Apprenticeship, Certification & Career Path

Welcome

Hello, and welcome. This is Super Structures General Contractors — a national general contractor headquartered in Powhatan, Virginia — here to help you and your clients build something that lasts. We're glad you're with us, and we look forward to connecting with you.

Here's one that matters more than its name lets on — Apprenticeship, Certification & Career Path. If you remember one thing, make it this: Masonry is learned through a registered apprenticeship and proven on the wall — the path runs from tender to apprentice to journeyman, and on to foreman, estimator, inspector, or masonry contractor. Do this right and your work is still standing a hundred years from now.

Getting in

• Registered apprenticeship — the main road. A bricklayer apprenticeship is typically three to four years of paid on-the-job training plus related classroom instruction, registered with the U.S. Department of Labor or a state apprenticeship agency. Union programs run through the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) and the International Masonry Institute (IMI); open-shop programs run through contractor associations, community colleges, and the Mason Contractors Association of America (MCAA).
• Pre-apprenticeship and school programs — high school career and technical education, SkillsUSA masonry competitions, and the NCCER masonry curriculum give a head start and often count toward apprenticeship.
• Starting as a tender (laborer) — mixing, stocking, and scaffold work on a masonry crew, learning the rhythm while earning a place on the trowel.

Journeyman and beyond

Completing the apprenticeship makes you a journeyman bricklayer, stonemason, or block mason. From there:

• Foreman and superintendent — running crews, layout, scheduling, and production.
• Estimator and project manager — takeoffs, bids, and running jobs for a masonry contractor.
• Masonry contractor — many masons start their own company; this is where a state contractor's license comes in.
• Restoration specialist — a premium niche in historic districts and institutions.
• Inspector or instructor — special inspector for masonry, apprenticeship instructor, or technical representative for a manufacturer.

Certifications

There is no single national license for the individual mason, but credentials matter:

• Journeyman card or apprenticeship completion certificate — the foundation.
• NCCER masonry credentials and craft assessments.
• ICC Structural Masonry Special Inspector — the credential for the inspector who verifies reinforced masonry under IBC Chapter 17.
• OSHA 10 and 30, scaffold competent person training, silica competent person training, and mast-climber operator training.

Licensing

Masonry contractors are licensed in many states, usually through the state contractor licensing board as a specialty or under a general classification. Virginia, for example, licenses contractors through the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, with masonry contracting as a specialty designation. Requirements typically include documented experience, an exam, insurance, and sometimes a bond. Check the licensing chart on this platform for your state.

Going Deeper (Intermediate)

The apprenticeship is where the craft is built: laying to the line, building leads, coursing from a story pole, cutting with a hammer, striking joints at the right time, and learning to read the drawings and the weather. Keep a record — hours, classroom certificates, OSHA cards, scaffold and silica training, and photos of your work — because contractors hire fastest when the paperwork is in order.

The trade also rewards specialization: stone, arches and ornamental brick, refractory, and restoration pay better than straight block, and the masons who do them well are always in demand.

Advanced / Pro-Level

Pros plan the career the way they plan a wall. They stack the credentials that lead where they want to go — foreman training and estimating for the office path, special inspector certification for the inspection path, business courses and licensing for the contractor path — and they lean on the industry's associations: BAC and IMI, MCAA, The Masonry Society, the Brick Industry Association, and the Concrete Masonry and Hardscapes Association publish the technical notes and training the trade works to.

For the contractor hiring masons: ask for the apprenticeship record and the safety cards, then watch them lay a lead. Thirty minutes on the wall tells you what the paperwork can't.

Practice Challenge

A young worker wants to become a mason but has no experience and no connections. What is a realistic first year? (Answer: earn an OSHA 10 card and silica awareness training, apply to a registered apprenticeship through the local BAC/IMI training center or an open-shop contractor association, and take a tender job on a masonry crew in the meantime; a CTE or community college masonry program counts as a head start.)

In Practice

A journeyman with an apprenticeship certificate, scaffold and silica training, and a portfolio of clean work is hired the same week in any market. A worker with "ten years of experience" and no records starts as a tender until the foreman sees the trowel work.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Skipping the apprenticeship and plateauing as a tender
• No records of hours, training, or safety cards
• Ignoring the specialty work that pays more
• Starting a masonry company without the state contractor's license and insurance

Takeaway: Masonry is learned through a registered apprenticeship and proven on the wall — the path runs from tender to apprentice to journeyman, and on to foreman, estimator, inspector, or masonry contractor.

Educational overview only — not hands-on masonry instruction, a safety program, or a substitute for training under a qualified mason. Follow OSHA 29 CFR 1926 (including Subpart L, 1926.706, and 1926.1153), TMS 402/602 and the adopted building code, your state's contractor licensing rules, the project specifications, and your employer's procedures for your work.