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Home > Archive > Apr 10, 2008

Apprenticeships Offer Opportunities
By Bill Brown
The time honored tradition of apprenticeship, in which a young person commits themselves to learn a trade or skill from a master of that trade, is still practiced in the U.S. in many trades and crafts, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In medieval times, parents paid a fee to place a boy with a master craftsman as an apprentice. The terms or articles of the apprenticeship contract were written up in a document called an indenture. This document spelled out what was expected of both parties, and acted as a way of registering the apprentice with a certain master in the guilds, and later with the town government. Once installed, the apprentice received food, lodging (often sleeping under the counter in the shop itself), clothes, and instruction in the craft from his master. The period of apprenticeship generally lasted for 2-7 years, after which time the apprentice became a journeyman, according the British National Archives Web site, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Today, an apprenticeship is a combination of on-the-job training and related classroom instruction in which workers learn the practical and theoretical aspects of a highly skilled occupation. Often, there is the requirement for completion of an indenture when entering an apprentice program even to this day. Apprenticeship programs are sponsored by joint employer and labor groups, individual employers, and/or employer associations, according to the Utah Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training Web site, www.utahtraining.org.
Most crafts and trades have an apprenticeship program available, Diane Lewis, from the Utah Nevada Union Information Center said. Several programs she pointed out specifically included the electricians craft, the pipefitters, plumbers, and HVAC crafts, and laborers crafts. She said there were differences between the programs, based on the skills and professions taught, and the ability and experience of the applicant.
“The electricians and plumbers have a license they need to earn to be a journeyman,” Lewis said. “The laborers, on the other hand, earn certifications in specific areas of work, such as laying pipe, and road construction.” She added the laborer's apprenticeship is about four years long, compared to the five-year long apprenticeship for the electricians and plumbers.
Robert Smith, the Training Site Coordinator for the North West Laborers and Employers Training Trust, said their apprenticeship program involves four periods, and consists of 4,000 hours of on-the-job training, and 320 hours of formal training. Each candidate is assessed when they make application to the apprenticeship program, and may be put into a more advanced period, depending on experience and skills, he said. Because the laborer's jobs are so varied, ranging from laying sewer and water pipe, to roadwork, to cement pouring, the apprenticeship program teaches a wide range of formal training courses, to include safety courses, as part of their program.
“We are involved in just about all types of construction,” Smith said. “We are going to be working at the power plant with the boilermakers on one job, when that job is over, we could be out doing highway work on the next job, and refractory work with the brick masons on the next job.”
Apprentices are paid according to the scale of the job they are doing, and where they are in their apprenticeship, Smith said. Road work pays one scale, while mine work or HAZMAT work will pay different scales. Apprentices in the first period, or entry level, will earn 80 percent of the journeyman scale for that particular job. After 1,000 hours OJT, and 80 hours formal training, apprentices advance to the next period, and get a five percent increase in pay, Smith said.
After the apprentice has finished the fourth period, he is awarded his journeyman's card, and sent out on jobs as a full fledged laborer, earning full scale for that job, Smith said. He added some people choose to specialize in one type of work, and others branch out, getting certified in many types of jobs.
The pipe workers' apprenticeship is more formalized, however, Mark Nelson, apprenticeship coordinator for the Utah Pipe Trades Education Program, said. He said in this program, apprentices work 40 plus hours a week for specific mechanical contractors, and go to classes three nights a week for three hours a night. Or, they have an option to go to school nine hours on Saturday instead of the three nights a week schedule. Apprentices do this for two semesters a year, for the five years of the apprenticeship, he said.
However, he added, there are certain benefits that go along with all this hard work. For one thing, apprentices are paid 55 percent of journeyman pay to start with. Right now, he said, apprentices just starting out earn $14.71 per hour. In addition, after the first year, they will receive a five percent raise every six months. Other benefits include health insurance after six months and apprentices start accruing two pensions after six months. 
When apprentices get done, they will have earned an associates degree from the Salt Lake Community College, and will be awarded a certificate of completion from the US Department of Labor. They will be qualified to take their license exams with the state of Utah, to ply their trade as a journeyman, Nelson said.
Very similar to the pipe trades apprenticeship is that of the electricians, Mike Pennie, a master electrician with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said. Like the plumbers, electricians require a state license to ply their trade, and the apprentice program takes an unskilled worker and prepares them to pass the examination. During that time, they will earn 50 percent of a journeyman's wages and accrue benefits as well.
The IBEW currently has a five-year commercial electrician apprenticeship Pennie said. During that time, an apprentice will work full time with a contractor for six weeks, and then spend one week in a classroom setting, learning more the more theoretical aspects of the trade. Like the pipefitters, to enter the apprenticeship program in Utah, requires relocation to the Salt Lake City area, Pennie said.
“That is something we are trying to change,” Pennie said. “In the future we hope to add a residential apprenticeship in the Southern Utah area, and in the Salt Lake City area.”
The residential apprenticeship program, he added, would only be a three-year apprenticeship, and would prepare a candidate to for licenser as a residential electrician.
The process for applying for an apprenticeship with the IBEW is similar to any other apprenticeship program he said.  Specifically, an electrician’s apprentice applicant submits an application at the Utah Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee. An applicant must be 18, have a high school diploma or GED, and at least one year of algebra, Pennie said. Applicants are given an aptitude test, and then interviewed. Based on the tests and interviews, applicants are selected to enter the program.
Once accepted to the program, Pennie said, apprentices are asked to sign indenture papers, spelling out what the commitment requirement is for the apprentice and for the JATC. The apprentice is then registered with the Department of Labor, and begins his apprenticeship.
“It is a great way to learn a craft in a hands-on environment,” Nelson said. “Not only are you training for your future job, but you are working in your area of expertise, and you are getting paid a decent wage to learn it as well.”
For more information about apprentice programs, visit the Utah Nevada Union Information Center at 545 W. State St., suite 6, Hurricane, Utah, or call them at 635-5026.

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