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how to become an electrician that's what
we're going to talk about in today's
video you may be a young person thinking
you're about to leave school and you're
trying to decide what are you going to
do with your life it's a big decision
and
if you are at school you might be in a
similar position to i was in where they
are kind of pushing you towards going to
university but if you've got your wits
about you you might realize that
actually getting a career in the trades
has a lot of potential because there's
always work for trades people whether
it's electricians plumbers carpenters
there's plenty of work for trades people
out there and you can earn good money so
you might be thinking about becoming an
electrician but wonder
how can i go about it so we'll cover
that aspect we're also going to cover
the aspect of what if you are
in a career at the moment maybe you're a
bit older you've been doing a certain
job for a while and you're just a bit
fed up and you want a career change
how can you become an electrician later
in life if you want a career change but
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so i'm jordan i'm an electrician i run
artisan electrics and
i personally became an electrician by
the apprenticeship route what is an
apprenticeship
well an apprenticeship it's basically
a
set up where you work and you learn at
the same time which is fantastic because
it means that you can work develop
skills learn the theory and also earn a
bit of money at the same time so unlike
college where you're just learning
learning learning but you're not earning
earning earning
you
will get the benefits of both if you do
an apprenticeship now to be honest
apprentice wages are very low they're
actually below minimum wage but every
little helps
and the fact is that being out on site
learning the real work on the tools as
well as having time in college is just
such a great way to learn
so how it usually works is that you will
have one day a week in college
and then the rest of the week you'll be
out on site working with the company who
you're doing your apprenticeship with
and that usually involves you being put
with a qualified experienced electrician
as a helper to him or her so that they
can train you
and help you to develop your skills and
to put into practice the theory that
you've been learning in college so that
was what i did i did an apprenticeship
it usually lasts three to four years
and as time goes by in the
apprenticeship what tends to happen is
you spend less and less time at college
and more and more time working and there
are exams along the way and then a final
exam at the end which is called the am2
where you basically get tested on your
practical skills
and that enables you along with your
portfolio of work that you've developed
over the years basically the evidence
that shows that you can do various types
of electrical work that with the am2
gives you the qualification that you
need to become a qualified electrician
having an mvq3 in electrical
installations i believe it's called
so
for for young people who are just
getting out of school or college that is
probably the best route to take if you
can
now it's not always easy to find an
apprenticeship number one college spaces
are limited unfortunately colleges are
massively understaffed at the moment
there aren't enough teachers to teach
the electrical courses
and so if you phone round the colleges
you might well find that they've got
waiting lists for people to get on an
apprenticeship program in the first
place there are a few things that you
can do to make yourself stand out and
give yourself a better chance of being
able to get an apprenticeship
and then when you are an apprentice
how do you make sure that you're a good
apprentice so that your employer keeps
you and invests in you for the future
well i'll make a separate video about
that so i'll leave a link
up here
where you can watch that video about how
to get an apprenticeship and how to be a
good apprentice
next i want to talk to you who might be
watching this who are a little bit older
later in life thinking about a career
change there are two routes that you can
take if you are an adult learner who is
trying to become an electrician and
potentially do a career change number
one is you can put yourself on a short
course
so short courses they tend to be like 30
days or something like that there's a
lot of controversy about these kind of
courses in the industry because to be
brutally honest it's impossible to
become a good electrician by doing a
30-day course it's just not possible
being becoming a good electrician
qualified and experienced and competent
takes years of hard work
so you could do a 30-day course and it
might teach you to pass the exams so
that on paper you're a qualified
electrician but realistically
you're not going to be ready to send out
into um into the real world to do
installs by yourself it's just it's just
too risky i really wouldn't recommend it
unless it is your only option and if you
do do those short courses what i would
say is you need to back it up with at
least a year or more
of actual work experience as just like
an electrician's mate
with a good
firm of electricians who can keep an eye
on you do quality control on your work
train you
properly
in how to do things in the real world
the other option is the option that luke
took he basically did night school
um so he was still working his day job
then in the evenings he would go to
college one day a week paid for his
course to be able to get through the mvq
so he did that over a period of about
two years i think
that takes longer
but sometimes longer is better because
slow and steady wins the race and
gaining that experience over time slowly
absorbing it learning how things work in
the real world is absolutely the best
way if you can because of how dedicated
and enthusiastic luke is about what he
wants to do to become a qualified
electrician we took him on and he's
progressing really really well so that
hopefully in the next few months he will
pass his mvq
portfolio will be completed he'll do his
am2 and he will be fully qualified but
he will also be experienced because he
spent a year
or at least quite a few months with us
working on the tools we've been training
him fine-tuning his skills so he's not
just got a piece of paper that says he's
a qualified electrician but he's got the
skills knowledge and experience needed
to work to our high standard so those
are the three ways really get an
apprenticeship if you can put yourself
through the course it will take some
investment either night school or
short course if you don't have any other
choice but get that experience as well
working with a company even if you have
to work for free for a while just to
gain experience it will pay off in the
long run so i hope that is helpful to
any of you who are thinking about
becoming an electrician make sure you
check out some more of our videos
because we've got loads of
videos all about what electrician life
is like
and you might even learn a few things
from watching our videos pick up a few
tips and i'd love to know all your
thoughts in the comments below what is
your situation are you looking to get
into the industry
have you done one of those paths that i
have been talking about in this video
and if so how did you find it let us
know all your thoughts in the comments
below and if you haven't hit a like yet
please do it helps subscribe if you
haven't done so already and we'll see
you on the next one
