Program Definition
Apprenticeship is a relationship between an employer and an employee during which the worker, or apprentice, learns a chosen profession. The training lasts a specified length of time. An apprenticeship covers all aspects of the selected profession and includes both on the job training and related instruction.

Related Instruction and On-The-Job Training
Related instruction generally takes place in a classroom. The instruction covers the techniques of the profession and also the theory behind the techniques. It includes detailed discussion of how typical tasks are performed and the safety precautions that must be taken. Classes, which are taught by experienced skilled persons, require the study of educational materials. The typical related classroom instruction lasts one hundred fourty-four (144) hours per year. While, on-the-job training comprises two thousand (2000) hours per year.

Program Length
An apprenticeship usually last about four years but range from one to six years. During this time, the apprentice works under experienced personnel and gradually learns and performs the work of the chosen profession under less and less direct supervision.

Earn While You Learn
Apprentices are employees. Generally, the apprentice's pay starts out at about half that of an experienced worker and increases periodically throughout the apprenticeship. Apprenticeship is an Earn While You Learn program.

Planning Your Registered Program
The sponsor of an apprenticeship program plans, administers, and pays for the program. Sponsors can be employers or employer associations. When an apprentice is accepted into a program, he or she and the sponsor sign an agreement. The apprentice agrees to perform the work faithfully and complete the related study, and the sponsor agrees to make every effort to keep the apprentice employed and to comply with the standards established for the program.

Not Licensing by the State
License means permission only. This permission is granted by the state to work as an apprentice in exchange for a fee, but a license is not an apprenticeship.

Not Taking Only Classes
By taking only classes on the theoretical aspects of an occupation, you are learning just that, theory. Apprenticeship is learning by doing. Therefore, the most important aspect of apprenticeship is having a job that allows the apprenticeship to combine theory and practice.

Not A Dumping Grounds
An apprenticeship is not a dumping grounds for high school students who cannot make it in college. Apprentices work with their hands and brains. They use skills such as math and English in an applied manner. To be a successful apprentice, you must be just as intelligent as any college student.

Not A Bad Alternative to College
Those, who complete an apprenticeship, have working skills that provide a wage comparable, if not more to that of a college graduate. An apprentice completer also has a better chance at employment than many college graduates. Apprenticeship is not a bad alternative to a college education.

Not a Job Finding Agency
The Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training is not a job finding agency. A potential apprentice must find his/her own job, and make sure it is in the field that he/she most enjoys. After one has a job, then the employer must contact the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training Office at (801) 975-3650, or visit the office at 1600 West 2200 South, Suite 101, Salt Lake City, UT 84119.

Not A Source of Cheap Labor
Apprentices are not a source of cheap labor. It is expected that companies who train apprentices will keep them as permanent workers. Companies should not dump the apprenticeship completer when he/she becomes “more expensive” and replace him/her with new apprentices to pay the lowest possible salaries or wages.