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The figures explaining how much Plumbers can earn is often talked about in the papers. The lack of Plumbers in the UK has led to salaries of 30-70k p.a. being exhibited. Is this really a fib – or is this in fact accurate? For the competent and correctly skilled person, this level of salary is realistic. In fact, earnings in excess of 70 – 100k p.a. are achievable – but that is solely for those who work within the self-employed market-place, rather than those who work within established employment routes.

If you enter the traditional work environment, primarily working for an established employer, then working hours of Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm are standard. Furthermore from a UK employer, the usual perks are holiday pay and sickness allowance, as well as salaries of between 15k and 30k p.a. Whilst the ability to earn more than through normal means exists, the self-employed plumber usually has to consider working longer hours. This is clear when self employed plumbers have to work evenings and weekends, where their domestic clients are working during the day.

On a personal level remains the issue self-employment, something that does not become everybody. Finally there is good ‘business sense’, such as getting the hourly rate correct, advertising and marketing budgets spot on which are all important. Likewise self-employed people need to consider the implications of costs relating to materials and transport as well as legal and accountancy fees etc. Whilst it is expected that the benefits will be high, the costs can mount up though they should always remain a small part of the income overall. Certainly the downsides are virtually always beaten by the income!

Initially, by searching for standard work a Student Entrant can get the majority of training especially with working knowledge and experience. Alternatively, the Self Employed Entrant needs to quickly establish those certificates that they will rely on in industry. In fairness it is the ‘domestic’ market rather than the commercial sector that attracts the majority of the self-employed workers in the UK. (Whilst not everyone does the majority do!)

There does appear to be some union between certification relating to each path of Plumbing education and hence the industry. A key debate however comes into play when considering the issue of NVQ’s (SVQ’s in Scotland.)

From the beginning the Student Entrant instead of the Self Employed Entrant is much more reliant upon the NVQ requirements. In order to meet their client’s expectations the Self Employed Entrant will often need to use a greater range of certifications. Certainly, it is the qualifications aimed at meeting the needs of the typical household-based client base that self-employed persons need to focus upon. Having covered off the key elements of training within the college, the Student Entrant usually then enters the apprenticeship stage within the workplace – where the NVQ element can be assessed. By using this cheaper form of study the Student Entrant can make sound financial savings from the outset. It is often by gaining certifications faster, by being motivated by a more commercial standpoint that the Self Employed Entrant will achieve considerable financial benefits before a Student Entrant.

This clearly demonstrates the need for talk about careers, covering the certification and study required along with the expected financial rewards. It would generate serious hardship, for example, for an adult requiring 20k p.a. (to provide for their family,) to go back to college and spend 3 years in low-paid apprenticeship work. Furthermore, many Student Entrants have their studies paid for them whereas the self-employed students fund the variety of course themselves. For self-employed people these costs are set by the course structure and the level of certification sought and can end up between 3k-10k+.

Student Entrants will in the main study at further-education colleges, the Self Employed student however has the option to consider the increased scope of private commercial colleges. Commercially oriented plumbing course companies will provide an established path of training which ultimately leads into recognised skill-sets and qualifications. Of a key opportunity is the ability to train out of hours – evening, part time and self study classes that allows Self Employed Entrants to continue training whilst continuing with their job and maintaining their financial situation. Considering so many options on hand it is clever to gather data from as many sources as one can. We have provided adverts and links from several to allow you to come back and review your options, so why not book mark this page (CTRL-D).

Many plumbing students will go on to consider additional courses to increase their ‘marketability’. Key certificates in areas such as Gas, Green Energy and Electrical training can be provided by these courses. Gas training has always been a route for Plumbers to consider, as this forms part of the common domestic and commercial heating system.

With core subjects followed by NVQ’s, Gas Training is a thorough and exact training program. For those who trained as a plumber first and are now looking at extra skills this also offers many options for their on-going development. It could be said that the blend of training covering Plumbing/Gas training is better matched to the mature student. For the Mature Student the emphasis appears to be reducing the NVQ elements and focussing on the core subjects.

From this, the self-employed professional appears to suit the variable training schemes. To earn money whilst at the same time as gaining a wider range of perceived skills becomes a desirable prospect. This further enhances their commercial offering, instead of sub-contracting key skills to a third party. Of equal concern is the lowering of customer value as they have to wait for essentials to be handled by others and the reduction of the overall earning potential that ensues from sub-contraction. To have a higher value within their client base a Plumber needs to consider their relative skill sets that they offer.

Finally, whilst the Student Entrant breaks into the industry more quickly the Self Employed Entrant has the opportunity for higher potential earnings, but to do so they need to develop a broader range of certifications and a higher level of business skill sets. Note: The above information is solely relative to the UK market, industry requirements and policies.

Copyright Scott Edwards. Look at www.Careers-Advisor.co.uk/caradvf.html or Plumbing and Heating Courses.

The CompTIA A+ course covers 4 different sectors – the requirement is exam passes in 2 specialities to be seen as competent in A+. Because of this, many training establishments restrict their A+ to just two of the 4 sectors. To us, this is selling you short – of course you can gain accreditation, but knowledge of every section will set you apart in industry, where you’ll need a more comprehensive understanding. That’s the reason why you should train in everything.

Qualifying in CompTIA A+ on its own will set you up to fix and maintain stand-alone PC’s and MAC’s; ones that are most often not part of a network – essentially the domestic or small business sector.

Should you fancy yourself as the person who is involved with a big team – supporting, fixing and maintaining networks, you’ll need to add CompTIA Network+, or consider an MCSA or MCSE with Microsoft as you’ll need a deeper understanding of how networks function.

Remember: the actual training program or a qualification isn’t what this is about; a job you’re training for is. Far too many training organisations place too much importance on the piece of paper.

Students often train for a single year but end up doing the actual job for 10-20 years. Don’t make the mistake of choosing what sounds like a program of interest to you only to waste your life away with a job you hate!

Stay tuned-in to what you want to achieve, and create a learning-plan from that – not the other way round. Keep on track and ensure that you’re training for an end-result that’ll reward you for many long and fruitful years.

All students are advised to speak to an industry professional before they embark on a training program. This is required to ensure it has the required elements for the career that is sought.

We’re often asked why academic qualifications are being replaced by more commercially accredited qualifications?

With university education costs spiralling out of control, along with the industry’s general opinion that corporate based study is closer to the mark commercially, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA accredited training routes that supply key solutions to a student at a fraction of the cost and time involved.

Vendor training works through concentrating on the skills that are really needed (together with an appropriate level of associated knowledge,) instead of going into the heightened depths of background ‘extras’ that computer Science Degrees often do (because the syllabus is so wide).

The bottom line is: Accredited IT qualifications give employers exactly what they’re looking for – the title is a complete giveaway: i.e. I am a ‘Microsoft Certified Professional’ in ‘Windows XP Administration and Configuration’. So employers can identify exactly what they need and what certifications will be suitable to deal with those needs.

A service offered by some training providers is a programme of Job Placement assistance. The service is put in place to help you get your first commercial position. The fact of the matter is it isn’t so complicated as you might think to land your first job – once you’re trained and certified; the shortage of IT personnel in Britain looks after that.

Ideally you should have help with your CV and interview techniques though; and we’d encourage everyone to work on polishing up their CV right at the beginning of their training – don’t procrastinate and leave it until you’ve graduated or passed any exams.

It’s not uncommon to find that junior support roles have been offered to students who are still learning and haven’t got any qualifications yet. This will at least get you into the ‘maybe’ pile of CV’s – rather than the ‘No’ pile.

If you’d like to get employment in your home town, then you may well find that a local IT focused recruitment consultancy might serve you better than the trainer’s recruitment division, because they’re far more likely to have insider knowledge of the jobs that are going locally.

In a nutshell, as long as you focus the same level of energy into securing your first IT position as into training, you won’t find it too challenging. A number of men and women bizarrely spend hundreds of hours on their course materials and then just stop once certified and appear to be under the impression that jobs will come to them.

Can job security really exist anymore? In the UK for example, with businesses changing their mind on a whim, there doesn’t seem much chance.

However, a marketplace with high growth, where staff are in constant demand (as there is a massive shortage of properly qualified professionals), enables the possibility of real job security.

Taking a look at the IT sector, a recent e-Skills investigation demonstrated a 26 percent shortfall of skilled workers. To explain it in a different way, this shows that the UK can only find 3 certified professionals for each 4 job positions that exist at the moment.

Appropriately trained and commercially grounded new employees are accordingly at a complete premium, and it seems it will continue to be so for a long time to come.

No better time or market conditions is ever likely to exist for getting trained into this quickly expanding and evolving business.

Copyright 2009 Scott Edwards. Check out Click HERE or Access 2003 Training.