabus is similar to non NVQ commercial training, but the certification is compulsory. As a result students often have to find their own work programmes to give them the relevant testing and course work covered by most apprenticeships.

By opting to work on a freelance basis, many Mature Entrants appear to focus on those areas that provide profitable and practical solutions other than NVQ’s. Such as obtaining documentation that gives them the best chance to gain from their training endeavours and thereby the best financial rewards. This system, although appearing to reduce the attributes laid out, does allow for a faster and more solid entry into the domestic market.

With regard to regular earning potential we have two clear paths – one for employees and the other for the self-employed. Whilst we will focus on full time employment, there exists the issue as to whether self-employed people are doing this full time or part time. Skill and knowledge levels can often determine salary levels, although this is equally via a proven ability or certification scheme.

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. Conversely, the UK newspapers often report experienced mature electricians can expect an income of anything up to 70.000. It should be remembered however that a self employed person must often bear additional costs for items such as vehicles, tools and clothing. Earmarked within this is the need to cover additional expenses such as accountancy or insurance. However, the driving force remains the UK skills shortage and this means that there’s a load of work available. Without a doubt, the market would allow for some people to work a full seven days a week. 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.

For the most part there is a strong difference between the Junior and Mature Entrants’ working week. Most ‘Junior Entrants’ do not work at the weekends. 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.

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. But by securing work within the fields of gas or plumbing many mature entrants can gain knowledge outside of their chosen path. If they are working mostly in the domestic market, this makes it easier for them to take on larger jobs across a range of disciplines (without having to sub-contract.)

One fresh approach is that of the ‘Green Engineer’. With expected growth through new employment contracts and business options, this new entity is extremely attractive to many Junior and Mature Electricians, especially when considering the UK and EEC support overall.

(C) Scott Edwards 2009. Hop over to NewCareersTraining.co.uk/pnct.html or Electrician Certifications.