The Apprenticeship Program

The schedule

The Zion apprentice week is built to protect training time without burning your weekend:

• Monday–Thursday: Four 10-hour days of paid field work, paired with a NICET-credentialed lead technician. You ride, you assist, you take notes, you start to lead small tasks under supervision.
• Friday — Training Day: 4 hours of paid classroom instruction (NFPA code review, equipment familiarization, code-research practice, AHJ etiquette) plus 4 hours of apprentice-contributed lab and study time. The classroom is real classroom. The lab is a real lab.
• Saturday & Sunday: Off. We protect your weekend deliberately. Burned-out apprentices don't pass NICET exams.

The curriculum

Year 1 covers fundamentals across the four core disciplines:

• Q1 — Fire Alarm Basics: NFPA 72, addressable vs. conventional, initiating device types, IDC/SLC topology, programming concepts.
• Q2 — Sprinkler Basics: NFPA 13 design principles, NFPA 25 ITM procedures, system types (wet, dry, preaction, deluge), riser anatomy.
• Q3 — Special Hazards & Suppression: NFPA 2001 (clean agent), NFPA 96 (kitchen), NFPA 17/17A, NFPA 12 (CO₂), agent room layout.
• Q4 — ITM Practice & Code: NFPA 25, 72, 10, 80 ITM. AHJ etiquette. Texas Administrative Code Title 28 walkthrough. NICET I exam prep.

Year 2 covers depth in a chosen primary discipline plus NICET II exam prep. See the full curriculum on What We Teach.

Mentorship

Every apprentice has a named lead-tech mentor. That mentor is responsible for the apprentice's progression — meeting weekly, reviewing field work, signing off on competencies, and giving the apprentice the at-bats that matter. We don't toss new hires into a van and hope.

The training agreement

Zion invests significant money into apprentice training — NICET exam fees, OEM-certified courses, manufacturer schools, books, lab equipment. To protect that investment, every apprentice signs a Texas-compliant training repayment / sponsorship agreement at hire.

The agreement is straightforward: it pro-rates to zero over a defined commitment window. If you leave inside the window, you repay a declining percentage of the training Zion paid for. If you stay through the window, you owe nothing. The agreement is fully disclosed at offer time and reviewed with you by our HR lead before signing.

Apply

Use the apprenticeship application — five minutes, no fluff. We follow up within three business days.

Already an apprentice? Sign in.

Course materials, NICET prep, progress tracking, and certificates live on the Zion Fire Academy learning platform at zion.study. Your training lead sets up your account during onboarding.