In what electrician role could this person be most useful?

[jic234]

Hi,

I wondered if I could ask a question about career options for a budding electrician?

My teen son is interested in becoming an electrician, having seen some of the City and Guilds videos on youtube, and having read two NVQ books.

He is quite an academic person but is attracted to the idea of a practical job, where he is not always stuck typing at a desk. He is good at physics and maths, but is not keen to keep maths on at A level.

He has a razor sharp instinct for grammar and spelling, and for written language. He can read very long books (300+ pages) with no pictures, very quickly, and can understand and remember every detail. He especially likes books of rules.

He is a bit autistic spectrum and doesn't get on with loud noises (e.g. power tools), or travelling a lot, and finds social communication a bit difficult. He likes the idea of fitting conduit in office buildings as they show on the City and Guild videos.

I wondered if you might know what the good niche is for a person like this, who has an interest in being an electrician?

We live in Cambridge, which is undergoing massive expansion at the moment, and it's almost impossible to get hold of an electrican to do work in our house, so I think there must definitely be work available.

I would be really grateful to hear your thoughts.

Thanks!

 

[plugsandsparks]

I can think of quite a few but off the top, a quiet job with a fixed journey time could be control panel building. This involves very good attention to detail, reading and interpreting electrical drawings and then the actual panel build which involves planning and fixing all the necessary cable management, control gear and wiring. In my career i started in the design office making the drawings for panel builders, then in the early days of working for myself, i sub-contracted to a firm that built its own panels for their specific industrial need. Both the design work and build can be a quiet relaxing atmosphere.
Hope this helps

 

[jic234]

I can think of quite a few but off the top, a quiet job with a fixed journey time could be control panel building. This involves very good attention to detail, reading and interpreting electrical drawings and then the actual panel build which involves planning and fixing all the necessary cable management, control gear and wiring. In my career i started in the design office making the drawings for panel builders, then in the early days of working for myself, i sub-contracted to a firm that built its own panels for their specific industrial need. Both the design work and build can be a quiet relaxing atmosphere.
Hope this helps

Thank you, this is really helpful to know. Do you know what sort of qualifications would be required to do this kind of work? Thanks!

 

[Rockingit]

It's a very broad industry now, with a lot of different routes to entry - so I'd be interested to hear the views of others - but generally speaking there's two routes - either apprenticeship (which at an 'everyday sparky level' will invariably involve lots of aspects that may not appeal to someone already facing some challenges) or academic by looking at an engineering option, which will involve engineering maths. Neither aspectic deserve to be a barrier to him enjoying what can be a great and fulfilling career. My advice would be to talk to some of your local technical colleges and ask their course leaders who is around in your area offering apprenticeships as you might find the chicken's tooth of someone looking for more design and project management rather than hammer bashers - rare, but they do exist.

 

[James]

If you are looking for panel building,

there are still some machine manufacturers in the uk,
i know of 2 within travel distance of Birmingham that recruit apprentices.
I am sure there will be more but they may be difficult to find.
sometimes a look online for machine builders near you might get you a few companies to try.

also to consider may be any form of electrical maintenance job, could be factory based or in time a traveling position.

if he has a head for heights and sticking to the rules (health and safety in particular) there is good money to be made installing and servicing wind turbines.

If he would prefer to be working in offices etc. then alongside electrical work, there is also data cabling and fibre cabling in offices, factories, hospitals etc.

 

[plugsandsparks]

Alternatively, if your son is academically gifted and rules based, there are other avenues which he may find more fulfilling, e.g. A degree in robotics, a degree in Electrical / electronic engineering, a degree in software development./cyber security.. All these areas require massive amounts of reading to acquire knowledge and being socially benign will be a distinct advantage at this stage.
As for panel building / control system design.... a degree would be a great start.
All the above may sound like desk work, but someone has to commission on-site, solve problems and or fix stuff.
I know, from my own experience with my kids, trying to guess a career at that age can be a shot in the dark. All i can say is the higher the academic skills, the more choices to jump from one career to another in the early years (20s)
You can view degree modules via the Uni website.

 

[jic234]

Thank you very much, that's really helpful.

If he likes that idea of doing trunking but really really dislikes the sound of power tools, then is that likely to be a non-starter?

 

[Teddy Lop]

Hi OP, sorry nothing to help specifically but with the trade apparently 25%+ to some degree on the spek you're looking in the right place; I think to be good demands intelligence/problem solving and can be challenging, so it (and various other trades) attract those with intellect but don't fit trad academic pursuits where perhaps more conformity is expected/ sameyness is experienced.

If it helps I hated hammer drills when I was 16. But Familiarity breeds contempt, He'll probably loath drongo-fm more within a week. But the key I think is to lean into it and don't be afraid to do what works for you, even when it seems obvious yet at the same time uncommon, such as pop in some ear plugs. Myself I struggle to concentrate with invasive noise, eg someone's using a kango while you're trying to have a meeting nearby, people are SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER KANGOGO-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH SHOOOUUUUUUUTTTTIIIINGG but I struggle to hold or express a thought, then I say "let's move this conversation to a different room", and they're like "wow brilliant idea" like you've just solved world hunger. But they'd have carried on hollering. Lean into it, because I think a lot of spectrum stuff is normie people stuff with just the levels and levers a bit out of wonk.

 

[jic234]

Hi OP, sorry nothing to help specifically but with the trade apparently 25%+ to some degree on the spek you're looking in the right place; I think to be good demands intelligence/problem solving and can be challenging, so it (and various other trades) attract those with intellect but don't fit trad academic pursuits where perhaps more conformity is expected/ sameyness is experienced.

If it helps I hated hammer drills when I was 16. But Familiarity breeds contempt, He'll probably loath drongo-fm more within a week. But the key I think is to lean into it and don't be afraid to do what works for you, even when it seems obvious yet at the same time uncommon, such as pop in some ear plugs. Myself I struggle to concentrate with invasive noise, eg someone's using a kango while you're trying to have a meeting nearby, people are SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER KANGOGO-DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH SHOOOUUUUUUUTTTTIIIINGG but I struggle to hold or express a thought, then I say "let's move this conversation to a different room", and they're like "wow brilliant idea" like you've just solved world hunger. But they'd have carried on hollering. Lean into it, because I think a lot of spectrum stuff is normie people stuff with just the levels and levers a bit out of wonk.

Thank you very much, this is all so sensible. It's really good of you to explain. I love this explanation: "a lot of spectrum stuff is normie people stuff with just the levels and levers a bit out of wonk.". I think you're absolutely right. A psychologist friend of mine told me that ASD was like taking a really high end custom built Hifi and putting all the cables in the wrong holes. He said "The result is amazing, but don't expect it to work like usual."