Plumber & Heating Engineer
🚰Installs and repairs water supply, heating and drains. Fixes leaks, fits boilers and water heaters, runs pipework in new homes.
Prospects & pay
What the work is like
💼 Job market
🇺🇸 $67.3k a year on average · +6.8% jobs by 2035 · 42,000 openings a year
Plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters — US: Census ACS 2020–24 (full-time), BLS projections 2025–35
🇬🇧 £38k median a year · 54,000 jobs
Plumbers & heating and ventilating installers and repairers — UK: ONS ASHE 2025 (full-time)
🤖 AI & automation
Close to irreplaceable: every home and every leak is unique. AI might suggest a diagram or a part, but the hands and know-how stay with the plumber.
Who it suits
Interests: 🔧 Making things by hand, ⚙️ Tech and engineering, 🏗️ Building and spaces.
Key strengths: manual dexterity, strength and stamina, logic.
Where to study
- Apprenticeship Plumbing and domestic heating technician apprenticeship, Level 3 (UK)
- Apprenticeship Anlagenmechaniker/in SHK (Ausbildung, DE)
- Apprenticeship Plumbing apprenticeship, 4–5 years → journeyman licence (US)
Key school subjects (A-level / IB / AP): Maths, Physics.
🧗 3–4-year apprenticeship: UK Level 3, plus Gas Safe registration to work on gas boilers; in Germany an Anlagenmechaniker SHK Ausbildung; in the US 4–5 years and a licence. Many go self-employed.
Things to know
🛢️ Dirt, noise, smells🌙 Night shifts and on-call
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