Shipwright
Also called shipfitter, boatfitter, ship fitter
Shipwrights build and repair small type of water vessels from pleasure craft to naval vessels. They prepare preliminary sketches and create templates. They use hand and power tools to construct smaller boat themselves or supervise a team of shipbuilders. They also construct cradles and slipways for the ship’s construction, transportation, launching and slipping. Depending on the vessels, they might work with different materials such as metal, wood, fibreglass, aluminium etc.
What you'd do
Structural metal preparers and erectors · ILO- Marking metal framework as a guide when drilling, cutting and shaping metal stock for use in buildings, ships and other structures
- Drilling, cutting and shaping structural steel in a workshop
- Erecting steel framework for buildings, bridges and other constructions
- Assembling and erecting the framework and other metal parts of ships' structures
- Shaping and fitting structural-steel plates of ships under construction or repair
- Riveting structural metal members by hand, machine or pneumatic riveter
- Mostly outdoors
- On your feet most of the day
- Lots of contact with people
- Some freedom to decide
- Often more than 40 hours a week
- Deadlines every day
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Yes, good prospects16 EU countries are short of structural metal preparers and erectors now, but fewer jobs than in most work will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
About averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,200 a month (Bulgaria) to €5,100 (Denmark), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among craft and related trades workers in the EU, women earn 26% less per hour than men. Craft and related trades workers · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Upper secondary or vocationalUpper secondary or vocational training in mechanics and metal trades is the usual route.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.11 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 6 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for structural metal preparers and erectors. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).