Gunsmithing/Gunsmith

Types of Degrees Gunsmithing/Gunsmith Majors Are Getting

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

Education Level	Number of Grads
Associate Degree	975
Undergraduate Certificate	809
Basic Certificate	170

What Gunsmithing/Gunsmith Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to gunsmithing/gunsmith were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Gunsmithing/Gunsmith Majors

Gunsmithing/Gunsmith majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• Physics - Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub- atomic structures and processes.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

Skills for Gunsmithing/Gunsmith Majors

When studying gunsmithing/gunsmith, 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:

• Operation Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
• Troubleshooting - Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Operation and Control - Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

Abilities for Gunsmithing/Gunsmith Majors

Some of the most crucial abilities to master while a gunsmithing/gunsmith student include the following:

• 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.
• 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.
• Perceptual Speed - The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
• Control Precision - The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.

What Can You Do With a Gunsmithing/Gunsmith Major?

People with a gunsmithing/gunsmith degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Geothermal Technicians	8.2%	$39,320

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Gunsmithing/Gunsmith

Some degrees associated with gunsmithing/gunsmith may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for gunsmithing/gunsmith careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	56.5%
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)	32.5%
Some College Courses	7.3%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	0.9%
Bachelor’s Degree	2.9%

Online Gunsmithing/Gunsmith 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)	10	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	2	0
Associate’s Degree	13	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 Gunsmithing/Gunsmith

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to gunsmithing/gunsmith.

Major	Number of Grads
Musical Instrument Fabrication & Repair	171
Watchmaking & Jewelrymaking	103
Locksmithing & Safe Repair	44
Precision Systems Maintenance & Repair Technologies, Other	18
Parts & Warehousing Operations & Maintenance Technology/Technician	11

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 Phasmatisnox under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.