Wachter has been in the electrical business for 96 years. That's not a milestone you reach by accident, but the result of generations of craftspeople who showed up, did the work, and passed what they knew on to the next person coming up behind them.
That tradition is alive in our apprenticeship program today, and during National Apprenticeship Week, it's worth talking about why we believe in it so strongly.
I've been in this industry long enough to remember when the conversation about a skilled trades shortage was just getting started. Around 2010, people were beginning to talk about what the numbers looked like: attrition rates and growth rates in the industry were outpacing the influx of new people entering the trade. That gap still hasn't closed.
Part of the reason goes back to a decision made in the early 1990s, when federal funding for vocational and technical education in high schools was removed. A generation grew up without exposure to the trades as a career path because the infrastructure to teach it wasn't there anymore. Every student got funneled toward a four-year college degree, whether it was the right fit or not.
This created a workforce that doesn't have enough electricians, and a country that's going to need a lot more of them. Data centers alone are consuming skilled trades workers at a pace that should get the industry's attention. The demand is real, and it's growing.
Our electrical apprenticeship is a four-year program. While apprentices are learning on the job, they're also in school, and Wachter pays for it. We cover the cost of their education throughout the program, with no strings attached beyond showing up and doing the work.
Once they earn their electrical license, the investment in their development doesn't stop. We fund continuing education every year. If someone wants to go deeper on automation, pick up a new certification in security systems, or train on an emerging technology, we'll pay for that too. The thinking is straightforward: a team that keeps learning is a team that keeps getting better.
We also run a boot camp program on the low voltage side, designed to get people oriented in the discipline and ready to contribute. The trades have multiple entry points, and we want to make sure people know those paths exist.
When people ask me what advice I'd give someone starting out in this field, I tell them the same thing I try to remind myself: every job has to get done, and whatever job is in front of you, do it as well as you possibly can.
It doesn't matter if you're pulling cable, digging a trench, or sitting in a planning meeting. That task exists for a reason, and if you don't do it right, someone else has to come behind you and fix it, or worse, work around what you left them. People notice when someone brings that mentality to the work. Foremen notice. Project managers notice. And they will go out of their way to teach someone more when they see that person actually wants to learn.
Most of the senior people on my team started exactly that way. My director of estimating has been with Wachter since the mid-90s. One of our safety department veterans has been here since 1991. The tenure on this team, just among my direct reports alone, adds up to somewhere around 200 years of combined experience. That's not a number you get without people who decided to stay, grow, and invest themselves in the craft.
A journeyman electrician who's willing to travel and work overtime can earn an excellent living, and in many cases well beyond what a four-year college graduate earns coming out of school, and without the debt.
"As manufacturing makes a comeback in this country, the need for skilled tradespeople in industrial environments is only going to increase.” - Jake Chambers, Senior Director, Electrical Management
We're not going to solve the labor shortage with one blog. But if you're a student, a career changer, or someone who knows a young person trying to figure out what's next, the trades are worth a serious conversation. The work is real, the career path is clear, and the demand isn't going anywhere.
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My decision to enter the electrical apprenticeship program turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made but the experience did not come without its challenges. Like I tell every first year apprentice, “the first year is by far the toughest.” The reason is that you are adapting to so many different experiences all at once and you just don’t know what you're doing or why you're doing it at first. If you can push through that first year it will become very rewarding. Once you learn what all of the parts and tools are and some tasks become repetitive, you feel like you deserve to be there. At the end of the day it always comes down to your work ethic. If you work hard and show up on time with a good attitude you will progress quickly.
The schooling is also a big part of your apprenticeship experience. The good thing is that it is paid for by the company and you get to work as you go. Most of the time it is a few hours a night, 2 nights a week, for approximately the length of a normal school year. The beautiful thing about it is that you learn and then immediately apply what you have learned the next day at work. Versus traditional collage where you might apply what you’ve learned years after you learn it.
The apprenticeship is a challenging 4 year experience that will reward you for the rest of your life. This experience is truly something, once you’ve accomplished it, that nobody can take away from you and the upside beyond that is all what you make of it!
At Wachter, we're committed to being part of that solution. We've been developing field-ready electricians for nearly a century. We plan to keep doing it.