Education · 1 of 5

The path

No degree. You get hired, you get paid, and you learn on your knees next to someone who has done it for twenty years.

1. 1

   High school diploma or an equivalency certificate

   Grade 12

   Math and shop classes help. Employers care that you are 18, reliable and can lift boxes of tile all day.

2. 2

   Get hired as a helper, or apply to an apprenticeship

   Weeks to months

   Two doors in: a tile contractor who takes you on as a helper, or a registered apprenticeship run by a union training center or a state agency.

3. 3

   Register the apprenticeship

   Days

   A registered program is signed off by the federal Office of Apprenticeship or your state apprenticeship agency, which locks in your hours and your raise schedule.

4. 4

   Paid work plus classroom training

   2 to 4 years

   Registered apprenticeships in the trowel trades run on roughly 2,000 hours of paid work plus about 144 hours of classroom instruction a year.

5. 5

   Journeyman setter, then certification

   After the hours

   Finish the hours and you work at the full rate. Many setters then sit the Certified Tile Installer test to prove it to customers.