Visited the union hall in Gary and they changed the whole apprentice setup

Stopped by Local 374's hall in Gary last Thursday to pick up some paperwork and noticed they redid their whole training bay. They got 6 new welding booths and a pipe fitting simulator that cost like $40k, pretty wild for a hall that was barely holding together 5 years ago. The old timer running the place said they had to rework the apprentice schedule from 4 years down to 3 to match demand from the new battery plants. Has anyone else seen their local put money into simulators instead of just more stick time? I'm curious if that's the direction everywhere now.

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juliag1011d ago

That simulator sounds impressive, but the real story is the 3 year schedule. Everyone focuses on the fancy equipment, but cutting a whole year of training is a huge change. The old timers know there are some things you just can't rush, like reading a print or fitting pipe in a tight corner. You can learn the basics on a simulator, but you don't learn the feel of a torch or the patience it takes to do a good weld by pushing buttons. My worry is we're trading long term skill for short term numbers, and that's a hard deal to undo later. The battery plants might need bodies now, but we'll all pay for it if we push out half trained journeymen in five years.