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Major · Construction Trades

Install, energize, maintain — the broad electrical installer credential

This major prepares students to install and maintain residential, commercial, and industrial electrical systems alongside the power transmission lines that feed them. About 570 credentials are awarded each year across 53 colleges, almost entirely at the associate’s level. The career destinations skew toward the utility and substation side rather than building wiring.

Schools offering
53
Annual completions
570
Typical degree level
Associate's
Median earnings (5yr)
$76k

About this major

This program teaches the technical foundations to install and maintain both indoor electrical systems and the outdoor power transmission lines that supply them. Coursework spans electricity and electronics fundamentals, wiring methods, insulation and grounding, blueprint and schematic reading, equipment operation, and the codes and standards that govern energized work. The hands-on share is heavy: lab panels, mock substations, conduit and termination work, and pole or trainer-yard climbing time depending on the school. CDL and OSHA coursework are common add-ons because most graduates end up on utility or contractor crews.

Students drawn to this credential typically want a trade that is technically demanding and physically active without being purely indoor or purely overhead. The mindset rewarded is procedural — energized circuits, grounding sequences, and protective-relay logic all punish improvisation. Mechanical comfort with hand tools, voltage instruments, and heavy equipment helps. Comfort with codes, schematics, and printed standards matters as much as physical readiness, because the work is rule-bound by design.

About 570 credentials are awarded annually across 53 colleges, all at the associate’s level. The dominant career destinations from the packet are electrical power-line installer and repairer ($92,560 BLS median, 6.6% projected growth) and powerhouse, substation, and relay repairer ($100,940 median, 5.5% growth). Median earnings five years after completion run about $76,431. The relatively low completion count reflects how universities roll many of these students into broader installer or trades categories rather than any scarcity of utility hiring demand.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
First-line supervisors of mechanics, installers, and repairers $78k +3.1% High school diploma or equivalent
Electrical power-line installers and repairers $93k +6.6% High school diploma or equivalent
Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation, and relay $101k +5.5% Postsecondary nondegree award
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$76k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you want a trade credential that opens both line-side and substation-side utility paths rather than committing to overhead linework alone, you are physically capable of climbing and working in variable weather but also comfortable with instrument-heavy substation work, you respond well to procedural discipline around lethal-energy hazards, you prefer regulated utility employers with pension and benefit structures over residential contracting, and you want an associate’s-level path with five-year completer earnings around $76,431 rather than a four-year academic route.

Think twice if you already know you want pole-and-tower line work specifically — the dedicated Lineworker major (CIP 46.0303) is the cleaner credential and several of the named lineman academies host it. Think twice also if your interest is residential or commercial building wiring, where the Electrician major (CIP 46.0302, 3,003 annual completions) is far larger and more focused. The 570-completion footprint is small partly because programs at this CIP code overlap heavily with both siblings, so picking the right CIP for your actual target work matters more than the credential title.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Electrical and Power Transmission Installation/Installer, General

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Texas State Technical College Waco, TX 119 0 119
SUNY College of Technology at Alfred Alfred, NY 105 0 105
Hudson Valley Community College Troy, NY 79 0 79
Lone Star College System The Woodlands, TX 36 0 36
South Texas College McAllen, TX 35 0 35
Pratt Community College Pratt, KS 27 0 27
San Jacinto Community College Pasadena, TX 24 0 24
Richmond Community College Hamlet, NC 19 0 19
Mitchell Technical College Mitchell, SD 18 0 18
Mt Hood Community College Gresham, OR 13 0 13
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Electrician

3,003 completions/yr

Carpentry/Carpenter

530 completions/yr

Construction Trades, General

519 completions/yr

Lineworker

441 completions/yr

Building/Property Maintenance

237 completions/yr

Electrical and Power Transmission Installers, Other

72 completions/yr

Mason/Masonry

43 completions/yr

Concrete Finishing/Concrete Finisher

6 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What does this major actually cover, and how is it different from a pure electrician program?
The CIP definition is deliberately broad — electricity fundamentals, wiring, insulation and grounding, blueprint reading, equipment operation, codes and standards — applied to both indoor electrical systems and outdoor power transmission lines. In practice, the 53 colleges that award this credential lean toward utility-adjacent work rather than residential building wiring. The packet’s career list reinforces that lean: electrical power-line installer ($92,560 median), powerhouse and substation repairer ($100,940), and first-line installer supervisor ($78,300). The Electrician major (CIP 46.0302) covers the indoor building-wiring lane in a more focused way and is roughly five times larger nationally.
Do I need a bachelor’s degree, or is an associate’s enough?
An associate’s is the only tracked degree level in the data, and BLS lists a high school diploma as the typical entry education for both power-line installers and supervisors. The 5-year median earnings figure for completers is about $76,431, which reflects graduates already working the trade rather than continuing to a bachelor’s. Substation and relay repairer roles ($100,940 median) typically require a postsecondary nondegree award rather than a degree, so the associate’s plus utility apprenticeship hours is the dominant path. Stacking a bachelor’s on top is uncommon and rarely changes early-career pay.
What jobs do graduates actually land in?
The packet names three direct destinations. Electrical power-line installer and repairer ($92,560 median wage, 6.6% projected growth) is the most visible track — the crews that build and maintain transmission and distribution lines for utilities. Electrical and electronics repairer for powerhouse, substation, and relay ($100,940 median, 5.5% growth) is the highest-paying career in the data, working inside utility substations and control houses on the protective relay and switchgear systems. First-line supervisor of mechanics, installers, and repairers ($78,300, 3.1% growth) is the multi-year crew-lead progression after journeyman experience.
How does this differ from the dedicated Lineworker major (CIP 46.0303)?
Lineworker (CIP 46.0303, 441 annual completions) is narrower — overhead and underground line construction, pole climbing, hot-line technique, and storm restoration. This major (CIP 46.0301, 570 completions) is the broader installer credential whose definition explicitly covers indoor wiring and substation/relay work too, even though most colleges in the dataset host it as a utility-leaning program. If you already know you want crew-based pole-and-tower work, the Lineworker CIP is the cleaner credential. If you are open to substation, relay, switchgear, and inside-wireman options, the General credential covers more territory.
Where are the colleges that actually run this program?
The 53-college footprint is dominated by state technical and community colleges with utility partnerships rather than national lineman academies. Texas State Technical College awards the most credentials (119 annually), followed by SUNY College of Technology at Alfred (105) and Hudson Valley Community College in New York (79). Texas-based programs are heavily represented — Lone Star College System, South Texas College, and San Jacinto Community College all show up — reflecting the Texas grid build-out and its heavy private-utility hiring. Several Plains and Midwest tech colleges round out the list (Pratt Community College in Kansas, Mitchell Technical College in South Dakota), which mirrors the rural electric cooperative employer base.
What is the day-to-day work actually like?
It depends which of the three tracks you end up on. Line-installer work is outdoor, crew-based, often at height, and includes on-call rotation for storm restoration — the work the Lineworker editorial describes in detail. Substation and relay work is more contained: indoor or fenced-yard, instrument-and-meter intensive, with high-voltage protocols that look closer to industrial controls than to overhead linework. Supervisor roles are scheduling, safety oversight, and crew management. All three involve real lethal-energy hazards and procedural discipline; none of them are desk-based.