NORTH CAROLINA · PLUMBER · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become a plumber in North Carolina: get paid to train.
You don't need experience to start this trade, and the two big application routes work differently: the state's largest plumber program takes applications once a year with a spring deadline, and the contractor association's academy has no window at all: your employer enrolls you. North Carolina has 30 registered plumber apprenticeship programs, with 1,672 apprentices in training at the latest federal count. This page shows you where they are and how each application works.
01 THE PAY
How much do plumber apprentices make in North Carolina?
North Carolina's plumber records in the federal file are too few to carry a statewide wage figure, so the numbers here are program-level: what individual programs publish, and what the federal records show for the programs themselves.
Mechanical Trades Carolina, the plumbers' and pipefitters' union school in Concord and the largest program open to outside applicants, does not post its pay scale publicly. In the federal records, its recent plumber apprentices started at a median of $20.37 an hour, and its completers left at a median of $23.90.
The plumbing contractors' association academy registers a standard scale with the state: $15.00 an hour to start, stepping each 2,000 hours to $17.50 against an $18.00 journeyworker rate. Employers in the program may register their own scale instead, and the signed standards state that classroom hours are unpaid.
Cape Fear Community College prices each level of its four-level plumbing and pipefitting apprenticeship at $190.00, teaching the NCCER curriculum across 732 classroom hours in four years. Classes are capped at 20 to 25 students, admission is first come, first served, an employer may cover the cost, and the college says job placement is not guaranteed.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
No experience needed. At the largest program open to outside applicants, you need a high school diploma or GED, a North Carolina or South Carolina driver's license and residency in one of the two states, your birth certificate and Social Security card, and a Career Readiness Certificate test score of Silver or higher. Transfers from a community college program may be exempt from the test, and dependable transportation is required.
Finishing takes five years. The Concord apprenticeship is a five-year registered program. A free 18-week welding pre-apprenticeship feeds it: graduates who earn their welding certifications receive a year of credit and direct entry.
The largest sponsors are union schools, association academies, and community colleges. The largest sponsor on the list, the Fort Bragg education center, serves only active-duty soldiers stationed there in apprenticeships tied to their military jobs, so you cannot apply from outside. The union's school trains members placed with its contractors, the plumbing contractors' association academy enrolls you through a participating employer, and community colleges in Wilmington, Raleigh, and elsewhere provide the classroom instruction. Pick two or three programs near you, search each program's name with its city, and check how and when they accept applications.
Mechanical Trades Carolina uses a fixed application window: the posted deadline for its September 2027 enrollment is May 14, 2027, and missing it means waiting for the following term. The association academy enrolls any day of the year through your employer, and the Wilmington college opens registration in early summer with seats first come, first served. If the employer route works for you, you do not need to wait on a date.
The association academy starts with the employer: a participating plumbing contractor hires you, and enrollment comes through the employer. Its checklist requires you to be 18 or older with a diploma or GED and to have completed a 90-day probation from hire before you enroll.
The employer adopts the program's standards and signs the employer agreement, and you complete the registration form and the federal apprenticeship paperwork.
The classroom half is self-paced and online, with no scheduled class nights: 586 hours of related instruction across the four years, on your own time and unpaid.
The apprenticeship is 8,000 hours on the job with a 5,200-hour minimum, and credit for previous experience is evaluated during your probationary period.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered plumber apprenticeship in North Carolina
All 30 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 13 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 30 programs. A zero means no apprentices were recorded in training in this dataset; it does not necessarily mean the program has closed.
The biggest programs
Smaller and single-company programs
SHOW ALL 16 SMALLER PROGRAMS
04 LICENSING
North Carolina licenses you in your own name
North Carolina licenses plumbers at the state level: you need a license in your own name to do this work here, whoever you work for. The technician license comes first, on experience hours, and a technician who later passes the business exam becomes a contractor. The licensing page lays out who issues what, the exams, and the fees, with a source for each.
How plumber licensing works in North Carolina05 SOURCES
- U.S. Department of Labor national apprenticeship data, extract of August 17, 2026. Every program, every count, and the recorded program medians on this page.
- UA Local 421 and Mechanical Trades Carolina pages, ualocal421.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The application window, the requirements, the five-year shape, and the welding pre-apprenticeship on this page.
- PHCC of NC Academy pages and registered apprenticeship standards (RA-001362, revised January 24, 2024), phccnc.com, accessed 2026-09-04. The registered scale, the hours, and the enrollment through an employer on this page.
- Cape Fear Community College plumbing and pipefitting apprenticeship pages, cfcc.edu, accessed 2026-09-04. The per-level price, the classroom hours, and the seat limits on this page.
- 12 North Carolina filings in the source data name a different state inside their own registration numbers. They are under review, and no figure on this page counts them.
EVERY FIGURE ON THIS PAGE IS FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR NATIONAL APPRENTICESHIP DATA, EXTRACT OF AUGUST 17, 2026, EXCEPT THE SOURCE-MARKED RATES IN THE MONEY SECTION.