The problem at the moment is not so much getting to be a Plumber/Gas Engineer but the cost of labour. The market at the moment seems terribly crowded and with what seems a recession on the way, it would appear work would be set to become scarce indeed.
The thing is of course this will probably affect wages and prices. I read an article that BG said they advertised 500 apprenticeships and got 65,000 applications. People still seem to be wanting to pile into the industry as they have been doing for a few years now.
But if we are not careful prices and wage rates will drop so low it will hardly be worth going into the industry from an earnings point of view.
Another reason people seem to be piling in, is that lets be honest there are not all that many alternatives trades available, we no long have many skilled shipyard or factory jobs on the scale we once had. So to get out of the National Minimum Wage trap, and at least earn a living wage whether working self employed or employed, people are going for the trades they can get into, such as electrician, carpenter, plumber, bricklayer, which of course is helped by the trainers wanting to sell courses so they can survive. Lets be honest you can easily get on a course to be any of the construction trades.
It wasn't helped by somebody saying you can earn as much as perhaps 3 or 4 times the minimum wage working in this area either. If you where stuck on the minimum wage, wouldn't you have a go?
The problem is we don't seem to have many other skilled jobs at this level left in the UK, so its only natural people will pile into it the few we do have. The other area skilled work we do have, seems to require a minimum of a university degree, so I suppose unless we can go to uni for a couple of years we can't apply for them. And if you have house to pay for and kids to keep how are you going to finance a uni course?
What we really need are more skilled jobs, such as metal workers, mechanics, engineers, welders and so on. We will probably only get that though, when the cash people realise you can earn just as much investing in industry than you can in stocks and shares and banks. Lets be honest stocks and shares and bank cash can vanish overnight as seems to have been adequately demonstrated by the financial crisis.
I remember vast industrial estates full of working factories, with all kinds of jobs. They seem to have mostly all gone and the factory and skilled jobs they had paying a living wage with them.
I doubt though, the system is going to change that quick, so I suppose we had better get accustomed to much lower wages and prices as competition for work gets hotter and hotter.
And don't forget governments perhaps like it like that, and so do the public, it keeps inflation down and its the way markets work.
But lets hope it keeps wages and prices fair, and doesn't lead to wholesale company closures and job losses in the industry.
