Are paid union apprenticeships pretty hard to come by for a high-school grad?
My nephew just graduated high school and isn’t college bound but I could see him easily being a welder, elevator repairman, etc.
It looks like the way into these jobs is getting an apprenticeship through a local union. With no post high school education or experience is it a lost cause to even try to find a job this way at age 18?
Are certain trades hot right now? Do some pay better than others?
What kind of advice should I give him?
Go get a certificate first from a tech school?
I don’t have wide knowledge of this but I’ll chime in anyway.
My brother and my son went to tech school first. My brother trained as a machinist and worked at Boeing for 30+ years. My son learned computer stuff (networking, maybe?) and has a good job with the City of Seattle.
My first husband was a general laborer/hodcarrier (Local 242 in Seattle). He was only allowed to join the union because his step-uncle was a contractor and gave him a job. The union had to let him join. I think this is unusual, and maybe not quite kosher.
At the last place I worked, the company and the union have had an apprenticeship program for several years. If you have enough seniority and a discipline-free work record, you can take a test (mostly math), and if you pass the test you’re in the program. It’s a combination of classroom and work in the electrical and machine repair trades.
My youngest son got tool and die training on the job at a small company in Seattle, where one of his friends worked. It wasn’t formal training but it was enough for him to get hired at Genie, where he’s done well.
I don’t know if any trades accept apprentices “off the street”, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some. Seems like some formal education and a voc program would be a good place to start. Many community colleges offer voc programs.
The only real advice that I could think of giving you , is to visit union locals, they should be in the yellow pages and have a sit down chat with the folks to get an idea of how to go about finding out what he might be suitable for.
Not advice but more opinion.
At least here in ontario, various electrical companies that install wiring and whatnot are always hiring first and second year apprentices , so at least one union is open about taking in new folks, you do so many hours of paid work and then so many hours class room time etc.
Brick layers and other similar contruction trades work on the same principle , he would at least up here apply as normal for the job, they would direct him to the union people.
Welding depending on what he got into , I’d recomend Pressure vessel and pipe welding , and can be done in a vocational school, but he would most likely be joining a union. Depending on your local, being in the Union may not be required for light industrial welding and would go strictly on a company by company basis.
Your local city college should have an aptitude test thats available and scored to determine what direction that he may be interested in going into.
I have many friends in the local pipefitter’s union. Basically, all they had to do was apply to join at the local union hall, then wait to get called for a job that needed a first-year apprentice. They attend school twice a week, and once through with the apprenticeship (5 years) they’ll have 30-some-odd credits through a local community college.
I’d say, pick a trade or two that seems interesting, because skilled trades all pay pretty well, then go to the local union hall to find out the specifics of joining. Learn about the benefits offered, and find out how much the union dues are. I know with the pipefitters, you aren’t required to pay dues until they put you on a job.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to find a union that accepts those with no post-high school education, because that defeats the purpose of apprenticeships.
I suspect it depends on the particular trade and location. Anecdotally, major construction unions (steelworkers, that kind of thing) in the NE mostly require nepotism or good luck to get in (such as being a minority during a particular push). But I assume things are different for something like residential plumbers.
Anyway, the way to find out is to talk to actual workers in the trades he’s interested in. You can talk to the unions, too, but bring a couple grains of salt when you do.
And be wary of apprenticeship programs where there aren’t any real jobs for graduates. Remember, the union is going to screw the apprentices way before hurting the full members.
I keep being told by someone (who has a tendency to be less than truthful) that to join a union you have to pay something like $500 for a (training?) book ,and then wait for them to call you for work. How likely is this to be true?
