Electrical & Electrician Apprenticeships – The Helpful Guide
An overview of Electrical and Electrician Apprenticeships
Electrical or electrician apprenticeships are now a popular pursued placement. This is most notably due several factors including the raising of university tuition fees. There is also the lack of open positions in other industries due to the current UK economic conditions.
Young people now see electrical and electrician apprenticeships as a means to establishing a secure future. Electricians are skilled professionals that always be needed by both the local community and private businesses. Electricity is something that society and commerce cannot function without and so as long as that remains the case, qualified skilled electricians will be needed.
The good news is that now is the better time then ever to embark upon electrical apprenticeships. As recently as November 2011 the government announced a £1bn fund to tackle youth unemployment. Over three years, the ‘Youth Contract’ will provide wage subsidies to try and get 160,000 young men and women back into paid work as well as create 250,000 new work experience placements. In addition, there will be at least 20,000 more incentive payments to encourage employers to take on young apprentices.
Electrical and electrician apprenticeships consists typically of two main aspects. Firstly you the apprenticeship studies on a part time basis at a local college for a vocational qualification. The most commonly known and industry recognised qualifications are City and Guilds 2356 / 2357 NVQ which you can find out about. Enrolment within a vocational qualification will insure you are progressed through the basics of electrical theory and health and safety. After this the more advanced aspects of electrical maintenance, installation and repair are covered.
The second aspect of the role is job placement where you will work the rest of the time alongside a professional electrician. This will be with the view of learning and developing your skills under someone who is experienced in the field. Both parts are equally vital and compliment each other. Theory is a foundation that leads to a good understanding of the key principle of the role, but without practical application in a real life it is not an efficient learning enviroment. However, when combined with the exposure of working alongside a professional, you not only get first hand experience of the application of those theories. The apprentice gets to see the whole picture of how a business is run, clients are handled and projects started and completed.
The work / study ratio for electrical apprenticeships is typically 1 to 2 days of study with the rest of the time spent on the job, until the point when study is complete when a lot of electrical apprenticeships change to a full time position and start to take home a full time professional wage.
The other key factor is that the role of an electrician itself is varied and covers different areas as follows:
Industrial – Working on large commercial installation projects (building sites).
Commercial – Electricians to work as call out engineers to repair electrical products such as washing machines or to install satellite dishes and telecommunications supplies.
Domestic – Domestic repairs, covering everything from installing a new socket to a complete re-wire.