Skilled trade careers involve those that deal with specific skills and knowledge needed in the completion of a task. These skills and knowledge are rather mechanical, electrical or technological in nature. Skilled trade careers play an important role in the country’s trade, industries as well as economy.
Individuals with skilled trade training or background deal or interact with most aspects of human living, including homes, electricity, plumbing, and even with the food that we eat. In general, skilled trade careers are involved with construction, as well as manufacturing.
There are around two hundred skilled trades existing but most of them can be categorized into specific groups or divisions. The following skilled trade careers are some of these categories:
1. Welding Technician/ Personnel
Welding is a form of skilled trade career involving the use of special equipments and materials to join metals and plating for construction of beams and other parts of building, bridges and other infrastructures. There are various forms of welding, such as shielded metal arc welding or stick welding, gas metal arc welding, flux core arc welding and gas tungsten arc welding. Welding may be used for pipe welding, shipyard jobs, avionic jobs and others.
2. Electrical Careers
Electrical careers are skilled trade careers dealing with electricity, its utilization, conduction and manipulation. Electricians or electrical technicians are responsible for the maintenance, restructuring and rehabilitation, design and evaluation of electrical systems of infrastructure, buildings, homes and others. Electrical skilled trade careers may also involve working with electrical cables, electrical circuits, computer networking, fiber optics technology and telecommunications circuits and systems.
3. Energy Careers
Energy skilled trade careers are concerned with the production, conversion, transportation, conduction, and amplification of energy. These skilled trade careers deal with energy, whether they be electrical, geothermal, or mechanical, from its source, until its destinations. Energy skilled trade careers also involve the design, maintenance and repair of machines or technology to be used for the various processes involving energy.
Some skilled trade energy careers include:
- Geothermal Careers
- Solar Energy Careers
- Wind Energy Careers
4. Plumbing Careers
Plumbing skilled trade careers involve anything that has to do with water systems, from tanks to water deliveries to pipes and to faucets and others. Personnels working in skilled trade careers that involve plumbing function by installing, maintaining and repair of pipes or other water delivery structures.
5. Heating, Ventilation and Conditioning (HVAC) personnel
Skilled trade careers, specifically heating, ventilation and conditioning careers, deal with the installation, maintenance, upgrade and repair of technology and equipments responsible for the control of temperature (interior heating and cooling) as well as the control of air that enters, stays in and goes out of a building.
