Hawkeye Community College Plumbing Apprentices Getting Habitat Experience

WATERLOO-- The basement of the unfinished house doesn't look like most classrooms. 

But Hawkeye Community College instructor Bob Osgood is always ready to give a lesson or a quiz to his plumbing apprentices. At one point Tuesday evening, it was soldering copper pipes.

"You're going to heat the fitting, not the pipe --- that's kind of plumbing 101," Osgood tells the group of nine students gathered around him. He directs one apprentice to fire up the blow torch and solder the pipe while the others watch.

The house under construction at 4909 Fostoria Drive is not only providing real-world experience for the apprentices, it's an opportunity for them to volunteer. Osgood arranged for the students to work at the house being built with volunteer labor by Habitat for Humanity.

He noted that Hawkeye's young plumbing apprentice program needed hands-on laboratory time to complement its classroom requirements. "So, I thought what a better way to have a lab than in a house," said Osgood, who also works as the city of Waterloo's plumbing inspector.

The Habitat homes usually have one or two "pretty straightforward" bathrooms, he said. This is the first house Hawkeye apprentices have worked on and Tuesday was their third night since starting earlier this month.

"We're not trying to take work away from anyone," noted Osgood. "It's just hands-on experience and nobody's getting paid."

Along with him, the students work under the watchful eye of Josh Brustkern from Black Hawk Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, who volunteers to oversee their time in the house. "We do a lot of work for Habitat and I don't mind giving back to them," said Brustkern.

Most of the dozen people enrolled in the program are working for contractors but are not yet licensed. "To sit for a state journeyman's license (takes) four years work experience and four years of an apprenticeship school," said Osgood.

While the experience in the apprenticeship program may be similar to what the students are getting at their jobs, it typically includes more explanation. That's why Osgood regularly gathers the apprentices around him for the impromptu lessons, which are reinforced later in class.

"After tonight, we'll go back to the classroom and analyze what we did," he said.

"It's good hands-on (experience)," said student Adam Nielsen of Washburn. He has worked for Dalton Plumbing in Cedar Falls for two years and is two years through his apprenticeship.

He sees the opportunity to work in the house as a positive. "This allows (Osgood) to actually show us, besides just showing us pictures," said Nielsen.

"Better than sitting in a classroom," he added.
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier