SetaJobs role guide
What an electrician actually does
By Reliance Marema · Founder & Editor · Reviewed August 2026
SetaJobs’ guide to the electrical trade in South Africa, written for someone starting an apprenticeship or a first post in it.
What the work actually involves
An electrician’s day splits between installing and fixing. Installation is conduit and trunking, pulling cable, mounting distribution boards, terminating and labelling circuits, and testing before anything is energised. Fault-finding is the other half and the skill that separates electricians from wire-pullers: reading the drawing, isolating the section, testing with a multimeter and an insulation tester, and finding the one loose neutral or failed contactor behind the problem. Industrial work adds motors, starters and control panels; construction is first and second fix; maintenance is a breakdown list and standby.
Hours, conditions and demands
You work at heights, in roof spaces, in trenches and in plant rooms, in heat and dust, and you carry your own tools. Lock-out and test-before-touch procedures are not paperwork — they are what keeps electricians alive, and an employer who treats them casually is one to leave. Construction sites start early. Maintenance electricians carry a standby phone and get called out at night. Apprentices spend the first stretch fetching, stripping, terminating and watching, which is normal and not wasted.
What employers screen for
For apprenticeships, employers screen on mathematics and physical science results, a trade aptitude test, and a medical that includes colour vision, because you must distinguish conductor colours reliably. For qualified posts the trade certificate is checked first, then registration if the job involves issuing certificates of compliance, then your experience with the specific plant the employer runs.
What you usually need to get in
Adverts vary, but competitive apprenticeship applicants hold Grade 12 with mathematics and physical science, or an N2 with Electrical Trade Theory, Industrial Electronics and Mathematics. Qualifying means a signed logbook and a pass in the trade test at INDLELA or another accredited trade test centre. Issuing a Certificate of Compliance additionally requires registration as a registered person with the Department of Employment and Labour — that registration, not the trade certificate alone, is what lets you sign.
Where this work leads
After qualifying the choice is breadth or depth: general maintenance across a plant, or specialisation into instrumentation, PLCs and automation, high-voltage work, hazardous-area installations or solar PV, each with its own certification and its own rate. Off the tools the routes are chargehand and foreman, planning, health and safety, technician after further study, and self-employment doing installations and compliance certificates once you are registered to sign them.
Questions people ask about electrician work
- What is a “wireman’s licence”?
- The everyday name for registration as a registered person with the Department of Employment and Labour, which allows you to issue a Certificate of Compliance for an electrical installation. It is a separate step after the trade test.
- What slows an apprenticeship down most?
- An unsigned logbook and the wait for a trade test date, far more often than the training itself. Check that your logbook is signed off every month rather than finding the gaps at the end.
- Is an electrician the same as an electrical engineer?
- No. An electrician holds a trade qualification earned through an apprenticeship and a trade test; an electrical engineer holds a university qualification. They work alongside each other and the entry routes are completely different.
