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Everyone says you need a 4 year apprenticeship to make a good boilermaker, but a 58 year old welder named Ray trained me in 9 weeks
Back in March I got laid off from a warehouse in Gary, Indiana, and Ray let me shadow him on a small firetube job for 9 weeks, showing me how to roll tubes and read a basic print without any classroom time. We knocked out 62 tube rolls with zero leaks on the first hydro, which a lot of guys with formal apprenticeships around us didn't manage that same week. So I gotta ask, is the 4 year path really the only way, or does it just protect the people already inside?
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tara7938d ago
Man this hits home. Had a guy named Dale do the same thing for me on a water tube job about six years back, eight weeks and I was running my own stinger. He told me the books teach you the code but the job teaches you the work, and that stuck with me. We pulled 40 some welds and passed x ray first try while a couple apprentice guys were still practicing on scrap. The four year thing feels less like safety and more like a gate some folks want kept shut. Not saying school is useless but acting like its the only door in is straight up wrong.
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