In what can be considered the third phase of the TSBPE’s effort to bring plumbing curriculum to the next generation of Texas plumbers, the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners (TSBPE) has worked in partnership with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) to make grant funding available to qualified Texas schools interested in teaching an approved plumbing course outline.
Over the past two years, the TSBPE, acting on the authority granted by the Texas State Legislature, has paved the way for students who successfully complete a high school/trade school program based on the Texas Education Agency (TEA) created, TSBPE-approved curriculum, to immediately test to become licensed Tradesman plumbers. Now, with the financial support of the TWC’s Jobs and Education for Texans (JET) program, the TSBPE has helped address the most prominent hurdle schools face when considering introducing a plumbing program: funding.
Current Master and Journeyman plumbers will soon receive a letter addressed to high school principals and superintendents and signed by TSBPE Chair Frank S. Denton and TWC Chair Bryan Daniel that details this new opportunity. It is both agencies’ hope that current licensees will help distribute the letter to the administrators of their local high schools and trade schools to encourage more young people to consider plumbing as a career. Per a provision in HB 636, the TSBPE may offer CE credit (based on number of hours of instruction provided) to licensed plumbers who participate in the instruction of students in a high school or trade school plumbing program.
The letter signed by TSBPE Chair Frank Denton and TWC Chair Bryan Daniel can be downloaded here.