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In reply to the discussion: The State Of The Job Market Job Seeking Process Is Reducing Applicants To Desperate Beggars. [View all]dotymed
(5,610 posts)have great training programs that actually employ as well as educate their members. Unfortunately, our Unions are disappearing and are currently under attack.
Many of these Unions require you (at their expense, as a part of their apprenticeship program) to earn an Associates degree by the end of your 3-4 year apprenticeship.
Then you are granted Journeyman status which pays about double the amount earned as a beginning apprentice.
While most Unions have rules about the Journeyman to apprentice ratio on a jobsite these rules are not always strictly enforced. The reason is that the employers prefer to hire apprentices because their pay is much lower, even though it is still more of a living wage than most non-Union professions pay.
Most people do not realize how well trained most Journeymen trade Unionists are. In the long run, a trained Union employee is more cost-effective (even at 2-3 x earnings compared to non-Union (usually non-trained) trade worker. They usually get it right and within code, at a faster pace, the first time. That means a minimum of "re-do's" and call backs. That is why most hospitals, bridges and permanent infrastructure is Union made.
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