About This Career

Helps electricians by performing duties requiring less skill. Duties include using, supplying, or holding materials or tools, and cleaning work area and equipment.

This career is part of the Architecture and Construction cluster Construction pathway.

A person in this career:

• Strips insulation from wire ends, using wire stripping pliers, and attaches wires to terminals for subsequent soldering.
• Traces out short circuits in wiring, using test meter.
• Measures, cuts, and bends wire and conduit, using measuring instruments and hand tools.
• Examines electrical units for loose connections and broken insulation and tightens connections, using hand tools.
• Maintains tools, vehicles, and equipment and keeps parts and supplies in order.
• Constructs controllers and panels, using power drills, drill presses, taps, saws, and punches.
• Cleans work area and washes parts.
• Performs semi-skilled and unskilled laboring duties related to the installation, maintenance and repair of a wide variety of electrical systems and equipment.
• Threads conduit ends, connects couplings, and fabricates and secures conduit support brackets, using hand tools.
• Disassembles defective electrical equipment, replaces defective or worn parts, and reassembles equipment, using hand tools.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 20 lbs., sometimes up to 50 lbs. You might do a lot of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.
• Work in this occupation requires climbing things such as ladders, scaffold, and poles more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
• Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
• Requires getting into awkward positions
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Exposed to conditions such as high voltage electricity, combustibles, explosives, and chemicals more than once a month
• Exposed to hazardous equipment such as saws, machinery, or vehicular traffic more than once a month
• Work in this occupation involves kneeling, crouching, stooping, and/or crawling more than one-third of the time
• Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
• Work in this occupation requires being outside most of the time
• Work in this occupation involves making repetitive motions more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves standing more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves walking or running more than one-third of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Maintaining a body position that prevents falling when in an unstable position
• Identifying color and seeing differences in color, including shades and brightness
• Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching
• Seeing clearly up close
• Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
• Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring

Work Hours and Travel

• Irregular hours