Electrician Apprentice Jobs | Description and Salary of Electrical Apprenticeship Programs

Electricians get both classroom and on-the-job training and education in apprenticeship programs.  One of the great advantages to electrician apprentice jobs is that you are getting a valuable education in a high demand, high skill job and you get paid while you do it.  

Similarly to getting a college education, most of these apprenticeship programs last for 4 years.  Again, the most important and attractive differences is that you get paid instead of you paying them.

It's a mix of classroom and field training.  A typical year will involve around 145 hours of classroom, learning the basics like electrical theory, reading blue prints and safety training.  The apprentice will also be applying that in about 2,000 hours of hands-on field training.

The median wage for experienced electricians is $22.32 an hour. High end earners in the top 10% make $38.18 an hour while the bottom 10% make $13.54. The average electrician makes $50,850 a year.

Those who are in an apprentice electrician job can expect to make between 30-50 percent of those wage ranges depending on their experience.  Apprentices get raises as their skill level and experience increases over their 4 years of training.

Just like in any job training, the apprentice works under the supervision of an experienced electrician. They start out with simple tasks, usually shadowing the trainer extensively at the beginning. They also learn to use tools like the Fluke 87 multimeter to take readings and localize electrical problems.

Then as classroom learning and hands on experience increase, the apprentice is tasked with increasingly more difficult and complex tasks. By the end of the program, apprentices should be pretty much everything that a full fledged electrician can do.

Many states require electricians to be certified before they can start working on their own. In addition, those who work directly with the public, as opposed to on constructions sites or for industrial factories, need special licensing as well. You should look up your own state's licensing requirements as you look into this profession.

Advancing in this career probably means that you will become a supervisor, manager or project manager.  You will be involved in drawing up electrical plans, making sure the plan gets executed and overseeing other electricians and apprentices who are working on the job site.  It is also increasingly important for supervisors to speak Spanish as the Hispanic demographic is a growing workforce for the construction industry.

In terms of the job prospects for electricians, there are almost 700,000 jobs in 2008. Around 65 percent worked for electrical contractors and the rest worked for specific industries. 9 percent were self-employed independent contractors.

It is projected that the available jobs will increase by 12% over the next decade. This is due to a consistently growing population in the US which will require new buildings for work and home. In addition, as technology advances, it will require more and more electrical work to be set up and maintained.

For more on the highest paying jobs in America, you can read my hub on that topic. You may or may not be surprised by the jobs that top that list.  The information on that list also comes for the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency of the US Department of Labor.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics

All of the data used in this hub came from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.  This is a government agency that tracks employment and jobs data across the country.  They also provide research and release industry trends.