Electrician
🔧Installs and repairs wiring, consumer units, lighting and equipment in homes and factories. Knows where the danger is and makes the current go where it should.
Prospects & pay
What the work is like
💼 Job market
🇺🇸 $70.9k a year on average · +9.2% jobs by 2035 · 72,700 openings a year
Electricians — US: Census ACS 2020–24 (full-time), BLS projections 2025–35
🇬🇧 £39.7k median a year · 89,000 jobs
Electricians and electrical fitters — UK: ONS ASHE 2025 (full-time)
🤖 AI & automation
AI can help with calculations and fault-finding, but only a person can pull cable, build a distribution board and find a break inside a wall.
Who it suits
Interests: 🔧 Making things by hand, ⚙️ Tech and engineering, 🛡️ Protecting, rescuing, serving.
Key strengths: manual dexterity, logic, attention to detail.
Where to study
- Apprenticeship Installation electrician apprenticeship, Level 3 + AM2 (UK)
- Apprenticeship Elektroniker/in für Energie- und Gebäudetechnik (Ausbildung, DE)
- Apprenticeship Union (IBEW/JATC) or merit-shop apprenticeship, 4–5 years → journeyman licence (US)
Key school subjects (A-level / IB / AP): Maths, Physics.
🧗 3–4-year apprenticeship with college study: UK Level 3 plus AM2 assessment, German Ausbildung, US 4–5 years to a journeyman licence. Running your own firm needs a master electrician status.
Things to know
⚠️ Real danger to life🧗 Working at heights🛢️ Dirt, noise, smells
Similar careers
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