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

Virginia is a State Apprenticeship Agency (SAA) state.

Registered programs there are registered with a state agency acting for the U.S. Department of Labor, rather than through DOL's Office of Apprenticeship.

Our research did not capture the Virginia agency's own name or website, so start from the DOL state-offices page when you need the registering office.

The union locals the sources we read list by name are the six UA locals in Richmond, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Hopewell, plus SMART's sheet metal Local 100 (Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia) and Local 393 (Portsmouth navy yards).

No employer, association-chapter or community-college sponsor in Virginia appeared in those sources, so treat any such program as unverified until you check it.

Whichever route you pick, ask the sponsor whether the program is registered.

Two different things are in play.

The apprenticeship layer is the program registration: a registered program is registered with the state agency acting for DOL, and completing it earns a certificate issued by the registration agency — a certificate, not a license.

The license is the separate Virginia layer: DPOR's Board for Contractors licenses individual tradesmen statewide, and the plumbing tradesman levels are Residential Plumber Tradesman, Journeyman Plumber Tradesman and Master Plumber Tradesman, under rules amended effective April 1, 2025.

Tradesman applicants must be at least 18.

Our research did not establish a separate state registration requirement for plumbing apprentices themselves — the tradesman rules we read set exam eligibility and do not describe an apprentice registration — so confirm where you stand with DPOR before you count hours.

If the work you apprentice on includes gas piping, Virginia licenses gas fitters (journeyman or master gas fitter, LP gas fitter, natural gas fitter provider) as separate tradesman designations.

The UA locals listed in Virginia are Local 10 (Richmond), Locals 110 and 376 (Norfolk), Locals 272 and 477 (Portsmouth) and Local 851 (Hopewell).

The UA says its apprenticeships cover plumbing and pipefitting, which makes a UA local a sensible place to ask about a plumbing apprenticeship.

SMART's sheet metal Local 100 covers Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia, and SMART's Local 393 is at the Portsmouth navy yards.

The directories we read name Local 100's trade — sheet metal, which is separate from plumbing — but not Local 393's, so ask any SMART local you contact what it trains.

The directories list the locals by name; they do not confirm which of them currently register plumbing apprentices, their intake windows or their application fees, so contact the local for your city and ask.

Nationally, the UA says its apprenticeships are registered with DOL and typically last five years.

Our research confirmed no Virginia merit-shop or employer program by name; the state's association-chapter programs were an open question in our sources.

Nationally, ABC (Associated Builders and Contractors) describes itself as founded on the merit shop philosophy and reports more than 24,000 members, and PHCC — the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association — offers apprenticeship content through an online learning academy.

Which chapters run registered programs is decided chapter by chapter and was not verified for Virginia; a gap in our research is not a confirmed negative.

If an employer or association offers to train you in Virginia, the test is registration: ask whether the program is registered with the state apprenticeship agency before you sign on.

Our research did not name the Virginia community colleges or training centers that deliver classroom instruction for plumbing apprenticeship programs, so confirm the classroom side with your sponsor.

Federally, DOL recommends a minimum of 144 hours of related technical instruction per year of apprenticeship — a recommendation, not a requirement — and whether Virginia adds a state classroom mandate for apprentices is not established in our research.

What makes those classroom hours worth planning is how Virginia converts them: the tradesman exam rules count formal vocational training hours toward exam eligibility, trading hours of training against years of experience.

A journeyman plumber candidate, for example, can reach exam eligibility with 4 years of experience plus 240 hours of vocational training instead of 8 years of experience with no formal training.

Backflow prevention device workers are certified separately, on 4 years of water-distribution experience plus 32 hours of board-approved training (or 7 or more years plus 16 hours), under ASSE testing standards, with training that includes a wet lab.

Start by choosing the route: one of the union locals above, or a registered employer or association program if you can find one.

Our research did not capture application steps, deadlines or fees for the Virginia locals, so contact the sponsor directly.

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 sponsors can add entry requirements of their own; separately, Virginia requires tradesman license applicants to be at least 18.

The occupation must require at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning under the industry standard, and program terms can be time-based, competency-based or a hybrid.

Pay follows a progressively increasing schedule tied to skill — the federal rule sets no percentage steps; those live in each program's standards — and any probationary period may not exceed 25% of the program length or 1 year, whichever is shorter.

At completion you earn a certificate from the registration agency.

It is not a license, but the vocational training hours you log are the kind the tradesman exam rules credit, so track them and confirm the count with DPOR.

Yes.

Virginia rewrote its tradesman regulations effective April 1, 2025, and the levels and hours-for-experience combinations this page describes come from the amended rule text.

Guides published before that date may cite repealed section numbers, so pull up the current 18VAC50-30-39 on the Virginia law site before you rely on a combination.