Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship in the pipe trades is a highly selective
program, each candidate is carefully screened. No one
with drug or alcohol problems can qualify and acceptance for
training depends on the applicant's qualifications and the
manpower needs of the Local at the time of the selection
process.
Each member local of the Pennsylvania Pipe Trades has their
own selection process and Joint
Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC). This committee consists of persons
with considerable experience representing both the Mechanical Contractors Association and
the UA
Locals. The apprenticeship program is five years of
intensive technical training consisting of at least 8,500 to
10,000 hours of on-the-job training and approximately 1,080
hours of related training in the classroom.
The Pennsylvania Pipe Trades have Apprenticeship Programs
for steamfitting, sprinkler fitting, plumbing,
pipefitting and refrigeration. Apprentices
train in one of these categories depending upon the local
which accepts you into apprenticeship school. Each skill requires
learning a vast body of specific knowledge.
Apprentices receive detailed instruction in job safety,
health, industry regulations, and the fundamental skills
required for working with tools of the trade.
As apprentices advance through the program, job-site
experience is supplemented with classroom instruction in
OSHA safety and health training, pipe trades mathematics,
reading blueprints and isometric drawings, computer-aided
design (CAD), sanitation, codes, mechanical codes, process
pipe welding, control systems, elements of hydraulics and
heat, physics with an emphasis on liquids and gases, and
plumbing, steamfitting, or refrigeration and air
conditioning theory.
The pay structure for an apprentice to journeymen is going
to vary based upon the contract negotiated by each local.
All apprentices are paid by experience with annual raises as
they learn and progress to journeymen status.
Click Here to contact the
PA Pipe Trades Training
Coordinators via email. Be sure
to specify which region you are emailing from so that the
proper Apprenticeship-Training Coordinator will get back to
you! |
