Builders Guild website emphasizes apprenticeship recruitment
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PITTSBURGH – The Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania, a labor-management organization representing the commercial construction trade unions and their contractor partners, has launched a new website, www.buildersguild.org, with a special emphasis on recruiting apprentices into the construction trades.
“The new website gives a much deeper explanation of how the trade apprenticeship programs function and highlights the people who make up the apprentices in the construction trades in our region,” said Jeff Nobers, executive director of the Builders Guild in a press release. “There is a definitive and immediate need for those who want to build a long-term career and to leave a legacy as being part of the massive and positive changes that are and will continue to occur here.”
The Pittsburgh region is in the early stages of what is being viewed as the largest construction period in its history, led by the $6 billion Shell ethane cracker plant under construction in Beaver County.
Apprenticeship training is administered by each of the 16 construction trade unions through their Joint Apprenticeship Training Centers. There is no cost for the training which lasts from three to five years, with apprentices who are paid during on-the-job training, which on average makes up 90 percent of their training. In addition to hourly rates that increase after each year is completed, apprentices receive comprehensive health care and pension and annuity benefits.
“One of our main goals is to dispel many of the myths about a career in union construction,” Nobers said. “Those that go through the JATC training are exceptionally skilled craftspeople, true professionals that have every bit as much training as any person who pursued college or other post-secondary education. Average annual wages are 20 percent or more above the state average household income and the health and pension benefits are among the best you will find in any industry.”