Day November 25, 2025

If you're a qualified electrician outside the UK wondering whether you can work here, the answer is yes, but not immediately. Foreign electrical qualifications are not automatically recognised in the UK. You need to prove your competency meets UK standards through a structured conversion process that typically takes 6-12 months and costs £5,000-£8,000. This matters because the UK is experiencing one of its worst electrician shortages in decades. The workforce has dropped 26.2% since 2018, falling from 214,200 electricians to around 158,000 today.

You can become an electrician if you're colour blind. It's legal, it's possible, and thousands of colour-blind electricians work successfully across the UK right now. But there are additional considerations, adaptations, and barriers you need to understand before pursuing this career. Here's the context that matters. Colour vision deficiency affects approximately 8% of UK men and 0.5% of women, totalling around 3 million people. This isn't a rare condition. It's mainstream. The most common types are protan (reduced sensitivity to red, affecting 2% of males) and deutan (reduced sensitivity to green, affecting 6% of males).

The question comes up constantly from learners approaching the end of their electrical training: “Do I take AM2, AM2E, or AM2S?” Closely followed by: “What’s the difference?” and “Which one is harder?” Honestly, the confusion is understandable because all three are practical end-point assessments lasting 2.5 days, all test installation, testing, isolation, and fault-finding skills, and all lead to ECS Gold Card eligibility when paired with the right qualifications. Here’s the thing. The difference isn’t difficulty or rigour. It’s which training route you’ve come through.