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g/apprentice • Posted by u/water_heater_wally •

Non-union shop is not giving me the hours I need for my license — how do I handle this? Career

Second year plumbing apprentice, non-union shop. State requires 8,000 hours documented for the journeyman exam, with specific categories — so many hours of drainage, so many of water supply, so many of gas.

Problem: I have been on residential service for fourteen months straight and my hours are almost entirely water supply and drainage repair. Almost zero gas, zero commercial, zero rough-in on new construction.

At this rate I will hit 8,000 hours and still not qualify to sit the exam because my category breakdown will not meet the requirement.

I have brought it up twice with my boss. Both times "we will get you on something else soon." Nothing has changed.

Do I push harder or do I leave?

💬 7 replies

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u/pipefitter_pat •

Push once more, in writing, with the specific numbers. Not "I need more variety" — an email that says "I need 700 hours of gas work to sit the exam, I currently have 40, at my current rate I will not qualify until 2031."

Numbers change this conversation. A lot of small shop owners genuinely are not tracking your category breakdown and they hear "I want different work" as a preference, not as a licensing blocker.

If nothing changes after that, leave. Two years is a long time to spend on hours that do not count.

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u/medgas_marcus •

Agreeing with the reply above and adding: check whether your state lets you document hours from more than one employer, and whether there is any provision for related training hours. Some states let you substitute approved coursework for a portion of a category.

Also worth calling the licensing board directly. They are usually much more helpful than people expect and they can tell you exactly what will and will not count before you spend another year on it.

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u/water_heater_wally OP •

I have not called the board. It genuinely did not occur to me that I could just ask them. Calling Monday.

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u/backflow_ben •

The thing to understand about your boss's position: a second year who is good at residential service is profitable on residential service. Moving you to gas rough-in means you are slow at something new and somebody has to supervise you.

That is not malice, it is a real cost. But it is a cost that gets paid by your license, not by him. Which is why "we will get you on something soon" is a sentence with no deadline in it.

Give him a deadline. Then act on it.

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u/drain_dave •

Left a shop over exactly this in my second year and it was the right call. The shop I moved to rotated apprentices deliberately because the owner had been through it himself.

Ask about it in the interview next time. "How do you make sure apprentices get hours in every category" is a completely reasonable question and the answer tells you a lot about the shop.

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u/journeyman_hopeful •

Track your own hours by category in your own spreadsheet, starting today, regardless of what you decide. Do not rely on the shop's records.

I have watched two people get to the end of an apprenticeship and find out the paperwork the shop submitted did not match what they actually did. Reconstructing four years of hours after the fact is close to impossible.

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u/water_heater_wally OP •

I have been assuming the shop's records are the record. Starting my own tomorrow. Thanks, all of you — this thread gave me more actionable stuff in an afternoon than fourteen months of "soon."

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