How a Registered Apprenticeship Works, From the First Day to Journeyman

What if I told you there is a way to go to school where the school pays you, graduates without a loan, and hands you a credential every employer in your trade recognizes? You would suspect a catch. A free lunch has a way of turning out to cost a bundle.

The catch here is that you have to work. That is the whole trick, and it is an idea older than the Republic. The apprenticeship pays you to learn a trade, and it ends with a portable credential that belongs to you and not to any one boss. It is still among the better bargains in American life, and it is badly under-advertised, so let me explain how it actually works, step by step, from the first day to the journeyman card.

This is a general explanation of the system. Programs differ by trade, sponsor and state, so the details of any one program are in its own standards.

An old idea with a modern frame

Apprenticeship is ancient. For centuries a young person bound himself to a master craftsman for a term of years, learning the trade by doing it while the master provided training, room and board. Benjamin Franklin's older brother James was a printer, and young Ben was bound to him as an apprentice. The system was how skilled work was passed on in the colonies and in Europe before there were universities for every trade.

The modern federal framework came in the middle of the Depression. The National Apprenticeship Act of 1937, often called the Fitzgerald Act after its House sponsor, authorized the Department of Labor to set standards for apprenticeship programs and to promote the training of skilled workers. The act did not create apprenticeship, which already existed. What it did was lay the groundwork for a system of registration, a way for programs that meet national standards to be recognized and for their graduates to carry a credential with a federal or state seal on it.

That word registered is the one to hold on to. Many employers train new workers on the job, and good ones do it well. A registered apprenticeship is a formal program that has been approved against a set of standards, and the difference matters because registration is what makes the credential portable and recognized.

The pieces of a registered apprenticeship

Every registered program, whatever the trade, is built from the same parts.

1. Paid on-the-job learning. The apprentice works for an employer, under the supervision of experienced workers, doing real tasks on real jobs. It is the heart of the program, and it is paid work from the first day.
2. Related technical instruction. Classroom or online learning that goes with the work: theory, mathematics, codes, safety. It may be held in the evenings, in blocks of days or at a training center, depending on the program.
3. A progressive wage schedule. The apprentice's pay rises in steps as skills and hours accumulate.
4. Mentorship and supervision. The apprentice learns from journey-level workers who are responsible for teaching.
5. A credential at the end. The completion certificate, and in many trades the pathway to a state license.

Who runs it: registration and sponsors

Two kinds of agency register programs. The first is the federal government, through the Office of Apprenticeship in the Department of Labor. The second is a State Apprenticeship Agency recognized by the Department of Labor, which does the same job for programs in states that have chosen to run their own system. Which one covers a given program depends on the state. In either case, the program must meet standards covering things like how the apprentice is trained, supervised, paid and evaluated.

The sponsor is the organization that runs the program, writes its standards and is responsible for it. Sponsors come in two broad kinds.

• Employers, which may run a program for their own workers or a group of employers working together. A large contractor, a manufacturer or an industry association can all be sponsors.
• Joint labor-management programs, in which a union and a group of employers run the program together, usually through a joint apprenticeship and training committee. Many of the older building trades programs are organized this way. A nonunion route, often called open shop or merit shop, is available in many of the same trades through employer or association sponsors.

For a young person, the sponsor matters because it is the one that hires or places you, and it is the one responsible for your training. A good sponsor has a record of apprentices who finish and then find work.

The first day

Here is how it tends to go, in general terms.

You apply. Sponsors usually ask for a minimum age, often eighteen, though some programs take younger applicants with parental consent, and for a high school diploma or equivalent. Some ask for a basic aptitude test, particularly in mathematics, and an interview. Many programs are competitive because they have limited openings, and a few have waiting lists. A person who has taken shop, math and, above all, shown a record of showing up on time stands out.

If accepted, you are an employee. You are given a start date, a wage rate, an assigned employer if the program places you, and a schedule that includes both work and instruction. You are also given the program's standards, a document that spells out the length of the program, the hours of work and instruction required, the wage steps, and the rules for being evaluated and, if needed, dismissed. Read it. It is your contract with the program.

Your first weeks will not be glamorous. You will carry material, hold the other end of things, clean up and watch. That is how everyone began. The skill is built by repetition under supervision, and the foundation is learning the job site, the tools and, above all, safety. Employers in the trades have good reason to be strict about safety: an apprentice who cuts corners can get himself or someone else hurt.

How the hours and the classroom fit together

A registered program measures progress in one of three ways. A time-based program requires a set number of on-the-job hours, and it is the traditional model. A competency-based program measures what the apprentice can demonstrate, regardless of the hours it took. A hybrid program combines the two, with a minimum range of hours and the demonstration of skills.

The length depends on the trade. Many of the construction trades, such as electrician, plumber and pipefitter, run for several years, commonly three to five. Some other occupations are shorter, and some programs for highly technical work are longer. The standards for each program say precisely how many hours of work and instruction are required, and I would rather send you to the source than quote a number that might not match your trade.

The classroom part is called related technical instruction. For an electrician, it covers electrical theory, mathematics, blueprint reading and the National Electrical Code. For a plumber, it includes the plumbing code and system design. It is usually unpaid or partly paid depending on the program, and sometimes the sponsor covers the cost. In some programs the classroom work can lead to college credit, which means an apprentice may graduate with a head start toward a degree should he want one later. That is a quiet but significant advantage, because it keeps the door to further schooling open at no extra cost.

The wage ladder

This is the part families ask about first. A registered program must have a progressive wage schedule. It starts at a percentage of the journeyman's rate and rises at set intervals, typically every six months or every year or when a block of hours is completed, until it reaches the full journeyman rate at the end.

An illustration, and it is a hypothetical with invented round numbers, only to show the shape. Suppose the journeyman rate for a trade in some town is $40 an hour. A first-year apprentice might start at 50 percent, which is $20 an hour. A second-year apprentice steps up to 60 percent, which is $24. A third-year goes to 70 percent, $28, then 80 percent, $32, and 90 percent, $36, and at completion the worker earns the full $40. The percentages and the schedule are set by each program's standards, and real programs vary, so look at the schedule of the one you apply to.

Now see what the schedule means. The apprentice is earning from the first hour, and every step is a raise tied to a milestone. By the final year, he is earning most of a journeyman's wage while still finishing his training. And at no point has he written a check for tuition. If you want the comparison with the loan route, it is carried out in Four Years of Wages Versus Four Years of Debt, the Apprenticeship Math.

The journeyman card

When the apprentice completes the required hours, passes the program's assessments and finishes the instruction, the sponsor and the registering agency issue a certificate of completion. That is the credential. In trades that require a state license, the completion typically qualifies the person to sit the licensing exam, and passing it earns the journeyman license, sometimes called the journeyman card. The details of licensing are set by each state and sometimes by each city, and they differ.

A journeyman is a fully qualified worker in the trade, able to work independently and, in many cases, to supervise apprentices. The credential is portable. It belongs to the worker and not the employer. A journeyman electrician who moves to another employer, or another state with a licensing agreement, carries his qualifications with him. That portability is exactly what makes this credential more durable than a skill known only to one boss.

From journeyman to master and contractor

The journeyman card is not the end of the road. In most licensed trades, it is the middle.

After some years of experience as a journeyman, a worker may qualify to sit for a master license, with its own exam and experience requirement. A master is typically allowed to design systems, pull permits and supervise others, and in some states a master or contractor license is the credential needed to open a business that does the work for the public. A contractor license may have additional requirements, such as insurance, bonding and business and law exams, and those vary a great deal by state. Check your own state's licensing board.

The path, then, is a ladder: apprentice, journeyman, master, owner. A person who walks all of it ends up with skills, a license and a business of his own, with a debt balance of zero if he has lived carefully. It is the oldest model of American upward mobility, the same one that allowed Franklin to go from a printer's apprentice to a man with his own press, and its power is that every rung is built on work and not on permission. The business end of the ladder is explained in From Kitchen Table to Open Sign, the First Steps of Starting a Small Business.

How a young person finds one

The practical question. The federal government runs Apprenticeship.gov, a site where you can search for programs by occupation and location, learn about the process, and find contacts. Beyond that, here are the places to look.

• Your state's apprenticeship agency or workforce agency, which will list local programs.
• Local unions and union training centers for the building trades, many of which run their own apprenticeship programs.
• Trade associations and employer groups, such as contractor associations, that sponsor programs.
• Community colleges, many of which work with sponsors on the classroom portion and can point you to openings.
• Your high school counselor or career and technical education teacher, who may know of programs that take applicants straight out of school, and of pre-apprenticeship programs that prepare you for them.
• The employers themselves. Call a local contractor and ask if they sponsor apprentices. Showing up with a resume and a willingness to start at the bottom has opened more doors than most people expect.

For a step-by-step guide aimed at a teenager, see How a Teenager Finds a Registered Apprenticeship, Step by Step. For a comparison with how Germany and Switzerland do it at a larger scale, see German and Swiss Apprenticeships Compared With the American Path.

The strongest objection, answered

The best objection to apprenticeship is that it narrows a young person too early. At eighteen, the critic says, you do not know what you want, and a four-year college keeps your options open. An apprentice who commits to the electrical trade may find at twenty-five that he wants something different.

That is a serious point, and here is the answer in order. First, apprenticeship does not close doors the way the critic fears. Some programs offer college credit, as noted, and the skills of the trades transfer: a journeyman who goes on to be an inspector, an estimator, a project manager or a teacher has a head start from the field. Second, a four-year degree also commits a person, to a major, a debt and four years, and the difference is that the apprentice is paid while he commits. Third, the cost of changing course is lower for someone with a paycheck and no loan. Fourth, many people who change careers after an apprenticeship do so from a position of strength, with savings and a license in hand. Finally, nothing here says everyone should be an apprentice. It says the option should be known and honored. The shame is that so many families have never heard of it.

A note on policy

A conservative has reasons to like apprenticeship that go beyond the economics. It builds skill through work rather than through borrowed money. It ties training to actual jobs, so there is less chance of learning something nobody needs. It keeps decisions close to employers and communities instead of in Washington. And it respects the dignity of ordinary work, the argument made in Your First Job Is Not Beneath You, and Here Is Why It Matters So Much.

At the same time, conservatives should be honest about where government fits. The 1937 act is a modest framework of standards and registration, not a federal training bureaucracy, and the real work is done by employers, sponsors and states. The best policy keeps it that way: clear standards, light paperwork, and room for the private sector and the states to run programs without waiting for a federal official to approve every detail.

The case in brief

1. A registered apprenticeship pays a worker to learn a trade through on-the-job work plus classroom instruction, with no tuition.
2. The National Apprenticeship Act of 1937 laid the groundwork for registration, through the Department of Labor or a state apprenticeship agency, so that programs meet standards and credentials are recognized.
3. Sponsors, whether employers or joint labor-management programs, run the training, and the wage rises in steps until the apprentice earns the full journeyman rate.
4. The journeyman credential is portable, and in licensed trades it leads to master and contractor licenses and to owning a business.
5. A young person can start at Apprenticeship.gov, and the program's written standards spell out the hours, the pay steps and the rules.

What you can do: search Apprenticeship.gov for a trade that interests you, and read the standards of one local program from first page to last.