Being an electrician sounds like an inviting job. The work is rewarding and well-paid, and you get to move around a lot, going from one job to the next instead of spending all day at a desk.

But is it easy being an electrician? You'll probably get a different answer to that question from each electrician you ask, but nevertheless, here are a few things to consider when deciding if you'd like to become an electrician.

Is being an electrician easy?

Once qualified, an electrician's job can vary greatly from day to day, which may mean that some days are easier than others. We find that most of our graduates enjoy this diverse selection of work and find the job fulfilling and satisfying. Of course - as with any job - the more experience you gain, the easier it will become.

When you work with electricity, there is obviously some danger that comes with the job - click here to read our blog post on this subject. The risks are very minimal once you know what you're doing, but no matter how long you've been an electrician for, it's always important to remain vigilant.

In general, with a healthy salary (more than £30,000 per annum on average) and a wide selection of work on offer, being an electrician is very worthwhile, and enjoyably challenging without being overwhelming.

If you are considering a career as an electrician, click the links below to find out what each of our electrician training courses entails:

• Essential Electrical Course 
• Professional Electrical Course
• Premier Electrical Course

What qualifications do I need to be an electrician?

Nothing worth having comes easily, and of course that is true of a successful career. Electricians have to go through the appropriate training to learn the relevant skills and stay safe –after all, it's crucial to know what you're doing when you're working with electricity!

That is why there are certain qualifications that you MUST have before starting work as an electrician. These qualifications are included in our Essential Electrical Course which will provide you with:

• Part P Domestic Installer
• 17th Edition Electrical Regs
• Building Regulations for Electrical Installations in Dwellings 

Is it hard to train to be an electrician?

Here at Access Training, we offer a range of electrical courses (which you can browse here) that are suitable for learners of all ages and all experience levels. These courses allow you to gain industry-recognised qualifications and become a fully-certified electrician within a relatively short window of time. We wouldn't necessarily call our courses 'easy' - there's a lot of theory and technical skill involved in becoming a professional sparky - and students have to work hard in order to pass the course and earn the qualifications necessary to start work as an electrician.

However, our courses do allow you to become qualified in a quicker period of time than traditional methods. Whereas other electrician training takes years, Access Training allows you to gain qualifications within a much shorter time frame.

Being an electrician: pros & cons

Pros

Paid apprenticeships

A big incentive for becoming an electrician is the fact that you could start earning before you've even qualified. Where other careers require you to go to university for a number of years - costing you money - paid apprenticeships enable you to become a qualified electrician while getting paid!

Here at Access Training, we can get you a guaranteed interview with a UK construction firm who can employ you as a groundworker or labourer. All you need to do is complete your Level 1 Health & Safety training and obtained your CSCS card. Then you’ll complete the theory portion of your electrical course while also gaining invaluable on-site experience.

Good salary

Electricians make good money due to the specific skills required and high-risk nature of the job. According to Reed, the average salary for an electrician in the UK is £40,524 a year.

Work for yourself

If you were to set up your own business and work for yourself, you'd have the freedom to choose the jobs you want and the hours you work. As a self-employed electrician, you would also have the ability to decide your own rates so you have the potential to earn more than the average electrician.

Read more: What Is a Self-Employed Electrician's Salary?

Cons

Safety risks

Working with electricity is up there with one of the most dangerous careers. According to the HSE (Health and Safety Executive), electricians and those who work with electricity are at risk of:

• electric shock and burns from contact with live parts

• injury from exposure to arcing (when electricity jumps from one circuit to another)

• fire from faulty electrical equipment or installations

• explosion caused by unsuitable electrical apparatus

• static electricity igniting flammable vapours or dusts, for example in a spray-paint booth

Job security/inconsistent hours

For self-employed electricians, there is a risk of running out of work. Sometimes weeks or even months could go by without securing a job. Fortunately there are full-time, permanent electrician roles out there if you're not interested in starting your own business.

That being said, even those with full-time employment contracts will have to deal with inconsistent hours and often long hours too, which is something to bear in mind.

For any advice on what being an electrician is like, or about any of our courses, feel free to get in touch with the Access Training team.

Thinking of changing careers? Wondering if you'd enjoy life as a professional electrician? Read on to find out just what this job has to offer.

Becoming an electrician can be a very tempting prospect, especially if your current job keeps you cooped up in an office all week. Electricians spend their working days out and about, travelling from one job to the next, fixing people's electrical problems and helping them to get their appliances up and running again.

If this sounds like a pretty rewarding way to make a living, well, it is! Here's a closer look at why electrical work may be a good career for you to pursue:

1. How much do electricians make?
2. What hours do electricians work?
3. How difficult is it to find work?
4. How do you become a qualified electrician?

How much do electricians make?

According to the Office of National Statistics, the median salary for a UK electrician in 2016 was £30,765 per year. This was slightly higher than the figure for the previous year (which means that electricians' salaries are going up over time).

The same ONS survey found that electricians are the best-paid tradespeople of all, earning more on average than other professionals such as plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers and plasterers.

READ MORE: What is an Electrician's Salary?

What hours do electricians work?

So how hard does an electrician have to work to earn upwards of £30k a year? Obviously, there's no set working week when you're a self-employed electrician - you can take on as many or as few jobs as you choose - but it goes without saying that the more work you do, the more money you'll make.

Depending on how much work you find (and how much of it you choose to take on at once), you may well find yourself doing 50-60hrs per week. However, it is more than possible to live comfortably as an electrician working significantly fewer hours than that.

How difficult is it to find work?

The UK is still suffering from something of a trade skills shortage, meaning that there simply aren't enough tradespeople available to do all the jobs that need doing around the country.

This means that electricians (as well as plumbers, bricklayers, etc.) are in very high demand right now, with many tradespeople finding that they're able to command a much higher price for their services than in the past. Interestingly, the result of last year's EU referendum seem to have exacerbated the skills shortage further, and UK electricians are sorely needed to replace the EU workers upon the trade industry relied until recently.

How do you become a qualified electrician?

If the perks of professional electrical work sounds too good to pass up, the next question you'll ask is probably 'what's the next step?'

View accredited electrician courses >

Electricity, of course, can be very dangerous, and so would-be electricians are required to hold a number of qualifications before carrying out any work. Here are the qualifications you MUST have:

• Part P Domestic Installer
• 17th Edition Electrical Regulations

These two certifications are included in our Essential Electrical Course. If you wish to learn more advanced skills and expand the range of jobs that you'll be able to undertake, you may wish to investigate our Professional Electrical Course and our Premier Electrical Course.

All of these training programmes are open to all, with no prior electrical knowledge or experience required. If you would like to train to become an electrician, please contact Access Training today!

Here at Access Training, we offer a large variety of electrical courses that equip each student with the skills necessary to embark on a new career as a fully qualified electrician. Our courses are developed for people who would like a new challenge and aspire to run their own businesses. But don’t take our word for it - have a look at what some of our past students had to say about their experience at Access Training:

"The training was very daunting to start with, but it all gets broken down into simple manageable tasks where I was very well supported by the tutor." - Peter Baxter

As the years go by, technology changes, and so the skills that are needed to become a fully qualified electrician are ever changing. When researching electrician courses, it's important to choose an academy that keeps up with the ever-changing electrical environment; here at Access Training, we constantly update our state-of-the-art facilities and endeavour to provide a realistic, hands-on learning experience for all of our students, so when you are working in the field, you are confident dealing with real life work.  

Gethyn Hudson had this to say about his experience at Access Training:

"A well run practical week, with real life problems. It allowed me to develop the skills from week one in a practical situation. The tutor gave me the space I needed but was always on hand when required. The facilities and training staff are very good." - Gethyn Hudson

Here at Access Training, we will provide you with the knowledge, qualifications and confidence to become self-employed. Former students Richard Gates and Scott Daily were not fully satisfied with their chosen careers, so they enrolled on an electrician course provided by Access Training and they are both now trading as self-employed electricians:

"This course has led to me becoming self-employed as an electrician and has led to me expanding my family's building and roofing business." - Scott Daly

"I'm the happiest I've ever been in my working life. I like being my own boss and having control over my working week. And I'm earning three times what I was at the BBC!" - Richard Gates 

If you are thinking about changing your career in 2016, our flexible courses will allow you complete your training about your current commitments, so if you have family commitments, or are currently employed you will not have to quit your job while training for your new  career. No matter your situation, we will always endeavour to accommodate you. 

So if you want to take the plunge and begin training to become your own boss in 2016, why not enquire about our electrician courses? Click here to view our full range of electrician courses; alternatively, you can contact us on 0800 245 7492 or e-mail info@accesstraininguk.co.uk.

Now that we've entered August it's fair to say that the summer holidays have properly started, and school children aren't going to have to even think about school for another month. But what about those 18 year olds who are just coming out of sixth form/college? It's not so easy for them as they won't be going back in September - it's time for them to think about the next step in their lives.

For many university will be the most obvious route, engaging in another 3+ years of education with a qualification and a heap of debt at the end of it. And what job is that qualification likely to get you? With most graduates struggling to get jobs relevant to their degrees, they are now beginning to fill lower-level positions that would usually be taken by those who haven't gone to uni and want to work their way up into a career via experience. So where does that leave them? As you can guess, its a pretty big problem and calls into question just how useful some degrees are in landing you your 'dream' job.

But there are other reasons one might not want to go to university. After over a decade of timetables and school work, some people might want to put that behind them and move onto something different. Instead of more sitting at a desk and writing, there are practical options out there that will keep your working life active and varied. And of course, there is that matter of student loan/tuition fee debt that I briefly mentioned earlier...

With the demand for skilled tradespeople at an all-time high thanks to a construction boom and renewed interest in housebuilding, those looking for a direction outside of university may be perfectly suited to becoming a plumber, gas engineer, electrician, carpenter, plasterer, tiler, bricklayer or decorator. Or even a number of the above! But once again, there are a few ways to go about it.

One option is to take up a college course in your chosen trade. Not a bad option, but there are a few things to think about. These courses can take around two years to complete, which means once again resigning yourself to a strict regime of timetables. There's also the fact that colleges have to budget  their wide variety of courses, which means there's every possibility you could find yourself with facilities not quite as ideal as you might have hoped for.

The alternative? Completing an intensive training course with a private trainer, where you'll be able to earn your skills and qualifications in a matter of weeks. This probably sounds impossible to many of you, but with the right tutelage from experienced tradesmen in a state-of-the-art facility the combines the very best practical and theory training it's more than possible. And with a private trainer their ONLY focus is on the facilities and the training they provide, so you know that your chosen trade is a key subject for them.

Sound like the path you want to take? Then get in touch with Access Training Academies and book your training course today. We specialise in a wide variety of trades training courses, each manned by tutors with many years' experience in the business. All of our courses are accredited by leading awarding bodies such as City & Guilds, Logic and more, and designed to take you from a beginner level all the way to that of a trained professional. Not only that, but we keep our classes to a minimal size to allow the most one-to-one student/tutor time possible, so that you know you're getting the care and attention you paid for. Following completion of your course, you'll be ready to start your brand new career and even have the abilities to go self-employed should you so wish. Its your choice what path you choose but one thing is definitely for sure - you'll have earned yourself skills for life that are constantly in demand, and as such enjoy constant work with impressive wages.

This August, have a think about where you want your life to head next. And if you like the sound of this, give Access a call on 0800 345 7492.

After much deliberation on what can be done to ensure consumers are hiring safe and qualified tradespeople to carry out work in their homes, the Select Committee on Building Regulations has announced that a single Competent Person Electrical Register is ready to go live. The decision was made following a recommendation made by the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, with the register set to officially go live on June 30th.

Is it mandatory to join the competent person electrical register?

This marks a similar move to the long-standing Gas Safe Register, joining which is a legal requirement of all gas engineers operating in the United Kingdom. However, joining the Competent Person Electrical Register is not mandatory, making it similar to the plumbing equivalent Water Safe. The move to create a single register was welcomed by existing Competent Person Scheme brands ELECSA and NICEIC. Although both put forward positive recommendations and supported parts of the report, they also felt some points were not explored thoroughly and "did not reflect the true state of the industry".

Under building regulations Part P, all fixed domestic electrical installations must be suitably installed, tested and inspected to ensure that they are in safe working order. Without achieving a Part P certificate and joining a Competent Person scheme, electricians are required by law to have their work independently verified by an external inspector.

When the scheme (full name: Registered Competent Person Electrical) goes live on June 30th, all full scope Part P electricians in England and Wales will be added automatically by their provider and encouraged to use the logo as a symbol of their qualification. An official launch event will then follow on the 2nd of July in the Palace of Westminster. Minister for Communities and Local Government, Stephen Williams MP, will give a keynote speech to a wide array of key industry stakeholders and MPs, alongside NAPIT Group Chief Executive Officer, Michael Andrews and Chief Executive Officer of Certsure, Emma Clancy.

Clancy commented that the new website will "become the one stop shop for consumers looking to hire an electrician to carry out work in their home."

Attaining a Part P certificate and joining a Competent Person Scheme is a vital part of becoming a domestic electrician, and something we can fully prepare you for here at Access Training.

Whether its part of a more intensive electrician course or the single qualification you're looking for, our experienced tutors will guide you through everything you need to know to reach this important step in your career. To speak to one of our course advisers and find out more give us a call on 0800 345 7492.

Last month the DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government) announced amendments to the current Building Regulations, introducing a previously proposed third party inspection scheme to allow DIY enthusiasts/those not registered with a Competent Persons Scheme to have their work checked and certified. However NICEIC and ELECSA have announced that they will be opting out of these changes, arguing that the changes could "undermine registered electricians" and cause more harm than good.

In a statement from Emma Clancy, CEO of Cetsure (which operates the two brands), it was said they "do not wish to see DIY'ers carry out potentially dangerous electrical work" and believe it needs to be left to competent electricians who will able to comply with the wiring regulations. She went on to point out that the third party inspector scheme is not UKAS accredited, meaning that there is to be no external verification ensuring that the scheme operators are doing their job to the correct standard.

"It makes a mockery of competent persons’ schemes and the tens of thousands of registered electricians already in the marketplace. There are glaring holes in the scheme, such as the amount of time an installation can be live before it is checked, potentially endangering the householder," she continued.

Other electrical contractors have also expressed concerns over the scheme, especially toward a lack of clarity as to where the responsibility lies. Is it with the inspectors even though they didn't install it? The question has also been raised as to why DIY installers do the work themselves (and get it checked) in the first place, when as it stands they'd actually be saving money by hiring a competent electrician to do the work.

Finally, Certsure have released a video where NICEIC/ELECSA representatives Tony Cable and Darren Stanniforth discuss the brands' position on third party certification. You can view it here at this link.

Here at Access Training, we fully agree that DIYers shouldn't be attempting any form of electrical installation without the proper knowledge, training and qualifications to ensure that their work isn't a hazard to themselves or anybody else. However we also understand some of you will want to have a go at it yoursepves, which is why our range of electrical training courses is suitable for trainee electricans and DIY enthusiasts alike! At our Cardiff training centre, you'll be able to earn your 17th Edition Wiring and Part P qualifications, proving you skilled enough to join a Competent Person Scheme and tackle all sorts of domestic electrical work yourself.

To find out more, just give us a call on 0800 345 7492.

On Friday the 28th March the Electrical Safety Council was no more, relaunching with a new web site as Electrical Safety First. The rebranding is part of a new, ongoing campaign to raise public awareness of the dangers of electricity, after Government survey suggested awareness was at an all-time low. According to their data, only 14% of the general public were even aware of Part P!

The new name has come after 18 months of extensive research into what was already known about electrical safety. This didn't just extend to the general public - the Government, key stakeholders and even the industry itself were also scrutinised over what they knew about the dangers and what they knew about the Electrical Safety Council itself. It seems few knew that the Council was in fact a consumer charity, with many thinking it was either a trade association or part of the Government. So as a result of this, a name change was decided to reflect its nature as a charity.

However not everyone is pleased with the change, as some electricians have criticised dropping the more authoritative 'council' in favour of the more "more meaningless" 'first'. They believe that the name now lacks the respect it previously had and would have been far more suited to a campaign change rather than a charity. However Electrical Safety First defended the change, claiming that their research pointed to them needing a simpler name, along with easier to digest language to accompany it. 

Electrical Safety First say they've already secured significant media coverage to raise the profile of electrical safety, and this has started with the revival of famous 70s/80s public information animated series Charley Says. These films were the work of Richard Taylor Cartoons, and saw a little boy named Tony and his cat Charley learn valuable lessons on all manner of things. The new film is narrated/voiced by comedian David Walliams, who was excited to revive the series. "I loved Charley Says when growing up and I think it's great that Electrical Safety First is bringing the characters back to life and creating some new storylines," he said. "We've all had a go at mimicking Charley the cat's 'meow', so I just hope my version is up to scratch and will help people stay safe in the home."

You can view the new video here at the Electrical Safety First website.

Complicated electrical installations should always be left to the trained professionals, while if you would like to have a go at simpler tasks at home its vital that you AT LEAST have the 17th Edition Wiring Regulations and Part P qualifications. Whether you wish to gain electrician qualifications for professional or personal gain, we can help you achieve them with our intensive training courses here at Access Training. If you'd like to find out more about what our courses entail and book your place, give us a call on 0800 345 7492.