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Career Path to the Construction Trades

The Construction AdvancementFoundation’s School-to-Career program was created to educate and develop promising high school graduates for a career in the union construction trades.  Construction trades workers are employed in a large variety of occupations that are involved in all aspects of the construction industry.  Some of the occupations in the construction trades include Operating Engineers, Ironworkers, Carpenters, Technical Engineers, Cement Masons, Teamsters, Laborers, Pipefitters, Sheet Metal Workers, Electricians, and many other construction trade specialists.  Workers in these occupations can be found in constructing residential buildings, commercial buildings, and other industrial buildings, plants, and structures.  You can also find trade workers building sewers, roads, highways, bridges, railways, and other projects related to our nation’s infrastructure.

Persons can enter the construction industry through a variety of educational and training backgrounds. Those entering construction out of high school usually start as apprentices.  Apprentices are taught the skills of the trade through a combination of on-the-job training and related classroom instruction under the supervision of a journey-level craft person or trade professional.  Throughout the apprenticeship period, the worker learns the practical and theoretical aspects of a highly skilled occupation.  After completing an apprenticeship program, the worker obtains a journey-level status.  Workers who obtain journey-level status are granted the additional benefit of nationwide mobility at the journey-level pay scale.

Working in the construction trades takes a special and unique individual.  Trade workers must have good reasoning skills; including the ability to understand and carry out instructions and use good judgment to solve problems.  Nearly every construction project must adhere to strict standards and specifications.  Therefore, workers must be extremely detailed oriented, have strong oral and written communication skills, and have a solid foundation of basic math skills.  Workers in this industry need physical stamina because the work frequently requires prolonged standing, bending, stooping, and working in cramped quarters. They also may be required to lift and carry heavy objects.  Exposure to the weather is common because much of the work is done outside or in partially enclosed structures. Construction workers often work with potentially dangerous tools and equipment amidst a clutter of building materials; some work on temporary scaffolding or at great heights. 

To learn more about a career path in the union construction trades, please read our apprenticeship information guide below.