Plumbing Apprenticeships in North Dakota: Programs, Requirements and How to Apply

Two separate systems decide who offers plumbing apprenticeships in North Dakota.

The first is program registration.

North Dakota has no State Apprenticeship Agency, so registered apprenticeship is overseen by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship, and programs are run by their sponsors.

On the union side, the United Association local our research confirmed for North Dakota is UA Local 300, based in Mandan, whose jurisdiction covers North and South Dakota for plumbers and pipefitters — our research did not confirm that the local runs a registered apprenticeship program.

Merit-shop and employer sponsors in the state were not confirmed by our research.

The second system is licensing: the North Dakota State Plumbing Board licenses master plumbers, journeyman plumbers and plumber's apprentices, and that license is separate from whether a program is registered.

Federally, an occupation must require at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning under the industry standard to be apprenticeable.

They need the license.

The State Plumbing Board licenses plumbers statewide, and plumber's apprentice is one of its three classifications.

Every apprentice plumber must register with the board within 30 days of beginning the apprenticeship, and the board's FAQ says hours worked after those 30 days without being registered will not count toward the term.

The board's rules cap supervision: no more than five plumber's apprentices may work under a supervising master or journeyman plumber's immediate and personal supervision on any installation, alteration or repair project; first- to third-year apprentices need direct supervision; after 5,700 hours (three years), an apprentice working for a master plumber may work alone in the fourth year.

Registration requires you to be at least 18; the term is four years of at least 1,900 hours a year, 7,600 total.

The license requirement — to work as a master, journeyman or apprentice plumber — applies in any location with a public waterworks or sewerage system; homeowners working on their own occupied residence and full-time maintenance employees doing repairs are exempt unless a local ordinance says otherwise.

Program registration is the separate track: it ends in a completion certificate from the registration agency, not the license.

The United Association local our research confirmed for North Dakota is UA Local 300, based in Mandan: the UA's own local finder lists LU 300 as covering North and South Dakota for plumbers and pipefitters.

That is what our sources establish — our research did not confirm that the local runs a registered plumbing apprenticeship, a training center address, an application schedule, wages or entry requirements, so contact the local directly, ask whether it is registering apprentices, and get its current intake in writing.

Nationally — a UA statement, not a Local 300 program term — the UA says its apprenticeships are registered with the Department of Labor, typically last five years, and cover plumbing, pipefitting, HVACR, welding and fire protection.

Registered status is the thing to verify with any local: the certificate a registered program ends in is issued by the registration agency — the federal Office of Apprenticeship in North Dakota's case, because the state has no State Apprenticeship Agency — not by a state board.

This is the gap in our North Dakota research: we could not confirm an ABC or PHCC apprenticeship program in the state, so we name no program here.

The national organizations are real starting points — ABC describes itself as founded on the merit shop philosophy and reports more than 24,000 members, and PHCC offers apprenticeship content through an online learning academy — but both are national descriptions, not confirmed North Dakota chapters, and which chapters run plumbing programs is chapter-level detail we did not verify.

The question to take to any employer offering plumbing training is whether its program is registered, and with which agency.

In North Dakota the answer should be the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship, because the state has no State Apprenticeship Agency of its own.

A sponsor that cannot name its registration agency is not one you can verify.

North Dakota's rules give classroom training a specific payoff.

Graduates of a 9-month (1,020-hour) accredited plumbing course can earn hour credit toward a North Dakota apprenticeship, weighted by grade average: an A average earns 2 hours of credit per course hour, down to 1 hour for a D average.

Which North Dakota schools or colleges offer a course that qualifies is not established in our research — ask the State Plumbing Board and any prospective school whether a course qualifies for credit before you enroll.

The classroom half of a registered apprenticeship is related technical instruction, and the federal frame is a recommendation, not a quota: the Department of Labor recommends a minimum of 144 hours of it per year of apprenticeship, and each program's registered standards set what it actually asks of you.

Program terms can be time-based (at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning), competency-based, or a hybrid of both.

Start with the employer: register as a plumber's apprentice with the State Plumbing Board within 30 days of starting — hours worked after those 30 days without being registered will not count.

The apprentice costs in our sources are renewal fees: $20 for the first year rising to $75 by the fifth under the board's 2026 schedule.

The fee rule lists a $50 application fee and a $50 exam fee per master or journeyman exam; our sources do not show whether the application fee applies to apprentice registration — ask the board.

For registered programs, federal rules set: a minimum age of 16 unless law fixes a higher one, a progressively increasing wage schedule, and a probationary period no longer than 25% of the program length or 1 year, whichever is shorter; the board's own registration age for plumber's apprentices is 18.

Ask any sponsor whether its program is registered — in North Dakota, that should be the federal Office of Apprenticeship.

See our plumbing apprentice pay guide for how apprentice pay steps up, and how to get a plumbing apprenticeship for the search step by step.

Confirm current fees with the board before you apply.

The apprentice renewal figures on this page come from the State Plumbing Board's 2026 licensing and renewal fee schedule: $20 for a first-year apprentice rising to $75 by the fifth year.

The $50 application fee and the $50 exam fee per master or journeyman exam are the board's rule figures as we read them in September 2026; our sources do not show whether the application fee covers apprentice registration.

Fees and rules change — confirm the current numbers with the board before you rely on any figure on this page.