Plumbing Apprenticeships in Kansas: Programs, Requirements and How to Apply

Registered apprenticeship programs are registered either by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship, through state field offices where no recognized State Apprenticeship Agency exists, or by a recognized State Apprenticeship Agency acting for the department.

Kansas is on the Department of Labor's list of SAA states, so Kansas programs register on the state-agency side of the federal split.

Our research did not confirm which Kansas body acts as the SAA, so verify a program's registration with apprenticeship.gov or the state before you enroll.

Apprenticeship registration does not run through plumbing licensing: Kansas has no state plumbing license and sets no statewide apprentice registration with a licensing board.

Where plumbing licensure exists, it is local — counties and cities license journeyman plumbers, master plumbers and plumbing contractors under uniform standards in K.S.A.

12-1508 to 12-1511.

The sections below take the sponsor routes in turn — union training committees, association chapters and employer-based programs — and say what the research confirms about each in Kansas.

No. Kansas sets no statewide apprentice registration with a licensing board, and there is no state plumbing license for an apprentice to hold: journeyman plumbers, master plumbers and plumbing contractors are licensed by the counties and cities that choose to require it, under uniform standards in K.S.A.

12-1508 to 12-1511.

How Kansas values that experience is set in the same statute: a local journeyman certificate requires documented proof of at least 2 years of field experience, verified by the issuing jurisdiction, and field experience means working under the direct supervision of a journeyman or master certificate holder or attending trade-related schooling — up to 1 year of it can be trade school of at least 930 program hours.

From there, a master certificate takes 2 years holding a journeyman certificate or 4 years of field experience.

Where a locality licenses plumbers, Kansas designates ICC, IAPMO or Prometric exams as the standard competency exams, with a 75% passing score set locally, and a license based on a standard exam is valid in any other Kansas county or city that licenses plumbers.

The full license rules are on our Kansas plumbing license requirements page.

The United Association (UA) — the union of plumbers, pipefitters and related pipe trades — describes its apprenticeships as registered with the U.S. Department of Labor, typically five years long, and covering plumbing, pipefitting, HVACR, welding and fire protection.

That is the UA's national description: our research confirmed no individual Kansas UA local's plumbing program, entry standards or application dates, so ask the UA local you are considering — or its Joint Apprenticeship Committee (JATC), where it has one — which trades it is currently registering and when it takes applications.

Whatever the local offers, a program it runs would register on Kansas's SAA side of the federal split, so confirm the registration with the registering agency rather than assume it.

If a program cannot confirm its registration, treat that as a stopping point.

Our research did not verify a registered plumbing apprenticeship sponsored by a Kansas chapter of the national merit-shop associations, so treat them as places to ask rather than options we have confirmed.

The national associations describe themselves this way: Associated Builders and Contractors says it was founded on the merit shop philosophy and reports more than 24,000 members, with chapter-level program details the research did not verify.

PHCC — the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association — offers apprenticeship content through an online learning academy, and its Educational Foundation is an EPA-approved 608 certifying program.

Employer-based registered programs, where one exists, sit on the same side of the split: they register with the registration agency — in Kansas, the SAA acting for the Department of Labor.

Kansas sets no statewide apprentice registration with a licensing board, so that registration, not any state licensing file, is what to confirm.

The classroom side of a registered apprenticeship is related technical instruction, and the Department of Labor recommends — but does not require — a minimum of 144 hours of it per year of apprenticeship.

Programs structure their terms three ways: time-based (at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning), competency-based, or a hybrid of both.

Kansas's own credit rule sits in statute: trade-related schooling counts as field experience for a local journeyman certificate, and up to 1 year of the required field experience can be trade school of at least 930 program hours — so keep enrollment records, transcripts and hour logs from the start.

Our research did not survey Kansas community colleges, trade schools or union training centers as plumbing related-instruction providers, so we cannot name one; ask each sponsor where its classroom hours are delivered and how they are documented.

Our research found no state application: apply to the sponsor itself — a union training committee, an association chapter or an employer-based program, whichever you are pursuing — and ask it to confirm its registration.

Federally, a registered apprentice must be at least 16 years old unless a higher minimum age is set by law; there is no federal maximum age, and federal rules bar discrimination against apprentices and applicants aged 40 or older, though a sponsor may set its own qualifications.

Pay follows a progressively increasing schedule tied to skill, the entry wage may not fall below the FLSA minimum wage where it applies, and the federal rule sets no percentage steps — each program's standards set its own.

The probationary period cannot exceed 25 percent of the program length or 1 year, whichever is shorter.

Completing a registered apprenticeship earns a completion certificate from the registration agency — it is not a trade license; the local journeyman certificate you may pursue next rests on the documented field experience described above, so keep your hour records.

Our guide to how to get a plumbing apprenticeship covers the search and application.