We're always recruiting and credentialing apprentices across the MEP trades — electrical, plumbing, and HVAC/R — through ARC Workforce Academy, more than we can place ourselves. We supply the overflow to you wholesale. They're our W-2 employees — we carry payroll, comp, recruiting, and training. You place them on contracts, add your markup, and bill them like any other man on your roster. Surge capacity with no bench to carry.
The hardest part of running an MEP shop isn't the work — it's matching bodies to a backlog that swings.
Staff up for a big award and you're carrying payroll, workers' comp, and overhead on those hands the moment the contract slows or the next one slips. A bench between jobs is dead weight — it eats the margin you just won. So most shops do the opposite: they staff lean, then have to turn down work, stretch the crew thin, or scramble for warm bodies when a job lands. Either way, the swing costs you.
We carry the bench so you don't. When a contract lands, we send DOL-registered apprentices — already recruited, screened, and in related instruction — as our W-2 employees. You direct them on your job site, bill them on your contract at your rate, and keep the spread. When the job wraps, you release them back to us. No layoffs, no severance, no carrying cost between awards. You scale to the work instead of betting on it.
ARC Workforce Academy recruits and credentials apprentices across the MEP trades in the Birmingham metro faster than any one shop can place them. That overflow becomes your surge capacity — DOL-registered, payroll-handled, and ready to bill.
The same model you'd use with any labor broker — except these are registered apprentices on a credential pathway, not day-labor.
Job, skill level, how many hands, where, and for how long. A single apprentice or a full crew — short surge or months-long.
DOL-registered apprentices in the electrical, plumbing, and HVAC/R trades, recruited and screened by us, arrive ready to work under your foreman's direction.
You supervise on your job site and bill them on your contract — at your rate, like any other man on the roster.
One clean wholesale invoice for hours worked. The spread between our rate and your bill rate is your margin.
We're the employer of record. Payroll, workers' comp, unemployment, recruiting, onboarding, and training stay on our books — not yours.
Scale up the day a contract lands and release when it wraps. No layoffs, no severance, no carrying idle hands between awards.
Buy labor wholesale and bill it on your contract at your rate. The spread is yours — same as any man on your roster.
Every hand is a registered apprentice on a U.S. DOL pathway (RAP #2026-AL-141731) — they hold your rate and count toward your apprentice ratio.
Recruited, vetted, and enrolled in related technical instruction before they ever reach your site. They show up to work, not to learn the basics.
A standing pipeline of Birmingham-metro apprentices — close to your jobs and replenished continuously, so the next request is already covered.
A clean line between us — the same split that makes any labor-leasing arrangement work.
| ARC Workforce Academy carries | You handle |
|---|---|
| Employer of record — W-2 wages, taxes, payroll | Job-site supervision — your foreman directs the work |
| Workers' compensation & unemployment | The contract — you hold the client relationship |
| Recruiting & screening the apprentice pipeline | Your bill rate — set the markup, keep the spread |
| Related technical instruction (RTI) & credentialing | Tools, materials & site safety direction on the job |
| Apprenticeship registration with the DOL & Alabama Office of Apprenticeship | Hours reporting — approve time so we can invoice |
Because every hand is a U.S. DOL-registered apprentice, on prevailing-wage and ratio-bound work they can be staffed at the registered apprentice wage determination and count toward your required apprentice-to-journeyman ratio — instead of forcing a full journeyman rate onto every body. On the right jobs, that's real money. Confirm the specifics against your project's wage determination and your own compliance team.
Send the basics and we'll come back with availability and a wholesale rate. Or just call — (205) 538-1061.