Craft, Education, and Training

The complexities of today’s construction projects necessitate that workers in the construction industry continually develop their craft and safety skills. Projects that used to take months to complete with scores of workers now rely on sophisticated technologies, enabling jobs to be completed within shorter time frames and with fewer workers. Construction workers today have to respond to these changing conditions. Today’s market demands that workers be more flexible, sophisticated and knowledgeable about current technologies as they emerge.

Our coalition provides the most up-to-date and highest quality apprentice and journeyperson training available to craftsmen and women in our industry. This enables our contractors to supply job sites with workers that have every skill necessary to excel in today’s ever-changing environment. Our programs are administered by local joint apprenticeship and training committees (JATCs), made up of representatives from the local union and from industry employers. Our comprehensive training includes on and off site learning and includes mandatory classroom courses. Course offerings for our crafts include construction skills training, safety, and environmental remediation curricula. Our focus is not geared towards just meeting minimum regulatory and licensing requirements. Instead, it is geared towards making our workers the best skilled workers in the construction industry.

Through apprenticeship programs, companies are able to cultivate new workers at minimal cost. The new entrants receive supervised training on the job and related theoretical instruction under the tutelage of master craftworkers from members of our unions. Because the sponsoring JATC pays for the cost of apprentices’ instruction, our apprenticeship program is a cost-effective solution for our contractors.

Minimum qualifications, application and selection procedures, training content, and the wage progressions of each affiliated union determine program completion requirements for apprenticeship programs.

Our training does not end upon completion of apprenticeship. Unions provide ongoing skills improvement and upgrading to ensure that our members have the most advanced training possible.

All of our programs operate under the standards registered and certified by the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, U.S. Department of Labor and the State of Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.

On the job safety is an integral part of our members’ skills training. Safety and health courses for both apprentices and journey-level members enable our members to better handle the hazards of construction sites. Training films have been developed to support course instruction, many of which have been incorporated into OSHA’s inventory of training materials to train its own compliance officers.