Education · 1 of 4

The path

Nobody needs a degree. The question is whether you learn in a registered apprenticeship or just on somebody's crew.

1. 1

   High school

   Grades 11 and 12

   Shop, geometry and drafting. A summer as a laborer on a site tells you more than a year of reading about it.

2. 2

   Get on a crew, or apply to an apprenticeship

   0 to 6 months

   Either get hired as a laborer or helper, or apply to a joint apprenticeship program run by a union local or a contractors association.

3. 3

   Registered apprenticeship

   4 years

   The standard shape is about 2,000 paid hours on the job each year plus at least 144 hours of classroom time, over four years.

4. 4

   Journeyman carpenter

   Year 4 or 5

   You can read a set of plans, lay out a building, run your own section and be left alone with it.

5. 5

   Lead carpenter or foreman

   Year 6 onward

   Running a crew, ordering material, dealing with the general contractor and the inspector.