Women welders get start in ironworker preapprenticeship program

Seventeen women recently graduated from a preapprenticeship class in the University of Iron, the apprenticeship program of the Iron Workers District Council of the State of California and Vicinity, Benicia, Calif.

The women attended classes six days a week for three weeks, working nine hours a day to complete a total of 162 hours of classroom and hands-on training to prepare them to become ironworker apprentices. Classes included orientation, fire watch, traffic flagger, OSHA 10, first aid/CPR, welding, and rigging. The students learned knots, measurement, oxyfuel cutting, shielded metal arc welding, and material handling.

The women were assigned classroom work to complete at home before and during the hands-on training program, and all of the coursework was tracked in the apprenticeship tracking system maintained by the Iron Workers. This national pilot class, the first of its kind, was supported by the Iron Workers National Fund Trustees and Iron Workers Executive Training Director Lee Worley. Travel expenses were paid by the District Councils, and the hotel, books, tools, meals, and training were provided by the National Training Fund and Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT).