Methodology and data sources
- Page last updated October 25, 2026
How Registered Trade Schools is built. We publish public data with retrieval dates — not invented rankings.
Sources in this build
- Registered apprenticeship sponsors: U.S. Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship Partner Sponsors CSV. Retrieved October 25, 2026. 46,655 organizations after cleaning and dedupe.
- Guides & counselor handouts: Plain-language explainers with links to .gov sources. Not career or legal advice.
- Trade school certificates (planned): IPEDS / College Scorecard CIP filters — not published yet. See Schools.
Also useful externally: apprenticeship.gov and CareerOneStop.
Coverage rules (INDEX_MIN)
We do not publish thin empty state pages. A state page requires at least 25 sponsors after cleaning. A state×trade page requires at least 8 keyword matches. Territories below the threshold are listed as not yet published on the apprenticeships index.
How trade tags work
The DOL partner sponsors file does not include occupation codes. We apply keyword matches on organization names (e.g. “electric”, “plumb”, “hvac”) to build optional trade filters. These tags are a discovery aid only — always confirm the occupation with the sponsor. Personal contact names and emails from the CSV are not republished on HTML pages.
Editorial rules
- No “best schools,” star ratings, or fabricated outcome stats.
- Payment never changes who appears in the organic directory or in what order. Future paid slots (if any) will be clearly labeled.
- We disclose that this is not a government site on every page footer.
- Operator personal names are not published on the site.
- Brand and URLs do not use age-targeted words (no “young/youth/teen”).
Corrections
Errors that differ from the official DOL file will be fixed in the next rebuild. Errors in the underlying DOL data must be corrected at the source. Use Contact for page or guide issues.