‘I love my job … I would not do anything else” 

Electricity is the family business – and Josh Pitzo is doing exactly what he wants to be doing. 

His father is an electrician, and so is his uncle. As a third-year apprentice at Pewaukee-based Faith Technologies, Pitzo is very close to taking the Journeyman’s exam and becoming licensed himself. 

The 2023 South Milwaukee graduate actually started his career in 2022 as a Youth Apprentice through the high school's Career and Technical Education Program. The Youth Apprentice program is a Wisconsin initiative that pairs students with careers that offer good pay and are in high demand in the state. It was as a junior that Pitzo interviewed with Faith Technologies and was hired. He worked over the summer of 2022 and part-time during his senior year, learning his trade while finishing his classes to graduate. 

He stayed as a Youth Apprentice – notable for the orange and blue helmets they wear on the worksite – with other new hires. 

“They give you six months to learn about whether you want to be an electrician,” Pitzo said. 

Any new hire wears a blue hard hat for the first six months to denote their experience level, before graduating to a white hard hat, like the one Pitzo wears now.

“(After graduation) I finished the job site I was on and started to travel for work,” he said. 

That included a Jennie-O Turkey facility in Barron, Wisconsin, which was installing all new equipment and needed new electric service run to the machinery. 

“In between all of this, we went to weekly classes,” Pitzo said while on a break from one of those classes. 

The class he’s in now deals with electric motors, but all of the classes come back to the electric code in preparation for apprentices to become journeymen. 

Looking back, Pitzo said his Youth Apprenticeship was exceptional because he had the opportunity to work on large projects, such as installing charging stations for FedEx’s new electric fleet. 

As a third-year apprentice, Pitzo is the head of a three-person team, one of whom is a Youth Apprentice from Muskego. 

“I didn’t think I would be trying to teach anyone myself yet, here I am,” Pitzo said. The team spends its day installing various types of electrical conduit piping in industrial buildings. Pitzo has learned that there are many different types and sizes of pipe or conduit, depending on the kind of wire and the environment in which the electricity will be used. It must be cut and bent to fit where the wire needs to go. 

“There’s a lot more than my Youth Apprentice mind thought,” Pitzo said. 

After he passes the journeyman exam, he’ll be done with classes for the most part. After that, it’s college if he wants to work in project management or become an electrical engineer. 

The 20-year-old doesn’t know if that’s for him, but he knows Faith Technologies will help pay for college if he does choose to pursue a degree. For now, he’s content.

“I love my job. I would not do anything else. I was right to do what I did, and I love it every day,” he said.