Where to go from here

- [Narrator] In this course, you learned about the apprenticeship system, explored some crafts, met some tradespeople, and have learned how to research opportunities in your region and prepare a competitive application. - Apprentices that get into our program that are successful are the ones who have taken our program extremely serious. They understand what's at stake: an opportunity of great money and benefits, but are wiling to learn. They're the ones who step up to the plate and go beyond what the minimum requirements, or what the minimum is expected of you to work. - Apprenticeship programs are unique, because, again, it's a career opportunity, and it gives you training and solid skillsets that you're going to carry with you for the rest of your life. - So I've talked to a lot of apprentices. They're 22 years old, they're a couple years into their apprenticeship, and they're driving around a really sweet car. (laughs) Or maybe they've just purchased their first house. And a lot of times they tell me, they say "Hey my buddies that's in college still, you know, "they're living in their parent's basement. "They don't have the things that I have. "They don't have their own health insurance, "they don't have a retirement plan "that's been building and growing like I have." So I think that a lot of parents sometimes look at the trades and they think ugh, you know, "My kid's not a loser, my kid's going to go to college." And they don't think about the trades as this is like college. It may not be a college, but it is school, it's training, and it's a profession that's going to... They're skills that can't be taken away from you. They're very transportable skills, and it's something that, that training, that education, that experience, you just, you're not going to be able to get that in college. - I think the number one way is to talk to carpenters, talk to electricians, talk to people that are actually doing the job. Ask 'em what they do, ask 'em what they like, ask 'em what they don't like. - For more research, there are lots of options. Check out the Department of Labor website, search for apprenticeships on the web, visit your local employment office, and any apprenticeship offices in your area. - I think that when I was younger it was really hard for me to imagine myself as a construction worker. And so we have a common saying here, we say, "You can't be it, if you can't see it." So I didn't see any women doing construction, so I didn't know that that was a thing. I didn't know that I could do that. And now that I'm here, I'm able to portray that to other people looking to get into the trade, saying "I can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. Come on, "you're welcome. Come in!" (laughs) - I can't think of too many careers where every day you get to look back behind you at what you just created and built that day. So in my experience, I've built several hospitals, and to be able to look back as you're about to turn the keys over to the customer and see all of these operating rooms, and CAT scan vaults, and patient rooms, and know that that's going to be serving a purpose to this community. And anytime that I hear of somebody going to that facility, I get to say, "Oh, you know, I built that." (laughs) So it's really satisfying, and it's something that you just, that can't be taken away from you, ever.