Paul,
I've often wondered about the need for a minimum age for Registration/Licencing of Electrical Workers.
The way I see it, most kids leave school at 16 here and go into a 4-5 year apprenticeship, so they are going to be 20- 21 before they are fully Registered, but being an Electrician, is more than just Electrical theory and Practices there's a whole host of other skills that are required to call yourself an Electrician.
For example, things like Manners, Ethics and other related Life Skills cannot be taught in a school or Tech.
Bearing in mind that an Electrician has other people's safety in thier hands, you really need a person like this to have a reasonable level of Life Experience behind them and know how to deal with people in all sorts of situations.
I was glad I had the chance to Experience life as a Paid Fire-fighter, before starting my Electrical training, it taught me a lot about life in general, that I would probably not have, had I gone straight from school to Tech. [Linked Image]