Another great year has come to an end for our TP Mechanical apprentices! We concluded our year with one of the highlights of our program – The Apprenticeship Challenge.
The Apprenticeship Challenge is an opportunity for teams of apprentices to test their knowledge gathered through classroom work and on the job experiences with both a written exam and practical, trade-specific challenges. Each team has a team leader to assist team members on the practical tasks. The challenge incorporates all the trades we train in – fire protection, sheet-metal, plumbing and pipefitting – while emphasizing our high level of safety standards. All practical work must be completed following all OSHA guidelines and TP Mechanical standards. The participants have six hours to complete all phases of the challenge, and all uncompleted portions are counted against the overall score. The participants are also scored on leadership and teamwork.
The challenge includes:
- A written exam based on each apprentice’s level of experience
- A pass or fail practical portion, with multiple stations, graded by an evaluator
Practical portion stations listed below must be completed per TP Mechanical work instructions.
- Copper press the piping assembly
- Copper sweat the piping assembly
- Copper braze the piping assembly
- PVC piping assembly
- Cast iron piping assembly
- Cold expansion PEX piping assembly
- TDC duct assembly
- Slip and drive duct assembly
- Threaded steel pipe the piping assembly
- Perform a groove on steel pipe
- Weld coupon fit up
The results from the Challenge were OUTSTANDING!
All participants accepted the challenge and gave it their all. Although many of the tasks may have been unfamiliar to some participants, they dove in without hesitation. Collaboration and a sense of competition were strong amongst the teams. Whether they were competitors, evaluators or spectators, at the end of a long day everyone walked away with some knowledge they didn’t have before this event.
Thank you to the evaluators for providing diligent, fair evaluations to all the participants. They sacrificed their time and energy to help with the growth of the apprentices and the company.
