Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any Good Trade Schools?

You have to be careful with Unions. My daughter was talked into joining the SMART Union. Her apprenticeship was for sheet metal/HVAC. Her licenses would be held for 10 years from date of hire before she could move away from the Union. Her apprentice program projected a five year average to Journeyman.

I'm in the Union because we are closed shop on the railroad. I tried to warn her about furlough with unions. She said the "Union" promised to keep her busy. She started in the Union in June 2021, started her weekend VoTech school in September, she was furloghed in October. Also if she was furloughed school was stopped for apprentices who weren't working.

So she went to work at a Target warehouse as an order picker for $20 an hour through Christmas. Found a non union shop to hire her in HVAC for $27 an hour, and filed paperwork to terminate her Union membership and had to pay like $500 for reimbursement to the trade school. The Union called her mid March to offer her back in because they had work for her again, but this time she wasn't interested.

My daughter will turn 20 in January and is on a trajectory to earn with overtime $80K this year with health benifits and a 401K, and living on her own renting a house. Now if I can just keep her from adopting another dog (2 German Sheppards already), I think she'll do alright! She's extremly hard working, and I couldn't be more proud.

Here is a couple of TicTok videos she has posted about her work.

Big HVAC unit!

I love my work.

Culinary School.

Then go to work and place you want to live>>>>>>>>>>>

Another good one is the Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding (I won’t mention Ingalls).

You’ll get out of it what you put in it. I can say one of the past presidents of the yard was an apprentice school graduate, maybe more.