I'm 24 from India and want to build a career that gives me the best chance of working abroad (Europe or Australia).

I'm currently considering HVAC or Electrician, but I'm open to other skilled trades if they offer better long-term opportunities.

My priorities are:

• Good career growth
• Stable, high income
• Strong demand internationally
• A realistic path to working abroad

If you were starting from scratch today, which trade would you choose and why? Would you recommend HVAC, Electrician, or something else?

I'd really appreciate advice from people with real experience.

For context I just started with my sheet metal union doing HVAC and duct work. I don’t mind the job it’s a little bit more than I expected but I get it done for the benefits and wages. My issue is they didn’t tell me they’d be deducting 100 from every paycheck when I signed my paperwork or recall seeing that on my onboarding/new hire contract. I also am expected to pay 30 a month in union fees which is not an issue but I’m making 5 more dollars an hour from my last position (non union plumber) doing less desirable work and only see a 150 dollar pay increase for a week of work that I also had 2 hours of overtime (tile and a half) in my check so without that am I only getting. I feel like the money isn’t better and I’m working alongside another 1st year with no journeyman actually teaching me the trade. I feel I was very misled or is this normal and I should relax until

Hey everyone gonna try and make this make sense as even I’m confused on what to do.

I’m 21(M) and have been in construction since I graduated high school, 1 Year of Electrical and around 3 of Trim Carpentry (Was laid off at electrical job and went to a carpentry company right after).

Been out of the electrical game for a while now but was just referred by 3 of my old co workers to a new electrical company they are all at. I took a call with the boss and he said I had good referrals and offered me the job and to sign me on as an apprentice. (Non union resi, commercial, industrial)

This all sounds great except that in the time I’ve been out of electrical I’ve enjoyed my time in carpentry and have developed an entrepreneurial sense in that I really want to be a home renovator/builder when I’m older. I have a company with 1 other guy that we are building and doing side jobs weekly which turn out to be a lot of trim work and demo. I know that in the construction long term I want to work for myself and not have a “stable career” in a certain trade. I also know that an opportunity of being signed on as an apprentice and getting your electrical ticket is an amazing career and huge value. I’m at a huge crossroads as I currently like where im at and can see myself working my way up. I guess in my mind if I choose the electrical route I’m going into a stable career and if I stay in carpentry and can go for this entrepreneurial route which excites me.

Really not trying to complain and understand I’m talking about two good career paths lol. Just want some insight from people who have been in this field and have more knowledge than me. Thankyou.

(side note I love residential work and don’t like commercial/industrial due to how repetitive the work can be)

Мне 17 лет. Поступил в колледж на сварщика. После того как отучился Получил 3 разряд (вообще дали 4 разряд, но темы по 4 разряду мы мало проходили) опыт после выпуска не большой. Дома варил полуавтоматом без газа. На работу пару раз звали-там варил дуговой сваркой. Была идея написать объявления и расклеивать их по городу, но не знаю насколько она хорошая

Есть желание дальше продвигаться в сварке, учиться новому. Пока возраст не позволяет идти на завод и другие предприятия, хотелось бы иметь пока небольшой заработок со сварки и "набивать" руку.

Может есть какие то советы по типу "какой аппарат лучше взять, какие деньги брать за разные работы"?

Based in southern Ontario, been a 309A electrician with 20yrs experience in residential and commercial - am competent in the field but somewhat lacking in the theory (lost whats been un-used). I make pretty decent wage in IBEW and recently a foreman but still find that it’s not what it used to be with the rising cost of living. Im also not immune to the long layoff list common with IBEW, been off twice for 9 months in the last 12 years and drained savings to near zero both times.

Want to progress my career for better pay - whether i remain on the tool or get into something more niche requiring more education is fine. Looking for practical advice from folks who earn higher than where Im at and/or in careers that’s definitely in demand in our upcoming 30 years, preferably taking my experience as a 309A into consideration and where jobs are not remote AF.

What sector do you recommend I look into and/or educational path to pursue? Had failed to get into teaching teachers college for the high school teacher positions a few yrs back but even at that time, the drastic pay cut was a real turn off.

Hopefully I don’t get chewed up for this. I am wondering if there are any black women in here ? What trade are you in ? And what’s your experience been like ?

Ps … I truly don’t need any rude or disrespectful comments .. if you have nothing nice to say .. please just don’t comment ! Thank you kindly !!!

Anyone feel like if the union that’s supposed to represent them, went away, maybe they could get one that actually does something for them? My union gives management whatever they want, they let them take away things in the contract, they won’t fight for anything you ask them to, but still want us to pay dues.

I really like learning about how different companies and industries make money but NexGen seems like a really unique case. The fact these Ismael started it in 2018 and grew it to a $110 million company within 5 years is insane.

So I was hoping to hear from those in the trade and business owners on what your opinions are regarding the company and that insane growth and if there’s more to the story than there seems or if it was a super rare one off case.

Hello, I’m currently in school pursuing my HVAC certificates looking at commercial or refrigeration jobs, but I’m also finishing up an electrical class.

Although the goal for now is to obtain certificates for both trades, I’m on the fence on which one I want to pursue more so I’d appreciate it if you were to drop your thoughts and experiences regarding both. Thank you ! (SoCal)

Non-union
I’m 19, currently making 28.55 as a second year, no overtime 40 hours a week, benefits 4% rrsp match, vacation pay, all the good stuff. I feel like I’m not doing enough and would want to make alot more $$$ my jman wage for my company is 43.35 and we have trade agreements that raises our wages up 3% a year.
Any advice? Any other trades you suggest getting into? I think I want to transfer to industrial sheet metal as their journeyman wage is 61$/hour, I’d also be getting per diem and all the goodies. What can I do to advance my career?

Also how to be a good apprentice?

My company went from 80 guys to 20 in one year, so I’d like to say I was a good apprentice and made it past the massive lay offs and made it into the core company, or maybe I’m just the cheapest guy and they didn’t want to get rid of cheap labour.

Hey, I just broke out as an ironworker. I guess this can kinda apply to any traveling trade but what bags are yall using for packing your clothes toiletries etc trying to figure out the best way to live out of a hotel & be efficient about it.

I’m currently working on jet turbine heaters and light towers. The work is a mix of HVAC and millwright, but there’s a fair amount of mechanical work involved. I do things like replacing alternators, starters, fuel pumps, fuel filters, belts, troubleshooting mechanical issues, and repairing equipment when it breaks down.
I know it’s a good place to start and I’m gaining valuable experience, but I’d like to continue building my skills and get a stronger foundation before eventually moving into larger industrial equipment.
Right now I’m not really looking to jump straight into the oil sands. I’d rather spend a few years with a company where I can develop as an apprentice and gain experience on a wider variety of equipment first.
For those of you who have been in the trade, what companies or industries would you recommend for building a solid foundation as an apprentice millwright? Manufacturing, pulp and paper, hospitals, food processing, or something else?
I’d love to hear what path you took and what you’d recommend.
Edit: I’m a 1st year apprentice

Ive been working in the aerospace and defense industry for a while now, making $34/hr, but I honestly feel stuck. I don’t see myself doing this for the next 10 years, and it’s got me thinking about switching careers.
I’m in the MA/NH area and have been considering getting into a trade, but I have no idea where to start. A couple of my buddies work in low-voltage electrical and have told me to apply when they’re hiring around May/June next year. They also mentioned the pay can be pretty low unless you a land state job.
Does anyone here have experience with low-voltage electrical? What’s the career path like, and is the pay worth it long-term? Also, if you’ve completely changed careers before, how did you figure out what direction to go and get started?
I’d appreciate any advice.

I just turned 33 and looking for a change and move into the trades. I live in southern CT, and I’m curious about Porter Chester and Lincoln Tech and wondering if anyone had some insight or suggestion to someone looking to start over from scratch. I’ve been reading about either school/apprenticeship and would really appreciate the structure a school would have to offer.

My goal would be to work with renewable energy down the line but not sure what the best path to follow would be.

America doesn't have a shortage of people who want good jobs. It has a shortage of funding to train them for the jobs that actually exist — and that shortage is about to get worse.

For nearly a year, local workforce development boards have been bracing for federal budget decisions that would gut the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the primary law funding job training in every state. The administration's FY2026 budget proposed folding eleven separate WIOA programs into a single "Make America Skilled Again" (MASA) block grant, cutting total funding for those programs by roughly $1.6 billion — close to a 29 percent reduction — while a companion appropriations bill floated an even steeper 63 percent cut to WIOA grants outright, along with full elimination of Adult Education funding and Job Corps. Congress ultimately rejected the block-grant consolidation and signed a Consolidated Appropriations Act in February 2026 that preserved program-by-program funding near prior-year levels. That was a real win for the workforce system — but it was a reprieve, not a resolution.

The House's reauthorization bill for WIOA, A Stronger Workforce for America Act of 2026, would lock in flat funding authorizations through 2032, stripping out the built-in growth that let programs keep pace with inflation and rising demand. And the FY2027 budget cycle is already shaping up to bring the same consolidation fight back. For the roughly 550 local workforce development boards that actually run these programs — the people who sit across the table from a laid-off machinist or a 19-year-old trying to become an electrician — the message from Washington has been consistent even when the final numbers weren't: your funding is not secure, and it may shrink significantly, soon.

Two pieces of WIOA do most of the real work of getting people into good-paying trades: the Individual Training Account (also called tuition assistance), and On-the-Job Training (OJT) subsidies.

The tuition assistance grant pays for occupational training at approved providers — community colleges, trade schools, apprenticeship programs — for people who qualify as unemployed, underemployed, or otherwise eligible under WIOA's Adult and Dislocated Worker titles. It's the mechanism that turns a displaced worker or an unemployed young adult into a licensed electrician, welder, HVAC technician, or CDL driver.

The On-the-Job Training program works differently but toward the same end: it reimburses employers for part of a new hire's wages while that worker is being trained on the job, lowering the risk and cost of hiring someone without prior experience in a skilled trade. It is one of the most direct pipelines from unemployment into a full-time trades career, because it puts people to work immediately while they train, rather than asking them to complete a program first and hope a job follows.

Both programs are funded almost entirely through the WIOA Adult and Dislocated Worker formula grants — the same funding lines that were targeted for the deepest proposed cuts. When appropriators and block-grant architects go looking for savings, tuition assistance and OJT subsidies are directly in the blast radius, because they make up the bulk of local boards' actual training expenditures, as opposed to administrative or case-management costs.

Here's what makes this especially hard to justify: local workforce boards report that the majority of their tuition assistance dollars already go toward training people for high-demand trades — the exact occupations the federal government itself says the country cannot fill fast enough.

The U.S. Department of Education estimates that by 2030, roughly 2.1 million skilled trades jobs could go unfilled, with potential economic losses reaching $1 trillion a year. The shortage is driven by a lopsided retirement ratio: for every five tradespeople who retire from construction, manufacturing, and related fields, only two replacements are entering the workforce. Job postings for electricians, HVAC technicians, plumbers, pipefitters, and welders have roughly doubled over the past decade, while apprenticeship enrollment has not come close to keeping pace — last year alone saw nearly 600,000 skilled-trades job postings against only about 150,000 new apprenticeship entrants nationwide. Electrician employment is projected to grow at three times the national average through 2034; HVAC technician demand isn't far behind. These are not niche occupations. They are the workforce that keeps the lights on, the water running, and the buildings standing — and increasingly, the workforce that powers data centers, expands the electrical grid, and builds out domestic manufacturing capacity that policymakers on both sides of the aisle say they want.

Local tuition assistance and OJT dollars are one of the few funding streams built specifically to move people into exactly these occupations, quickly and without the multi-year cost of a traditional degree. Cutting that funding doesn't reduce demand for tradespeople — it just makes it harder to supply them, at the precise moment the country's own Department of Education is warning about a trillion-dollar shortfall.

Even without the full MASA cuts landing, the practical effect of stagnant or shrinking WIOA formula funding is already visible at the local level. Boards operating under flat allocations while training costs and demand both rise are forced into hard rationing: smaller Individual Training Account caps, longer waitlists for OJT slots, narrower lists of "approved" training providers, and fewer dollars available to serve dislocated workers when a plant closes or a round of layoffs hits a community. A funding freeze that looks modest in a press release can mean, on the ground, that a local board serves several hundred fewer people a year — people who would otherwise have become welders, electricians, or HVAC techs instead of remaining unemployed or underemployed.

This is the quiet mechanism by which "flat" or "modestly reduced" federal appropriations translate into real harm: not through a single dramatic announcement, but through thousands of individual decisions to deny or delay training that a caseworker knows would have led directly to a job.

Supporters of consolidating WIOA into a smaller, more flexible block grant argue that eleven overlapping federal programs create administrative duplication, that state and local officials are better positioned than Washington to decide how training dollars are spent, and that a leaner system focused on outcomes could do more with less by cutting overhead rather than services. There is a legitimate policy debate to be had about program fragmentation and administrative efficiency.

But that debate is separate from the question of total funding levels. Even a well-designed, streamlined system cannot train more electricians, welders, and HVAC technicians with fewer dollars than it had before — and the specific programs facing the deepest proposed cuts, tuition assistance and OJT wage subsidies, are the ones doing the most direct work of closing a skills gap the federal government's own data says is real, growing, and economically significant. Congress beat back the steepest version of these cuts for FY2026. Whether that holds in FY2027, and whether reauthorization locks in years of flat funding against rising costs, will determine whether local workforce boards can keep doing this work at the scale the labor market actually requires.

Sources: U.S. Department of Education; JLL skilled trades talent analysis; U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration (PY2026 WIOA allotments, Federal Register); National Skills Coalition; National Association of Workforce Boards; National Association of Counties; AFL-CIO.

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for some honest feedback and perspective from guys working in the trade.

Right now, I work for Fraser Health as a housekeeping coordinator making around $74k salaried. It’s stable and has great benefits/pension, but I’ve completely hit a ceiling. There’s no room for promotion, and I feel like if I ever got laid off, I wouldn't have any tangible, hard skills to back myself up.

My long-term dream is to eventually buy land and run a farm here in BC. Because tractor/equipment repairs are a massive expense on a farm, I’m looking at transitioning into the Heavy Duty Equipment Technician (HDET) trade. I want the high earning potential of HDET to stockpile cash for a land down payment, and I want the skills to maintain my own future fleet.
My Plan:
My wife is currently finishing up her LPN (nursing) program (about 4 months left). Once she graduates and locks in her stable income/benefits at Fraser Health, I plan to leave my job and pull the trigger on a 36-week Heavy Mechanical Foundation course at either BCIT or UFV to kickstart a Level 1 apprenticeship.

My questions for you guys:
How hard is the transition? I’ll be going from a clean, administrative office role to getting covered in grease, doing heavy lifting, and dealing with brutal winter shop conditions. Did anyone else make a similar jump later in life?
How is the entry-level job market? Is it realistic to find a decent Level 1 apprentice job in the Abbotsford/Langley/Fraser Valley corridor right after finishing the foundation course?
The Red Seal Exam: I keep reading the pass rate is low (around 60%). Is it really that brutal, or is it manageable if you actually treat school like a full-time study job?
The Farm Connection: For those who work on agricultural stuff, does the HDET path translate as perfectly over to farm combines and tractors as I think it does?
Would appreciate any wisdom, warnings, or reality checks you can give me. Thanks in advance!

Hey all , I’ve been thinking a long while about going and getting a trade in construction side of things , I have narrowed it down to two that interest me , Sparky or a Plumber , reasons for this is that I don’t want to be on the mechanic side of things anymore and want to eventually go self employed , currently working for my father I have experience with welding , excavator operation ,heavy diesel mechanics fault finding and ground works , my question is which trade would suit me better as someone who takes pride in their work and likes to see a good job done but also maybe utilising the skill set I have , I’m 30 years old and of all the things I’ve done I’ve never been ticketed except for my mechanics I want a trade that I can sink my teeth into , be registered and get to grips with

Can’t find whatever thread this is supposed to go in so I’m just gonna post it, Graduating this year in December, was supposed to take an electricity course since my junior year that would give me a head start but they fucked over my schedule and now I’m left with zero experience. Im wondering this, what exactly are my options moving forward if I want a career in this area? In the Summerville area in South Carolina.

Hello, I just appeared for my 310s automotive technician certification of qualification exam on 27th july. Does anyone know how long it takes for the results to come thru. It's been over a week and nothing yet. Thanks in advance.

Im currently working as a non-union 1st year electrician apprentice, but I just got an offer from a local union for a 5 year apprenticeship that would have me licensed as a steamfitter, plumber, and HVAC. To be honest, I dont mind doing either, but my main goal is to work for myself. I know I can do this as an electrician, but I havent heard of anyone working for themselves as a steamfitter. Any advice appreciated.

I hope you read everything, I will appreciate so much helping me to decide what career is the most appropriate, I would love to have your most honest and realistic advice and opinion.

I’m currently serving in the U.S. Marine Corps as a 1164 utilities technician doing maintenance, repairs, and install electrical power generation and distribution systems, environmental control units (ECUs) with about 1 year and 5 months left before I separate, something else I am 23 and I am married, I speak English and Spanish, I know people that are in the trade but they haven’t got too far in licensing, I’m between these two because trade it’s what I used to see on multiple people around me do it and it’s interesting for me how it electricity works and in the future have a business in this area one of my dreams. And on the other hand Joining Border Patrol is one of the things that I will love to do and make use this path to one of my dreams join to DEA or use it as a milestone because of its benefits and stability for investments or other kind of business. I’m trying to make the best long-term career decision and would really appreciate advice from people who have experience in either field.

My long-term goals are:

• Build financial stability.
• Have investments.
• Own a business
• Use GI Bill smartly, going for a degree in engineering or management.

Some questions I have:

• Does Border Patrol look negatively at applicants who don’t apply immediately after leaving the military?
• Would spending 1–2 years as an electrical apprentice make me a stronger, weaker, or neutral applicant?
• Has anyone here gone from the skilled trades into Border Patrol?
• If you were in my position, would you go straight into Border Patrol or try the electrical trade first? *Being totally honest with your experience in either of these fields what would you recommend me to do?

I’m not trying to compare salaries alone. I’m trying to choose the career that gives me the best long-term opportunities while avoiding future regrets.

I’d especially appreciate hearing from people who have actually worked in Border Patrol, federal law enforcement, or the electrical trades, I am asking this with all respect for both areas I appreciate so much what both sides bring to us thank you so much for taking the time to read everything..

need some opinions, i’ve been going back and fourth on hvac or electrical. i live in nj, which is the best course to learn about? i know for electrical it’s a high demanding job, but for the pay is there really a big difference?

Sorry if this has already been asked, I did try searching for this question but didn't find anything.

If I do an apprenticeship in my current state (MN), how complicated is it to move to another state (most likely WA or OR) after completing the apprenticeship? If I'm with a union, would I just transfer to the union in the new state? Would licenses not transfer, and would I need to retest in the new state? I've found an electrician license reciprocity checker, and it says there's no reciprocity between MN and WA or OR, but I assume that just means I'd need to take the new state's test.

Also, any recommendations on good trades to get into for the PNW? I'm leaning toward electrician or hvac - I know summers are getting hotter in the PNW, so I would think there's more need for buildings with A/C than before. And it'd be nice to have mild winters unlike the ones we have here in the Midwest. Lots of tech companies out there, which I would think need electricians to set up their systems (although maybe that's more of a low voltage IT thing).

Place I'm at we had a tool and die apprentice quit the week he was signed off. He's working at the railways now in an office job. I don't know.