Do it (if you want to). You wouldn't literally be the oldest. My old IT manager retired in his 60s and did this (and is now a working, signing electrician). It even sounds like he kinda got some automatic seniority of sorts, due to his age and maturity.

So yeah, it's doable.

I semi-seriously consider going into the trades after retiring from tech.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm definitely thinking about it: the money would be the biggest drawback, it'd mean living a lot more frugally, but back of the envelope math suggests I could live on it.

How does one go about finding an apprenticeship electrician position? Is that the regular path in this profession? Become an apprentice first?

In my area, you can hook up with IBEW, the electrician's union and they'll essentially bootstrap you. There's some strings attached, but it's not too long of a commitment. YMMV.

That's the usual way yeah, you come in as an apprentice and work your way up. There are specialized job boards in addition to the usual general-purpose ones, which are often run by the government or a relevant union.