Are you considering a rewarding career as an ironworker and looking for programs that will help get you off to a strong start?
Structural ironworkers erect structural steel girders, plates and columns, and join them permanently to form a framework or a completed structure. Workers are usually interchangeable on all phases of work except for welding, an activity which requires additional training.
“The Red Seal gives you confidence in knowing you’re properly trained,” says Danielle Shaw, Trade Improvement Coordinator with B.C. Ironworkers Local 97 Apprenticeship & Training Society. “It shows that you achieved the Theoretical and Practical skills through training and mentorship to do the job safely and effectively.”
An ironworker apprentice must complete a three-year program including 4,260 workplace hours and 600 in-school hours of training.
“The great thing about Ironworkers apprenticeship training is you get paid to apply your knowledge in the field right away – you earn while you learn,” Shaw says. “This is compared to going to university for four years and ending up with a large student loan to pay off at the end.”
As part of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Ironworkers, Local 97 has been supporting a highly skilled labour force since 1958 by providing apprenticeships. They are proud to be a Red Seal trade with many members who have a great deal of mobility in their craft and can take their skills all over the globe.
The Local 97 Apprenticeship & Training Society provides opportunities for Ironworkers Foundations training as well as Registered Ironworker Apprenticeships in the following designations:
- Ironworker Foundation Certificate – Basic theory and related information along with hands-on shop and field practice enable students to become competent in basic ironworking activities.
- Ironworker Generalist Apprenticeship – Includes welding, burning, riveting, drilling, fitting and fabricating structural shapes and plates in the erection of structural steel for buildings and bridges.
- Ironworker Reinforcing Apprenticeship – Includes placing and securing rebar in form work on foundations, walls, slabs, and possibly prefabricating columns and zones. Also carrying, cutting, sorting and site bending rebar and other materials used in reinforcing various concrete structures.
Ironworkers Local 97 Training also provides members with opportunities to upgrade their skills with classes such as Level 1 First Aid, Fall Protection, Canadian Welding Bureau Initial Certification, Provincial Instructor Diploma, Foreman Course and more.
“These skill upgrades allow apprentices and journeypersons with room to grow and move forward in the industry and their career,” Shaw says. “Every Local 97 representative in our hall was an apprentice at one point, and has grown their careers into leadership and management roles.”
Ironworkers Local 97 training and careers also provide members with job security and excellent wages, benefits and pension plans.
Find out more on Facebook, or call 604-879-4191 for information on programs at their training centre located at 20135 115a Ave Maple Ridge.