Carpentry Apprenticeship

Classes begin every September and run through April, with a four-week break over Christmas and New Year. Each class is held two nights a week — either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday, 6:00pm to 9:00pm. This programme runs for 4 years.

Attendance is tracked closely: RICTA states that 144 hours of study is required by state regulations to complete each level, tardiness is recorded in 15-minute increments, there is no admittance after 7:00pm, and a student who misses more than ten classes without informing the school is automatically dropped, with a re-enrolment fee to return. Trade-specific make-up classes are not offered; hours to be made up are the student’s own responsibility, and sitting in on another RICTA class to make them up carries an additional fee and must be arranged in advance.

A grade is issued for each module in the textbook and the tests are kept on file at the RICTA office. A transcript and certificate are issued on completion — but not until tuition has been paid in full.

RICTA publishes one tuition rate for its apprenticeship year, not a per-programme price. For 2026/2027 it is $1,495.00 for an apprentice sponsored by an ABC Rhode Island member in good standing and $1,795.00 for a non-member, plus a required textbook at $145.00 and a $100.00 processing fee. The Mike Holt Electrical Program is priced at $1,495.00. Tuition is due in full with the registration form, and a registration form is required for every year of the programme — so a multi-year apprenticeship is paid a year at a time.

Registering with the state for an apprenticeship card requires a separate $500.00 deposit. A duplicate certificate costs $30.00 and a duplicate transcript $15.00. A student may withdraw before the second scheduled week of class and receive a refund less the $100 processing fee and the cost of the textbook, refunded if returned in new condition; after the second week no refunds or credits are issued. If a class is cancelled for not reaching its seven-student minimum, all money paid is refunded.

CSA records no programme price for this record, because RICTA prices the year rather than the programme. Confirm the current year’s rate with the academy.

RICTA prices the year, not the programme: $1,495 for an ABC RI member's apprentice, $1,795 otherwise, plus a $145 textbook and $100 processing fee,each year.

This is a registered apprenticeship, so the classroom training here runs alongside paid on-the-job hours with a sponsoring employer — the work hours count toward the OJT requirement and cannot also count as classroom training. RICTA is operated by Associated Builders and Contractors of Rhode Island, and publishes a Career Paths page and a job board on its own site.

Expect evenings. Classes run two nights a week from September through April, and the academy is explicit that a work emergency does not earn an excused absence — work hours apply to on-the-job training and cannot also count as classroom hours.

Expect to sign in and out of every class legibly; RICTA marks a student absent for an illegible signature or a missing sign-out, and signing in for someone else is not permitted. Expect to bring your own textbook to every class, since class credit is lost without the required materials. Attendance reports go to both the student and the sponsoring employer four times a year — but are not sent until tuition is paid in full.