Union training question

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Hello,My son (20) showed me a program being offered by our local PSF 150 and wants my advice. Im completely without any way to assess this. .....Description as follows:The Accelerated Welding class is an 18 week class; Monday-Friday 7AM to 3:30PM. After completion of the class you will be placed in the apprenticeship program with a two credit towards the five year program. During the remaining three years you must learn the pipefitting portion of our curriculum. Requirements: U.S. citizenship and a valid drivers license. Personal or phone interview may be requested and a background check must be provided if chosen for the class.Now, I know NOTHING about unions, welding school, etc. I'm just a hobby welder, and not a very good one  My questions are:1 - Is this a good way to approach the field?2 - Whats the 5 year program they refer to?3  -Any downsides to doing this over say a local community college route?I'd appreciate anyone who has some knowledge on this.Last edited by chaznsc; 05-18-2015 at 11:35 AM.
Reply:1. It's a good way if you want to be union.2. Union apprentices have to put in 5 years of training before they can be considered journeymen.3. No downsides that I can see, except for having to pay dues every month. If accepted, you will be working while in the program. Some of our apprentices with welding certs are making around $25 hour. If you go the community college route you are gonna have to hustle your own jobs, which can be tough straight out of school.
Reply:Major benefit here is that it is "earn as you learn", in other words, the schooling that he will receive will be provided by the union and paid for by the union. At the same time he will earn a percentage of union journeyman scale. It is a very good way to go if he qualifies for their program. An "apprenticeship" is basically what the 5 years refers to, however, 5 years seems a bit lengthier than I am generally familiar with. He will be considered an apprentice for the years leading up to his acceptance/testing out, as a "journeyman" and there will be stages of apprenticeship that he will work through. Each stage of this process carries a different wage scale and progressively increases with time and experience logged in. As to the community college route: not all individuals will be accepted into a union apprenticeship and not all unions will be accepting apprentices. Thus, going to a community college provides you with skills and other necessary assets to join the trades in a non-union manner or if and when unions are accepting apprentices students/graduates of other trades schools can possibly be placed in advanced positions with a union based on these skills that they have learned outside of the union. That's kind of the short answer, you can certainly add quite a bit more of detail to these descriptions and others hopefully will. Best regards, Allanaevald
Reply:''Major benefit here is that it is "earn as you learn". At my LOCAL 597, this is true for apprentices going through the 5 year program but NOT THE HYBRID PROGRAM.This may not be true in the program he listed as a 18 week course. His location and UNION would help. Many of these hybrid programs DO NOT PAY ANYTHING. YOU go there for the duration and UPON completion and passing you enter the union. Here is 597, CHICAGO , ILLINOIS. http://www.readjobscope.com/local-un...plication.htmlLU597 APPLICATION PROCESS GOES TO NEW TESTING SCHEDULEFIRST EDITION - 2015Last year, by adding multiple exam dates, Local 597 made changes to streamline its application process and provide for several exam dates throughout the year, versus one exam date for all applicants.By going to a quarterly exam, as opposed to one annual exam, “we’re not testing 3,000 people all at once, which will really be helpful,” said Adam Sutter, Local 597 admissions director.For candidates who pass the exam, but aren’t selected into the apprenticeship program, a hybrid welding program may also be available. Classes for the 16-week training program are held Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the training center.“We only take a certain number of candidates into the hybrid program, and often there is no hybrid class taken at all,” Sutter noted. “There’s also no way to directly apply to the hybrid program.”  #######The program is unpaid,  ######## but for students who complete it successfully, the rewards can be great.Hybrid candidates passing their UA-21 weld test are brought in as first-year probationary apprentices with first-year pay and benefits. If a hybrid candidate passes their UA-21, UA-15 and UA-41 weld tests, they come in as a second-year apprentice with second-year pay and benefits.
Reply:Location - Augusta, GAUnion - Local 150http://www.ua150.org/I do appreciate everyone's input. Union's are a bit of a mystery to me.Last edited by chaznsc; 05-18-2015 at 02:18 PM.
Reply:Thank you for the additional information BD1, I had not been aware of that particular scenario as of yet. Is this nationwide? or is it selectively being applied in certain union locals? I would be interested to know. Thank you again for that heads-up. Best regards, Allanaevald
Reply:If that union hall has lots of work in their forecast, it would be a good thing for him. It sounds like that apprenticeship program will teach him to be a pipe welder as well as a pipe fitter. Very good program there. After his apprenticeship is complete, he will have the change to write his journeyman exam. Once he has that ticket, he can go wherever he wants and earn the journeyman rate of pay. There is always work in my local pipe fitters steamfitters Union. The trades unions also usually provide some sort of pension and insurance for their members once you obtain full membership status.JasonLincoln Idealarc 250 stick/tigThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 52Miller Bobcat 250Torchmate CNC tableThermal Arc Hefty 2Ironworkers Local 720