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🇬🇧 UKSOC 5235· Skilled Metal, Electrical and Electronic Trades

Boat and ship builders and repairers

Boat and ship builders and repairers construct, install and repair wooden structures and fittings, and shape, position, rivet and seal metal plates and girders to form the metal structures and frameworks for marine craft.

Boat builderFitter (boat building)Frame turner (ship building)Laminator (boat building and repairing)Marine engineerShip’s joinerShipwright
£32,600
median salary
10,300
currently employed
11,694
projected 2035
Declining
7 tasks scored1 AI Assists6 Human-Led

Task Bundle Breakdown

How AI interacts with this occupation's task bundle

14%
86%
0%
AI automates
14%
AI assists
86%
Human-led

Task-by-Task Breakdown

Every task scored individually — sorted highest to lowest AI exposure

56

examines drawings and specifications to determine job requirements

AI Assists

AI tools like AutoCAD AI or Autodesk Construction Cloud can parse technical drawings and flag specification requirements, but a skilled worker must interpret and apply them to physical conditions.

22

uses rules, scribes and punches to mark out metal plate with guidelines and reference points and cuts plates using appropriate tools

Human-Led

AI-assisted measurement software can help with calculations, but the physical marking, scribing, and cutting of metal plate requires hands-on dexterity and real-time judgment.

22

uses machine tools to bend, curve, punch, drill and straighten metal plate as required and positions and aligns metal platework or frame for welding and bolting

Human-Led

CNC machine tools can automate some bending and drilling operations, but positioning and aligning platework for welding requires skilled physical manipulation and on-the-spot adjustment.

22

selects and measures appropriate wood and cuts, shapes and drills to specification using saws, planes, chisels and other power or hand tools

Human-Led

AI can assist with calculating optimal cuts to minimise wood waste, but the physical selection, measuring, cutting, and shaping of timber requires experienced hands-on skill.

22

maintains and repairs woodwork and fittings

Human-Led

AI diagnostic tools can help identify structural issues from inspection images, but the actual maintenance and repair of woodwork and fittings requires physical craft skill and judgment.

11

rivets together metal plates and girders, seals seams, smooths welds, fixes metal doors, collars, portholes, tank and hatch covers

Human-Led

Riveting, sealing, and smoothing welds are highly physical, tactile tasks requiring craft skill and real-time sensory feedback that AI cannot replicate.

11

aligns and fixes prepared wood pieces by screwing, nailing, gluing and dowelling to form decking, small wooden marine craft and their interiors and fittings

Human-Led

Aligning and fixing wooden components by hand using screws, nails, glue, and dowels is a physical craft task with no meaningful AI substitution at present.

ROI Calculator

Boat and ship builders and repairers

3.7hrs
saved per week
180hrs
per year ≈ 4.8 weeks
£3,260
salary-equivalent capacity freed per year

This is not a pay rise — it's 180 hours of productive capacity that AI could return to you, valued at your current rate.

£4,657
value at risk — 14% of role exposed to AI

The portion of your current salary tied to tasks AI can automate or augment. Not a prediction of job loss — a signal of where your role is changing fastest.

How is this calculated?▾

Task weights — each task is weighted by its O*NET frequency rating. Where frequency data is absent, equal weighting is applied.

AI time reduction — tasks scored as "AI Automates" assume 80% time saving; "AI Assists" assumes 40%; "Human-Led" assumes 5%.

Salary equivalent — annual hours saved × (salary ÷ 1,800 working hours/year).

Value at risk — salary × share of role time in AI-automate or AI-assist tasks.

Figures are indicative estimates for planning purposes, not guarantees of productivity gain or job loss risk.