Eric Steve, Apprentice at Hawkeye Community College, on Making Apprenticeship Simpler

Intro

Welcome back to our Making Apprenticeship Interviews! In today’s episode, Patrick sits down with Eric Steve, a level two plumbing apprentice at Hawkeye Community College, to discuss the ins and outs of modern apprenticeship programs. Eric shares his unique path into the trade—growing up surrounded by plumbing professionals and eventually choosing to pursue his apprenticeship, too. He opens up about the realities of learning remotely, the challenges of lacking in-person instruction, and the importance of hands-on labs for apprentices who don’t have mentors in the family.

Eric also offers insightful feedback about simplifying hour tracking and making apprenticeship requirements clearer and more flexible Don’t miss this practical conversation packed with real-world advice for making apprenticeships simpler and more accessible.

Highlights

1. Primary Question: How to Make Apprenticeships Simpler?

- Challenges and Opportunities for Improvement in Apprenticeships

- The Shift to Online Learning and Its Implication

- Benefit of having a mentor

2. First Area: Apprenticeship Exposure and Opportunities

- Eric shares his status as a level two apprentice with a deep family history in plumbing: father, grandfather, uncle, and brother all plumbers.

- Decision to enroll at Hawkeye Community College based on program reviews.

3. Second Area: Online Learning for Apprenticeships

- Discussion on the digital shift of apprenticeship programs, especially post-pandemic.

- Need for balancing online components with in-person hands-on experiences.

- Value of face-to-face relationships with instructors.

4. Third Area: Importance of Mentors

- Lack of physical labs and in-person interactions with instructors caused a reliance on family for practical questions and mentorship.

- Difficulty for students who learn apprenticeships remotely

- Suggestions for improvement: having more lab opportunities closer to students to prevent limitations, and introducing a more transparent system for tracking hours and reporting daily tasks.

5. Closing Thoughts and Reflections

- Recap on the need for accessible labs, instructor contact, and clearer, more flexible hour tracking.

Transcript

Patrick Cushing:

Everybody, this is Patrick from WorkHands again. I've got Eric Steve here with me, an apprentice at Hawkeye Community College. As we do on all these calls, Eric, we're going to talk a little bit about what can we do to make apprenticeships simpler across the board. This can be things you experience on the job, in the classroom, online. But I'd love to first just give us some perspective. Give some background on yourself -- how did you get into apprenticeship? Tell us what apprenticeship you're in and how far along you are at this point.

Eric Steve:

I'm Eric. I'm a level two apprentice. I've been around plumbing pretty much my whole life. My grandpa was a plumber. My dad, his brother were plumbers. My brother's also a plumber and basically just got into the trade that way and getting my. I'm apprenticing right now so that way I can get my licenses and I have a general knowledge of everything.

Patrick Cushing:

How did you actually find the apprenticeship itself? Were you connected? Did you know people in the apprenticeship? Did you have to apply to a specific employer? Would love to know a bit more about that part.

Eric Steve:

Okay. So I had to research where I could actually do it online because it's changed a lot since my brother and dad have been in the programs. My dad was in the program in this in the 70s, and then my brother, early middle 2000s, basically. I basically just looked around for schools that were close to me, which ones seemed the best. Hawkeye Community had the best reviews and seemed to have what I was looking for with the courses. There aren't any labs, though, around here, and I don't get to actually meet my professor because I live out of range. I do everything online.

Patrick Cushing:

Sure.

Eric Steve:

And so I can't really ask questions of them, but I've been around long enough, and my dad's actually been a master plumber since 91 and been in the field for over 55 years. I can ask a lot of questions from him. He's been around a lot of different stuff, which is good. But, as in getting certified and everything, they don't have to do the actual lab work. It's a little difficult. I already get a general understanding of it because I've been just doing it forever.

Patrick Cushing:

Yeah, you got a leg up getting into the trades. That's awesome!

All right, one question - is there anything you would do to make apprenticeship simpler? It sounds like you're talking a lot about doing things online. Tell me more about that. What has that been like? Is that the one thing? Or do you think there are other things that could be simpler about the apprenticeship program?

Eric Steve:

Having labs closer would definitely about the most crucial thing I could think of. With WorkHands and clocking hours - It's kind of difficult to get to all the different things because I'm just a service plumber, basically. We do mainly service work. Industrial stuff we don't get into and as much. I mean, we still do it. We cover all phases of plumbing, but more service work and water. Water service installations and that type of stuff, you know?

Eric Steve:

With working, it's maybe the clocking of hours being more specific. They're doing what you said following federal guidelines. The hours structure isn't really on WorkHands or even Hawkeye, but making it a little simpler would be kind of just like a check-and-balance system. Like, this is what I did today. This is how many hours I was on this job and this job and this job and so on could be beneficial, I think.

Patrick Cushing:

Oh, that's great! Like I said before this call, I think a lot of apprentices run into the same thing where you're given the set number of hours you have to hit in different categories. You may or may not hit them. And then it's unclear what you should do, what we should do, what the college should do if you're with an employer who maybe doesn't necessarily do that type of work. So I think more clarity and flexibility built in. Certainly be able to do things. More hands on in labs, I think, is a fantastic bit of feedback. I think there's a whole bunch of stuff going online after the pandemic, but maybe in some ways too far, you know.

Patrick Cushing:

And so how do you make sure you still have that in-person element, or at least an in-person relationship with the person who's teaching your class as well?

Eric Steve:

Right.

Patrick Cushing:

I think this is fantastic. I don't want to cut you off. Keep going.

Eric Steve:

I was just saying because not every apprentice has what I have, where I have a master plumber in the family as long as I've been alive, actually.

Patrick Cushing:

So, yeah, you've got a built in mentor. I'm sure you have the mentor on the job. You've got a built in mentor. You've got your brother. That's fantastic.

Eric Steve:

Everybody gets that, though. So I think labs would be more beneficial.

Patrick Cushing:

Better lab, better contact from the instructor, and more clarity and flexibility of what you need to track and how it fits in the system. I think those are perfect bits of feedback for the apprenticeship system at large. And things can be made simpler. So, Eric, well done. Really appreciate you coming on. I'll thank you and we'll let you go.

Eric Steve:

All right. Thank you.