Electrician

Types of Degrees Electrician Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many electrician graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Undergraduate Certificate	12,975
Basic Certificate	9,791
Associate Degree	2,997

What Electrician Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, electrician majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Electrician Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in electrician should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Building and Construction - Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.

Skills for Electrician Majors

When studying electrician, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Quality Control Analysis - Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
• Troubleshooting - Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.

Abilities for Electrician Majors

As you progress with your electrician degree, there are several abilities you should pick up that will help you in whatever related career you choose. These abilities include:

• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

What Can You Do With a Electrician Major?

People with a electrician degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Electricians	8.9%	$55,190
First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers	12.6%	$65,230
Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installers	14.2%	$47,190
Signal and Track Switch Repairers	2.0%	$70,490

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Electrician

Some degrees associated with electrician may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to electrician have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	4.6%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	26.7%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	41.9%
Some College Courses	14.4%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	10.8%
Bachelor’s Degree	2.9%

Online Electrician Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	358	3
Certificate (2-4 Years)	43	0
Associate’s Degree	212	1
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Electrician

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to electrician.

Major	Number of Grads
Lineworker	2,181
General Electrical & Power Transmission Installation/Installer	1,861
Other Electrical & Power Transmission Installers	99

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Fran Hogan under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.