Technology Makes an Impact on Training for the Skilled Trades

10/31/2024

Trade schools aren’t just touting the terrific career opportunities available these days in the skilled trades and facilities management. Through technology, they are producing better-prepared workers for such opportunities. 

As the founder and CEO of the Connected Apprentice, Steve Metzman has played a role in the rapid advancement of tech in the trades. For 15 years, his company has had a partnership with Apple, and it was equipping contractors with iPads “well before it became commonplace,” he says. 

Asked to help trade schools modernize their operations, he saw the need and was ready. 

“We were astounded to see how many were training in a non-digital framework,” Metzman says. 

Now those schools are turning out ready-to-go workers who are familiar with operating software from day one. Gone from their classrooms and shops are the old three-ring binders. Instead, curriculum preloaded to iPads is preparing apprentices for success with any jobsite technology. 

The Connected Apprentice is the exclusive iPad provider to national unions including the United Association (plumbers, pipefitters, sprinkler fitters, HVAC) and ITI (sheet metal, air conditioning). 

“There’s a standardization we can bring,” Metzman says. “If you have 300 training centers, with Connected Apprentice you can be sure the tablet-based training happens in a standardized way. 

“There’s an appetite for this modernization. It’s been overdue. If you’re a facility manager, you want (to hire) a person who has experience with the software that’s being used.” 

The advantages of the technology are significant. Updates are pushed instantly to devices, ensuring that material never goes obsolete or requires the time and cost of printed revision. Furthermore, the training centers typically let apprentices take the devices with them into the field. 

“There are many efficiencies from this,” Metzman says of the technology. “It makes the (training) program more attractive, and it equips the apprentices for success. Then jobs get done better, faster and less expensively.” 

Many young people who are choosing trade school over a traditional four-year college degree say that they are doing so because it’s more affordable and they see a clearer path to a career. 

“These kids are looking for relevance. They want to be able to connect what they’re learning with what happens next,” says Jean Eddy, president of American Student Assistance, a nonprofit dedicated to helping students make informed choices about their education and career.  

“I think many, many families and certainly the majority of young people today are questioning the return on investment for higher education.” 

They also bring to post-secondary education an appreciation of technology that often sets them apart. 

Some of the obvious examples of digitized trades are the diagnostic tools that automotive and heavy-equipment technicians use today. GPS-guided excavation is now run-of-the-mill technology in road construction and natural resource extraction projects. Schematic drawings are now read on tablets rather than from rolls of paper blueprints. 

Doug Carroll is a freelance writer based in Chandler, Arizona.