[RyanLee]

Hi, I'm 1 1/2 years into becoming an electrician and want to know if there are any higher jobs, office-based, an electrician could take, obviously paying more than an electrician...
If so, what additional qualifications would be required?

[Riderz]

Most seem to go into self employment, or get really good at a specialised area. Once you're qualified and can do a good job there is nothing separating a 20 year old sparky from a 50 year old one in terms of wages and what have you. Thing is by 50 you have a house, kids, wife etc, whereas at 20 you dont, so it seems good money.

[murpo]

You could become the prime minister

[thefish_uk]

(Original post by RyanLee)
Hi, I'm 1 1/2 years into becoming an electrician and want to know if there are any higher jobs, office-based, an electrician could take, obviously paying more than an electrician...
If so, what additional qualifications would be required?

I think the way of simply "working your way up" from being an electrician would be to progress to being an electrical foreman on a construction site, to possibly reaching the stage where you're based in a central office helping to plan new jobs (though I'm not sure how far you can get before you're into graduate engineer territory). The problem with this though is the culture in the construction industry where you need years behind you - a lot of people on site have difficulty taking instructions from someone younger than them, even when that person has a degree / professional qualifications that they don't!

You could look at a route towards becoming a building services engineer which means being involved in the design / planning and mostly office based. You could look at getting into a Junior / Trainee Technician role at a consultancy or contractor - these are the people who produce the drawings which the people on site will follow. I'm not sure exactly what qualifications are required, I think it might be A-levels or equivalent. A lot of Technicians study part-time for a degree and aim to move to an Engineer post - and once they've got it, professional qualification as a Chartered Engineer can come very quickly as they've been gaining experience all those years.

If you can pick up the necessary qualifications as you work as an electrician, you should find that having experience of working on site helps a lot with your progression - you will have the hands-on understanding of what it's like to actually build something, and you will know how to get along with people on construction sites, both things which new school leavers and graduates tend to lack!