There may be a mechanical technician out there who will be very offended by what I say but the impression I get is this. To resolve all but the most basic problems with electrical/electronic systems safely does require a certain level of skill i.e. a technician. A lot of what goes wrong with a purely mechanical system is going to be quite basic, so could be resolved by relatively unskilled people. Many systems aren't purely mechanical, and often when they break you're going to send a technician who's qualified to do the electrical side of a system. If they're smart enough to do that, you can train them to sort out the basic mechanical problems, so they can sort that out too if that's what it turns out to be. I know I'm making sweeping generalisations and I'm sure there are some very skilled mechanical techs out there and some would say I am talking arrant nonsense, but that's my take on why the 'career space' for somebody with electrical/electronic skills is bigger. Unless you are passionately keen to be a mechanical tech or you really hate the smell of solder

it's a no brainer to my mind.
The environment I will be working in is like a very big chemical plant where they have many different systems in place and if you take the EC&I route you will do a lot of fault finding , calibration to equipment and so on .
I have been told that due to the environment I will obviously have to do and be taught basic mechanical work as well to be able to do my job .
When I asked some of the current EC&I guys they said it is a lot harder to get recognition while doing this work compared to the mechs and harder to get promotions but it’s still there .
Right now I am 99% sold into doing the EC&I path rather than the MECH path as like you said in the future and on the job it won’t be hard to pick up mech skills but it will be hard to pick up electrical skills without long training.
My one and only concern is , let’s say when I need a job change into other fields / companies , how readily Avaliable / needed are EC&I techs ?
We always hear about mech techs moving into other fields for example one of our guys went into TFL and another into a car company , but what about the electrical side ?
I haven’t really heard stories of electrical guys moving about - so I have nothing to go off .
So, are there electrical jobs readily available/ in demand in sectors like the railway and let’s say the airport / aeroplane side of it ?
What potential jobs could I go into in the future if I ever need to leave my current position as an EC&I tech ...