During K-12, students are often told, to be successful they must go to college and earn a degree. This is a common misconception that has led to record amounts of student debt and a lack of jobs needing degrees. Of the students that graduate high school and enroll in a four-year university, nearly half drop out before obtaining their bachelor’s degree.

A career in one of the many skilled trades is a viable alternative to college for your students. Many apprenticeship programs within the building and construction trades offer training for little or no tuition. Instead of $50,000 plus in student loans to earn a degree many never use for their intended career, your students could choose a career path that lets them earn money while they learn a skilled trade.

Apprenticeships are a great way to develop a pipeline of talented, high-skilled workers to help businesses grow. Many of the largest employers understand how apprenticeship can add value to their businesses and provide greater opportunities for their workers.

Our Registered Apprenticeship Programs are responsible for training carpenter, millwright, and pile driver apprentices in North America. To get the job done, we have a network of over 200 state-of-the-art training centers located across the U.S. and Canada. These facilities are responsible for training apprentices during their four-year apprenticeship.

Apprentices are responsible for completing 160 of formal training per year. Training ranges from core skills such as trade-related mathematics, print reading, layout, safety, and communication to specific craft skills in commercial, industrial, and heavy construction applications.

If you would like to learn more about Registered Apprenticeship and what it can mean for your students, please visit the U.S Department of Labor’s apprenticeship.gov by CLICKING HERE. 

Education and training doesn't stop with apprenticeship. As professional journeyworkers, our members are responsible for taking advantage of the free upgrade training courses offered. This additional training is not only an employable asset to our members, but a competitive advantage for our contractors. By having the best trained members, we can ensure our contractors that we have what it takes to complete projects safely, on time, and under budget.

Skills upgrade courses include:

• Aerial Lift

• Green Building Awareness

• GE Familiarization

• Green Building Awareness

• Human Performance

• Hytorc

• ICRA: Best Practices in Healthcare Construction

• Powered Industrial Truck

• Rigging and Signaling

• Scaffolding

• Welding

Safety courses include:

• Bloodbourne Pathogens

• Confined Space

• Construction Fall Protection

• Disaster Response

• Ergonomics

• First Aid, CPR, Automated External Defibrillation

• Hazard Communication

• Millwright 16-Hour Safety

• OSHA 10-Hour Safety

• OSHA 30-Hour Safety

• Silica Awareness

Certain upgrade training, such as Foreman & Superintendent Training, is offered to fit the needs and schedules of our contractors. The courses address the leadership roles of the foremen and superintendents as a planners, communicators, production managers, crew supervisors, and problem-solvers. Each of these responsibilities is examined in relation to the three main phases of a project: pre-job/job start-up, peak construction, and project close-out--with the importance of safety emphasized throughout.