How To Become A Maintenance Assistant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a maintenance assistant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Maintenance Assistants work in schools, offices, hospitals, and residential buildings. Your work is to ensure that facilities are in clean and good operating conditions. Your responsibilities also include the general clean-up of all the areas of the buildings, minor repair, and plumbing tasks such as repairing doors, replacing light bulbs, and fixing toilets.

You are expected to carry out all safety and health regulations. The maintenance assistant also has to have a detailed list of maintenance and cleaning supplies and notify the supervisor when you are running out of supplies and respond to emergency calls for maintenance and repairs.

As a maintenance assistant, you must have a high school diploma or General education degree (GED). You must have a basic and sound knowledge of plumbing, carpentry, and electrical wiring. You must also have effective communication and time management skills. The average annual salary for a maintenance assistant is $31,204.

ScoreMaintenance AssistantUS Average

Salary

2.5

Avg. Salary $31,915

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.6

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.16%

Asian 4.44%

Black or African American 10.39%

Hispanic or Latino 20.27%

Unknown 4.23%

White 59.51%

Gender

female 13.39%

male 86.61%

Age - 49

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 49

Stress level

7.6

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a maintenance assistant

Explore maintenance assistant education requirements

Most common maintenance assistant degrees

High School Diploma

35.2 %

Bachelor's

31.7 %

Associate

17.7 %

Start to develop specific maintenance assistant skills

Skills	Percentages
Plumbing	14.92%
HVAC	10.44%
Customer Service	9.25%
Patients	5.01%
Electrical Equipment	4.67%

Complete relevant maintenance assistant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New maintenance assistants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a maintenance assistant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real maintenance assistant resumes.

Gain additional maintenance assistant certifications

Maintenance assistant certifications can show employers you have a baseline of knowledge expected for the position. Certifications can also make you a more competitive candidate. Even if employers don't require a specific maintenance assistant certification, having one may help you stand out relative to other applicants.

The most common certifications for maintenance assistants include EPA Amusement Operators Safety Certification (EPA) and OSHA Safety Certificate .

More About Certifications

Research maintenance assistant duties and responsibilities

Manage long-term working relationships with many local service providers including professional septic, plumbing, electrical and HVAC providers.
Program and adjust PLC systems and associate communications.
Coordinate inspection and verify work of roofing vendors.
Conduce control testing on PLC's for crane trolleys.

Prepare your maintenance assistant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your maintenance assistant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a maintenance assistant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable maintenance assistant resume templates

Build a professional maintenance assistant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your maintenance assistant resume.