WASHINGTON, DC It's once again the time of graduations and job-hunting for a new cohort of young people. The Class of 2015 is the most indebted class in American history, according to a new analysis by Mark Kantrowitz, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Edvisors. He reports the average student graduating with a bachelor's degree will be more than $35,000 in debt.

However, the Iron Workers offer an alternative, "earn while you learn" path to a good job with great benefits: apprenticeship.

"The apprenticeship program is an investment in young people the Iron Workers are eager to makedevoting more than $47 million dollars every year in teaching, instructing, and mentoring the next generation of successful ironworkers," said Iron Workers General President Walter Wise. "It's about real life and real skills. It's about learning and training. It's about preparing young people for a successful future in a career they'll love."

Combining on-the-job training with classroom teaching, the apprenticeship program recruits, trains, and delivers the best and safest ironworkers in the world. Training is offered at 157 locations across the U.S. and Canada. Apprenticeships include 6,000 to 8,000 hours of hands-on learning, depending on each training center's requirements. Apprentices are a reliable and consistent part of the workforce on whom other ironworkers and contractors depend. Experienced ironworkers also mentor apprentices, resulting in a knowledge-transfer mechanism. After three to four years, this mechanism leads to a safe, highly skilled local workforce.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate that careers in ironworking will grow much faster than average between 2012 and 2022. The need to rehabilitate, maintain and replace an increasing number of roads and bridges is expected to drive growth, as will the ongoing construction of large commercial and industrial projects.