TRAINING CENTER
WHY APPRENTICESHIP?
Apprenticeship is combination of classroom along with on-the-job training. On the job training takes place by working side by side with a skilled journeyman.
Earn While You Learn
Once you are accepted and enrolled in our program, you will be dispatched through our hiring hall to employ you into the field. Union contractors signatory with our hall turn in requests for manpower as men are needed to complete their work. This is how on-the-job training takes place. Apprentices are actually employed with contractors. The apprentice pay rate is as follows:
1st Year - 50% of Journeyman rate
2nd Year - 55% of Journeyman rate
3rd Year - 60% of Journeyman rate
4th Year - 70% of Journeyman rate
5th Year - 80% of Journeyman rate
Technical Degree
While completing apprenticeship, an apprentice not only receives Building Trades Journeyman (BTJ) status, but also earns an Associate's Degree as we are affiliated with Ivy Tech Community College. All at very little cost to the apprentice. Books, dues and inititiation fees are all that we require.
A CAREER
Apprentices in Plumbers & Steamfitters Local Union 157 are members dispatched through our hiring hall. This continues to take place after the training program is complete. Our members are employed throughout our jurisdiction as needed by our signatory contractors. Members enjoy such benefits as health insurance coupled with both a pension plan and a supplemental defined contribution retirement plan.
OTHER BENEFITS
Being a BTJ Pipefitter or Plumber has other rewarding benefits. Few people understand the freedom that comes with being a skilled journeyman. We work until a job is complete and then move on to the next. It may be down the street or it may be an hour's drive away. We not only become used to a change of scenery, but we come to look forward to seeing what the next job may bring. If travelling the country to work sounds enjoyable, that option is always there.
