Protectivity has released data highlighting the most popular apprenticeships, and where the most apprenticeships are being taken
Many see construction apprenticeships as a key way to tackle the construction skills crisis; in August, Trade Direct Insurance found that while 42% of 14-16-year-olds consider a career in construction, that figure drops to 26% among 17-18-year-olds.
Protectivity has analysed Google search data to determine which trades see the most interest and which ones could use encouragement.
Electricians rank the highest by far
The different construction apprenticeships are split into 10, and ranked by how many searches they received per year as below:
- Electrician – 1,148,150 searches per year
- Plumbing – 475,250 searches per year
- Carpentry – 250,740 searches per year
- Bricklaying – 197,080 searches per year
- Plastering – 133,850 searches per year
- Welding – 110,620 searches per year
- Joinery – 99,230 searches per year
- Painting – 81,350 searches per year
- Construction – 76,550 searches per year
- Roofing – 28,800 searches per year
Electricians are the most popular search by far, with more than double that of the next most popular apprenticeship, plumbing.
Other key trades are lagging significantly behind, with construction and roofing at a comparatively measly 76,550 searches and 28,800 searches, or 6.67% and 2.51% of the numbers achieved by electrician searches.
This research was conducted between September 2025 and August 2026, and tracks a real popularity in the electrician trade, with wages rising by 4% in the last year.
Despite these popular and less popular searches, however, the construction skills shortage is still looming large, and despite the high search volume, electrical apprenticeships actually fell by 10% last year, and it is estimated that there will be a shortfall of 15,000 electricians over the next half decade.
Different cities see more apprenticeships too
In terms of location, 10 cities were identified as the top locations for construction apprenticeships, with searches in the city being recorded as annual searches per 1,000 residents:
- Hereford – 154 searches per year
- Norwich – 129 searches per year
- Bath – 119 searches per year
- Worcester – 112 searches per year
- Lisburn – 106 searches per year
- Inverness – 1000 searches per year
- Lincoln – 96 searches per year
- Plymouth – 93 searches per year
- Manchester – 91 searches per year
- Portsmouth – 90 searches per year
Chris Trotman, head of sales and underwriting at Protectivity, said: “What jumps out is the diverse range of cities in the top 10, with eight different regions represented, along with three of the four UK nations. It’s exciting to see smaller cities so well represented too, showing that the solution to the trade skills shortage can come from anywhere in the UK.
“Many of these aspiring apprentices will go on to become self-employed within just a few years of qualifying, with self-employed workers already making up 37% of the UK’s construction workforce, according to the latest ONS figures. That’s exactly the point where it’s easy to overlook getting the right insurance in place. Having specialist tradesman insurance cover sorted from day one means new tradespeople can focus on building their business and not worrying too much about what happens if something goes wrong on site.”
