Apprenticeship
Industrial Maintenance Technician Apprenticeships
What an industrial maintenance technician apprenticeship pays, how long it runs, what the application requires, and what the licence at the end lets you do.
- Length
- 4 years for millwright apprenticeships
- Tuition
- None
- Journeyman median
- $61,170/yr
Industrial maintenance technicians — often called millwrights or maintenance mechanics — keep factories, warehouses and processing plants running. The role is deliberately multi-skilled: mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic and PLC troubleshooting all in one job. It has the strongest projected growth of the classic industrial trades, largely because automated facilities cannot tolerate downtime.
- Year one pay
- $27,527
- About 45% of journeyman scale
- Journeyman median
- $61,170
- $29.41 per hour
- Tuition debt
- $0
- You are paid to train
What you earn at each step
Apprentice wages are set as a percentage of journeyman scale and step up on a published schedule as you accumulate hours and classroom credits. The figures below apply the typical step schedule to the national median — your local’s wage sheet is the authoritative number.
| Step | Share of scale | Approximate hourly | Approximate annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 45% | $13.23 | $27,527 |
| Year 2 | 55% | $16.18 | $33,644 |
| Year 3 | 68% | $20.00 | $41,596 |
| Year 4 | 82% | $24.12 | $50,159 |
| Journeyman | 100% | $29.41 | $61,170 |
What the application requires
- Education
- High school diploma or postsecondary certificate
- Training route
- 1–2 year mechatronics program or a 4-year apprenticeship
- Age
- 18 or over. Registered programmes cannot set a maximum age.
- Mathematics
- One year of high school algebra with a passing grade. This is the most common reason applications stall, and one semester at a community college clears it.
- Aptitude test
- Most programmes test algebra and reading comprehension, with some mechanical and spatial reasoning. Free practice material is widely available; preparing genuinely moves your ranking.
- Physical
- Lifting, climbing and confined-space work around energized and moving equipment. Lockout/tagout discipline is the single most important safety habit in the role.
- Licensing outcome
- No general license. Employers often require specific PLC and safety credentials.
Where to find programmes
Where it leads
After licensing, pay diverges by specialization far more than by years served. These are the paths most industrial maintenance technicians choose between.
- PLC and controls troubleshooting
- Hydraulics and pneumatics
- Precision alignment and vibration analysis
- Robotics maintenance
- Conveyor and material handling
- Predictive maintenance and reliability
- Millwright rigging and installation
- Facilities and utilities
Common questions
How much do industrial maintenance technician apprentices make?
How long is an industrial maintenance technician apprenticeship?
What do I need to apply?
What licence does this lead to?
Licensing authority by state
Apprenticeship hours are portable, but licensing is not. Confirm the requirements with the board in the state where you intend to work before you start accumulating hours somewhere else.
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin