From the course: Skilled Trades: Interviews

Where do I begin?

- Apprenticeship program goes like this. It's a five-year program that you earn while you learn on the job site, and you come to school two nights a week for a five-year duration, summers off. And the schooling end of it is free. There's no cost for the schooling, so at the end of the apprenticeship program there's no debt that you owe, there's no school loans that you had to take out for the purpose of this program. You're, become a qualified journey worker at that point, and that can take you wherever you want in the country or in the world for that matter. - So to best describe entering the trade versus a college-like atmosphere is you do work a normal day here at work. You're out in the field for seven hours a day. And then you come into school at night, two nights a week to get the extended training that's offered here at this school, well, it's required here at this school. - Apprenticeship is for people who feel like they would like to work with their hands, or not be in an office all day working. It's to build something and at the end of the day and be able to stand back and admire that I physically built this and installed this using my knowledge that I have learned at the, through the apprenticeship training. - So as an instructor, we're able to take a student, and if they don't understand something that's in a book, be able to walk over to a mock up and literally, physically touch it, show it to them, explain to them exactly what I'm talking about. How the functionality works. How it, you know, how a finished product looks in the end. And that's what we get to offer here in the training center is is that there's mock ups all throughout the school. There's something that we can actually touch, talk about, and help them understand that, and that's part of the education that they get here. - You'll learn, you know, the basis of why, why is it designed this way? Why is it sized this way? Why are we using this type of refrigerant? You know, why are we installing the piping this way? You know, venting, drainage has to have a particular slope to the pipe. That's all the things that you'll learn. - So this five-year apprenticeship is a, again, it's an always changing, always revolving, right? Every six months you turn up a period. And what that means is what comes with that is a raise. And what everybody gets excited for more money at the end of the day, okay? So every six months you're learning something different, you're learning something new. It still acts like it's normal school. But, you know, at the end of the day it's a little bit more on the laid back side. We're just here trying to relay the message of the industry, how it's installed, how it should be done. - You have to be 18 years of age, high school diploma or equivalent, and being able to perform the physical duties of the trade. We open up our program every two years for application. Unfortunately we cannot take everybody in because of the number of people that do apply. And depending on what the needs of the industry are. - We have initiation fee, which is basically needs to be paid off within the five years of the apprenticeship. Very low cost to get into this program. The great thing about the industry, especially what the Union offers is the amazing medical benefits, vision, and dental that we have. By far superior than even a lot of what corporate companies even offer. - So for somebody that's interested in getting into apprenticeship, we would look for somebody that is interested to work hard. These jobs are very hard. So we would look for somebody that's looking to get out there and hustle and learn and work with their hands, get dirty. - The students that want to be here are the students that I want in this class. They, you know, it doesn't matter, any part of them, doesn't matter to me. The guys that sit here and bring their materials every day that want to learn this industry and understand it, and, honestly, challenge an instructor truthfully and asking questions that they feel they may disagree on and why they disagree on it. And an instructor being able to say well, this is why it is. And those are the types of students that we love having in class, you know? The best types of students are the students that stay awake. (laughing)

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