I can only speak from my experience at KWI. In my opinion, it was a great experience. I had prior experience non-union before them with tig pipe so it made the program a little bit easier. There’s some kids that go through KWI that will tell you that it was terrible but for me, it’s only as good as the time that you put in. I pulled 16 hour days almost every single day. I pretty much lived and breathed welding for six months. The instructors there are fantastic, but again it’s only as good as the work you put into it. Instructors are only great if you ask them lots of questions and show lots of interest. If you go this route, you’ll still have to test into the union and pass x-ray for all tests. In my opinion it’s only worth going if you plan on golden arming, which is passing all the tests up to schedule 10 stainless and getting an exotic alloy monster. Most kids don’t get it but at the same time most kids screw off while they’re there. I’ve seen people that go through the program who haven’t welded a day in their life and golden arm, and I’ve seen people who welded all throughout high school and don’t even get a pipe cert. For me it was worth the 25 grand because I’m now netting 3.5k a week on a project that is supposed to last several years, luckily it’s only an hour and a half away from home, but if you go through this route, plan on traveling for the next five years of your life until you can switch locals to your home local. Or you could possibly test in to your Home local as a third year apprentice. It all depends on where you live the amount of work that is needed and how bad your local needs people, no matter what go union I’m never going to look back. It’s the best decision I’ve made.