Training Center
The 30,000-square-foot Plumbers, Pipe Fitters, and MCA-KC Training Center is located at 9876 Hickman Mills Drive in Kansas City, Mo. The $6-million state-of-the-art facility operates an instructional program with more than a half-million-dollar annual training budget. The Center provides space for more than 200 Apprentices of Pipe Fitters Local 533 and over 100 Apprentices of Plumbers Local 8.
Here Apprentices in a rigorous 5-year program learn with the latest, most advanced, cutting-edge technology and procedures to meet the rapidly growing need for construction and service skills. The curriculum includes a comprehensive, demanding range of subjects which enable them to install sophisticated equipment, fixtures and appliances, pipes and valves, read blueprints, and study regulations and codes. In addition, they learn science and math, heating and refrigeration, plumbing, welding, valve, and pump installation and repair, hydronics, and more.
The 5-year Apprenticeship annually involves more than 240 hours of classroom instruction and 1,700 to 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training. Each successive year of training is designed to build upon the previous year’s curriculum, going from the basic to the complex. The first two years of training for the Plumber and Pipe Fitter Apprentice are similar. In the third, fourth, and fifth years, the curriculum becomes specific to the individual craft.
The program’s overall objective is to produce a highly skilled, competent, and productive Journeyperson. The training center also provides advanced skills for Journeypersons so that they may formerly address their Continuing Education requirements and earn certification status in different specialties. |
