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The Trades
Kay W.
May 07, 2025
I’ve been seeing quite a bit of blather on vocational/trades training on Bluesky, so I thought I’d add some background to the discussion so we can be a little more discerning on what worker and student-centered skills trades or vocational training looks like. I had such high hopes for Bluesky but all I see on there is low quality info, liberals scolding other liberals on language use and insufficient loyalty to the Democratic Party and a lot of crappy AI illustrations. Honestly, you’ll learn more on Tik Tok and definitely reach a broader audience.
Anyhoo. This is the building trades JATC system, which operates in all 50 states:
To be sure, a skilled craft union apprenticeship is the "other four-year degree."
And I would wager that most people in America, including and especially lawmakers at all levels of government, would be stunned to learn that:
•Nearly two-thirds of all registered apprentices in the U.S. are trained in the construction industry
•Among construction apprentices, roughly 75 percent are trained in the unionized construction sector - known as the joint apprentice training committee (JATC) system.
•Every year, North America's Building Trades Unions and our signatory contractors direct over $1 billion in private investments towards this JATC system.
•When wages and benefits that are paid to apprentices are factored in, that annual investment exceeds $11 billion.
•Our unions and contractors operate more than 1,600 training centers in the United States
•If the Building Trades training system, which includes both apprentice-level and journeyman-level training, was a degree granting college or university, it would be the largest degree granting college or university in the United States -- over 5 times larger than Arizona State University.
•If we were a public university system, we would be the third largest public university system in the United State -- almost twice as large as the University of Texas system.
•And if we were a K-12 school district, we would be the fourth largest school district in the US, only behind New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
The only comparable skills-based training in existence today that has the track record of success enjoyed by the union construction industry's skilled craft apprenticeship infrastructure is that which is provided by America's armed forces.
JATC is a joint effort and investment between labor unions and contractors, with some federal funding. Yes, you read that right: the private sector pays for part of the training cost of their future employees. Imagine that! The 1960’s (when JATC was established) were a heady time. We still expected employers to cover some of the cost of training employees back then.
JATC programs operate with “standards” (pdf) - regulations that protect the apprentices from employers or entities or politicians that would turn apprenticeships into rip off, for profit “training” that the apprentice pays for. This is important because conservatives are flooding the zone with garbage that they’re calling “apprenticeships”. During Trump’s first term, for example, the Trump people developed a food service “apprenticeship” where the apprentice was to pay 25,000 a year for a certificate in food service that pays 10 dollars an hour. Cheap garbage that ticks the “apprentice” box but is wholly centered on the employer to the detriment of the student/employee. The public and employees shouldn’t be funding training at Taco Bell franchises.
Could we have something like the JATC for health care or tech skills training? Sure. But that would involve health care or tech employers paying some of the cost of training their future employees instead of shifting that cost to the public.
Trades are great. I’m a huge supporter. One of my sons is an IBEW journeyman electrician and he makes 46 an hour working for Stellantis in Detroit. I completed trades training after high school and although I ended up going to the postal service and then college and then law school. I don’t regret it at all. But not all trades training is a good deal for students. Without real regulation and a contract between the apprentice and the training center, vocations/trades training will turn into just another opportunity to turn young people into an ATM - paying for training that doesn’t pay off.
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