Overview of the Apprenticeship Program

Manitoba regulations require all ironworker apprentices to complete a three-year term of trade-learning. This includes both a Board-approved program of technical training (in-school) combined with practical training (on-the-job) supervised by a journeyperson or designated trainer. The province's ironworker trade regulation also establishes a rising scale of legally binding minimum wages owed to registered apprentices as they progress through the levels of their program. (The Construction Industry Wages Act provides additional information about the wages due to Manitoba apprentices.)

These important features of the Ironworker Program can seem confusing, especially to the newly-registered apprentice. One of your best resources concerning any aspect of your program - be it academic, job-related, or of the "red tape" kind - is your Apprenticeship Counsellor. All of the counsellors at the Branch are themselves certified journeypersons. Their main task is to provide the information, guidance, and other support you may require at any point along the way toward successfully completing your apprenticeship. Your counsellor will work with you as an advocate and as a troubleshooter to resolve problems you might encounter and can help you make sense of how the details of the Branch's Ironworker program affects you as an individual apprentice. Counsellors also work in the field and may visit you at your jobsite.

Registered apprentice ironworkers are expected to invest a total of at least 1800 hours annually in practical training and technical training combined. A general rule of thumb is that roughly 80 percent of this yearly time investment represents jobsite experience. The remainder consists of a yearly eight-week stint of technical training, to which you will be summoned by a formal notice from your apprenticeship counsellor. This notice, known as the School Call, will advise you of the dates, places and timetables which have been arranged for your instruction. You are encouraged to give special attention to this correspondence and to make sure that your Apprenticeship Counsellor has your current address. If you are unable for any reason to comply with a school call notice, it is important to let your counsellor know as soon as possible so that someone else can be offered one of the limited number of seats available in any given block of technical training. You will generally find that your counsellor is willing to reschedule your technical training. Repeated neglect of School Call notices, however, can result in the termination of your apprenticeship agreement.

Confusion often arises about when exactly an apprentice is considered to have progressed from one "level" of apprenticeship training to the next. Why does it matter? Under the trade regulation, you are legally entitled to earn a greater hourly minimum wage at each level of progress through the program. Confusion about this can be avoided if you recall that it is first and foremost the combination of practical training with technical training that makes apprenticeship unique. This means that promotion within the program also depends on making progress in both spheres of trade learning. Thus, although a given apprentice might have completed all Level One and Level Two technical training requirements, he or she is not considered a "Level Three apprentice" until the total time requirement of 3600 hours (2 x 1800 hours/year) has been satisfied. You are eligible for certification as a journeyperson on your anticipated completion date only when the total requirement of 5400 hours accumulated experience on-the-job and in-school has been satisfied, all fees have been paid and you have passed your Red Seal examination.

The versatility demanded of those who ply the ironworker trade has important consequences for the kind of training program prescribed for you as a Manitoba-registered apprentice ironworker. Its in-school and on-the-job portions are intended to guide you in developing a carefully defined, well-rounded set of skills and knowledge which has been identified by industry representatives from across Canada. Apprenticeship will equip you to undertake your responsibilities as a certified journeyperson in a wide range of work settings, but also to pursue further more specialized learning as your changing needs and interests may dictate. Successful completion of your apprenticeship thus represents a major personal achievement. It is the indispensable foundation of your further growth in skills and knowledge as a certified journeyperson. At the same time, however, completing your apprenticeship will make a valuable contribution to the pool of skills - and skilled people - upon whom the quality of life in Manitoba significantly depends.