demand for electricians

pog it

Hi again,

No washing machine problems this time

Ok, I am thinking to get into electrical work, as in train to be an electrician as I am have become very very interested in it, and my impression of it is that there is a shortage of electricians around the country but due to construction slowing down big time I'm not so sure this will still apply.

Does anyone have any insights or advice about getting into this kinda work?

Thanks a mil.

RoundyMooney

I'm thinking of starting a career advice type thread actually.

I'll have a chat with stoner, and we'll see what we can come up with.

Skellington

Actually, more apprentice electricians go through the system every year, more so than any other trade. It's increased every year for the past 6/7 years. Electricians will never be that much, if at all, in demand.

fishdog

Electricians will never be that much, if at all, in demand.

Welcome to the platen earth.... On this part of the planet there seems to be a shortage of electricians.

In Ireland there has been demand in the construction sector beyond our wildest dreams! The demand for electricians has been massive! My phone rings sevral times a day with people looking for electrical work to be done and I have not been contracting in over a year!

Are you an electrician that can not find work?
I have not met an electrician in Ireland that could not find work as far back as I can remember.

Maybe I have just been lucky, but in 1991 I started serving my time. Since then I have never been out of work until I returned to study full time by choice in sept 2006

I have also noticed a large amout of foreign electricians in Ireland trying to meet the demand.

If you are a qualified electrician there are lots of courses you can do to build on your expertiese (instrumentation, PLC programing etc.). There are jobs in the maintenance sector as well as construction. Even when a building is wired it is impossible to future proof it 100%.

I think that if you are a half reasonable electrician you will always be able to find work.

I will be interested to see if any electricians post here telling me that I am wrong.

Oilrig

"I think that if you are a half reasonable electrician you will always be able to find work."

That's it in a nutshell, the good guys will always get work, the cowboys will fall by the wayside.

And, there have been a lot of cowboys on the wagon train in recent years...

RoundyMooney

That's for sure.

On the flipside, standards have improved immensely, since say 1991, when fishdog started (I'd be in the same ballpark myself).

Generally standards are good, in my experience, but like the little girl, when they're bad, they're horrid.

Anyway, any thoughts on a career sticky, to answer questions like the OP?

Stoner

TBH in Ireland we register a huge amount of electricians, very similar to the amount in England , although they are not registering enough due the the practice of sub contracting stopping the need for big contractors to hire apprentices, so that says something I guess, also there are a lot of guys looking for work at the moment in the industrial, domestical, commercial market.
It might be the the case that Irish sparks will be back over in the UK again as unless they start taking on apprentices again their skilled workforce will age.

fishdog

standards have improved immensely, since say 1991, when fishdog started

...and clearly the implication here from RoundyMooney is that this is not just a coincidence:D:D . I have to admit one or two others did help a bit!

Thanks!

TBH in Ireland we register a huge amount of electricians

Do you mean we qualify/train too many electricians??

although they are not registering enough due the the practice of sub contracting stopping the need for big contractors to hire apprentices

Or not enough??

there are a lot of guys looking for work at the moment in the industrial, domestical, commercial market.

Or too many??

Sorry, I dont follow what you are trying to say Stoner

bertie1

There are currently nearly 2000 electrical appprentice registered with Fas in various stages of training , those numbers are down on this time last year but not by much , I would say there are plenty of registered apprentices in the system .

Stoner

Fishdog,

I'm saying that getting a job as a sparks now is a little harder then last year, i.e. there are more sparks out there.

The UK guys are not bringing enough apprentices through the system, they dont want the hastle factor (it's huge here too, it's next to impossible to deal with an apprentice with their whole special place in employment law) So companies want a flexible dynamic workforce that they can up and down as they please, so they hire subbies as they finish up after a contract and can have the labour cost fixed. They subbies go from job to job and cant keep apprentices in work // contineous work so they are not taking them on.
That as I understand it is the case in the UK, so it might be a good market again for Irish sparks

fishdog

I see what you mean. Thanks Stoner.

I still think that if you are a good sparks and not afraid of hard work you will always have work and be able to make a few bob.