The Marvin J. Boede Training Center in Vallejo, California, is where Local 343 members update skills, and apprentices learn the trade.

Training is at the Heart of Our Mission

Our journey-level plumbers and pipefitters have completed one of the most comprehensive apprenticeship training programs: five years of intensive classroom and on-site, hands-on construction. The men and women who complete this training have the skills to tackle any job.

Our five-year apprenticeship programs:

• Have been developed and continually updated with the cooperation of contractors associations throughout the United States and Canada.
• Provide comprehensive training in all aspects of the pipetrades.
• Set out specific educational goals for each year, goals that must be reached in order for the apprentice to proceed with training.

Our plumbers and pipefitters:

• Spend two years mastering the basics, so they have a solid foundation of fundamental skills and theory on which to build the specialized training that will follow.
• Spend the next three years progressing through the advanced stages of instruction in their special areas of expertise.
• Update their training once they've earned journeyman's status by taking advantage of the many educational opportunities designed to keep their skills current with advancing technologies.

The United Association and Pipe Trades Association members in the Bay Area have invested millions of dollars to build state-of-the-art training centers and staff them with top-notch instructors. For contractors, our training means the job gets done right. For industries, our training means they can count on union contractors. For our members, training means staying competitive. And for the people who live in our communities, this training means their health and safety is protected.