As children, we are conditioned to contemplate our future career choice, preparing us to make our way in this world. Some parents encourage their child to lean towards a job that will bring them wealth. Other parents tell their children to do what they love so that they love what they do. Often, these suggestions don’t include the trades.

As long as humans continue to live in modern society, the world will need skilled tradesmen. The basic infrastructure of modern life was created by masons, carpenters, iron workers, welders, mechanics, plumbers, HVAC technicians, electricians, linemen, painters, dry wall finishers, insulators, glassworkers, roofers…and the list goes on. For this reason, a job in the trades offers significant job security.

While Plumbing is a respectable career choice from a financial standpoint, simply becoming a plumber won’t make you rich. Nor is it anyone’s dream to enter a profession where you will absolutely encounter human fluids and excrement on a regular basis. What we aren’t expressing to the future generation, is that there is a feeling of worth that comes with being a tradesman.

To enter a new construction site, where the future plans have not yet come to fruition, and have the knowledge and ability to construct an effective water and waste system for that new structure, is empowering. To be invited into someones home, bear witness to their most intimate spaces in life, and have the ability to save them from hygienic collapse, is humbling.

Plumbers have to be strong, intelligent, compassionate, and driven. They must be disciplined to learn the trade, and maintain knowledge of modern progress and technology within the trade. Most states in the US require plumbers to be licensed at the state level. In the states that do not, there are often strict city or county requirements. Some states actually offer several choices of specialized plumbing licenses, which cover a variety of different plumbing systems.

In general, the process of becoming a plumber requires schooling, an apprenticeship, on the job training and the passing of an extensive exam. If an individual has interest in plumbing, prior to high school, they can pursue a vocational school to get a head start on their trade credits. If the decision to enter the trade is made after high school, there are many college level programs available. Here, in the state of Connecticut, an individual must complete 576 classroom hours and 8000 training hours, in an apprenticeship position, to receive their P2(Journeyman) license, allowing them to work for a plumbing company. In order to own their own company, they must work as a Journeyman for 2 years/4000 training hours, and pass another exam to get their P1(Unlimited Plumbing and Piping license).

The plumbing profession is one to be proud of. Only two centuries ago, our country consisted of primitive homesteads, with no running water. It is because of plumbers that there has been a great deal of change and advance, leading to the modern systems that we know today. These systems allow us to maintain healthy environments in which to live and work. Without them, infection and disease would, once again, be prevalent in our nation. The future will hold even more change, and will call on individuals with the want and ambition to join in the cause.