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For weeks, you worked on the project. You attended countless meetings to get
everyone’s input. You stayed late to incorporate a VP’s last-minute feedback.
And when all is said and done, what do you have to show for it? Basically, a
foot-high paper trail suggesting that more meetings are needed before a
decision can be made — and then they’ll probably outsource your job to India.
Maybe it is time to try working with your hands.
The building trades offer the opportunity to finish tangible projects and
expend physical energy. They are also, for the most part, enticingly free of
office politics and all the emotional baggage it entails. (As anyone who has
seen Office Space knows, only the construction site at the movie’s end offers
freedom from busywork reports and comments such as “looks like somebody has a
case of the Mondays.”)
Construction work also offers attractive job security, even given the
industry’s cyclical nature. According to the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of
Labor Statistics, employment prospects — particularly for carpenters and pipe
fitters (or plumbers) — look good to excellent through 2012.
Fueling the demand for these professionals will be the large number of
experienced tradespeople leaving their jobs over the coming years. And unlike a
host of office jobs, building, wiring and plumbing are hardly tasks that can be
outsourced overseas.
Even if you’ve never picked up a hammer, you can apply to a number of quality
educational programs, provided you have a high-school diploma (or equivalency
degree) and (in some cases) can pass the required math test. Although the
competition to get in can be tough, none of the following programs requires
construction experience.
A formal education in craftsmanship
According to Robert Delaney, admissions director of the North Bennet Street
School, most of the renowned trade school’s students are career-changers in
their mid 30s.
“Many [applicants] are sick of sitting in front of a computer all day,” Delaney
explains. “Or they are simply not looking forward to losing their third job in
five years.”
At the North Bennet Street School, those interested in construction can pursue
an intensive classroom/shop education in either modern or preservation
carpentry.
Students in the one-year modern-carpentry program learn modern structures and
materials. Instruction spans projects ranging from platform framing an entirely
new structure to remodeling existing spaces.
“The scope of the training is better than what you would get on the job working
for someone,” says Delaney. “If you work for a contractor — particularly early
on — you usually end up working only on specific types of projects, carrying a
lot of lumber and sheet rock. It is no fun and doesn’t really teach you
anything. About half of our program is spent out in the field working on real
contracting jobs — such as building a three-story addition with a deck.”
Meanwhile, in the two-year preservation-carpentry program, students learn the
tools and skills used in structures built prior to 1850. The emphasis is on
historic preservation — including how to preserve and, when necessary,
reconstruct original materials.
Preservation-carpentry students spend a major portion of the program working on
projects for local nonprofit organizations — including museums, historical
societies, and Historic New England (formerly the Society for the Protection of
New England Antiquities).
Tuition for both programs is roughly $14,000.
Apprenticeships with local unions
Given the necessity of hands-on learning, apprenticeships through local unions
are another great way to learn the building trades.
For example, the Pipefitters Local 537 Training Center accepts about 60 people
a year into its five-year apprenticeship program.
Apprentices — most of whom are in their 20s — attend classes two nights a week
and up to five Saturdays a year from April to September. There, they learn the
ins and outs of installing, maintaining, and repairing many different types of
pipe systems for residential, commercial, and public buildings.
To gain experience out in the field, the apprentices are employed by union
contractors on jobs ranging from new construction to remodeling work to process
piping for pharmaceutical plants. On a project, an apprentice will typically
have five journeymen responsible for training them.
Over the five years of their training, apprentices will work a minimum of 6000
hours. In addition to gaining valuable experience, they will earn 40 to 85
percent of the union wage for their efforts, depending on how far along they
are in the program. (Initial book fees cost about $400, and apprentices will
spend another $100 on books over the five years. After a six-month probationary
period, apprentices are initiated into the local union for approximately $90.
Monthly dues are about $31.)
The benefits of apprenticing with the union are substantial. In addition to
receiving a solid education and wages, apprentices enjoy excellent health and
pension benefits.
“In today’s workplace the opportunity to receive an education while working —
and while also receiving good health-care benefits and building a protected
retirement benefit — is hard to come by, to say the least,” says James L.
Walsh, training coordinator for the Pipefitters Local 537 Training Center. “The
building-trade unions are still a viable place to receive those types of
benefits.”
One-stop shopping
At the Gould Construction Institute, students will find classroom and
apprenticeship training for 25 different trades, including construction,
carpentry, electrical, HVAC, masonry, plumbing, and roofing.
Offered at 10 locations throughout Massachusetts, the four-year programs
require students to attend classes for 150 hours a year. Students also work as
apprentices on both private and public jobs. Tuition is less than $1000 a year
for all programs.
According to Barbara A. Lagergren, executive director of the Gould Construction
Institute, the number of applications to the school’s programs is rising by
about 2 percent a year.
She credits the increased interest to the public’s growing realization that
“people who love to work with their hands are getting paid well to do it.”
“And it’s not just a job anymore. It’s a career,” Lagergren continues. “There’s
a lot of advancement in the construction industry, such as becoming a project
manager or an estimator. When you talk to people who own very successful
construction companies, you’ll find that they, too, started in the field and
worked their way up.”
Genevieve Rajewski can be reached at ticktockwordshop@comcast.net.
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