The trades are changing, there’s such a lack of workers that the old school nepotism in skilled trades can’t supply enough bodies to fill the demand so unions are recruiting more widely, there are first year electrical apprentices who have never used a drill, for instance. There are also a ton of public contracts that have labor force participation goals for women and minorities, who are being actively recruited. In the old days, getting an apprenticeship was more of a ‘who you know’ kind of thing (which still exists, of course, I know multiple people who have sat on the local apprenticeship interview committee), and two years of trade school was what you did prior to starting.

Today, there’s a shortage of labor in all of the skilled trades, so the unions have taken it on themselves to provide the trade school education concurrently with the apprenticeship. In the electrical union (IBEW), apprentices go to school one day a week for twenty weeks a year, for five years. Pipefitters, sheet metal workers, and plumbers have similar programs. This benefits both the apprentice, who doesn’t get paid to go to school by the union but they also don’t have to pay for their education, and the union, which is able to filter and train candidates directly instead of relying on a third party to do it.

I’m an electrical project manager who has never been an electrician and I never went to trade school so it’s definitely possible to work in the industry without any formal training, but I’m definitely the exception at my employer.