The goal of the Meatcutter Apprenticeship Program is to share industry knowledge, skills, and techniques to develop apprentices into highly skilled journey-level meatcutters. Retail meatcutter apprentices learn the production of fresh and frozen meat products, such as beef, pork, lamb, fish, poultry and cured and smoked items. Apprentices also learn merchandising, customer relations and management. A few skills retail meatcutters learn are identifying different cuts of meat, cooking techniques, applications in breaking / cutting, profit maximization and by-product identification. The Meatcutters Apprenticeship is a two-year program which requires 4,000 hours of on-the-job training and 300 hours of classroom instruction. Apprentices are also college students and receive a certificate for completing 30 college credits from Spokane Community College when they graduate. Apprentices begin with Introduction to Principles of Meatcutting unless they receive advanced standing allowing them to start at a higher level in the program. This is only determined by the Apprenticeship Committee and will be discussed during the application process. The goal of the Meatcutter Apprenticeship Program is to share industry knowledge, skills, and techniques to develop apprentices into highly skilled journey-level meatcutters. Retail meatcutter apprentices learn the production of fresh and frozen meat products, such as beef, pork, lamb, fish, poultry and cured and smoked items. Apprentices also learn merchandising, customer relations and management. A few skills retail meatcutters learn are identifying different cuts of meat, cooking techniques, applications in breaking / cutting, profit maximization and by-product identification. The Meatcutters Apprenticeship is a two-year program which requires 4,000 hours of on-the-job training and 300 hours of classroom instruction. In apprenticeship training, you learn while you're employed. In addition, on-the-job training is supplemented by classroom learning each year. The training period, or apprenticeship, varies in length from one to five years, depending on the complexity of the occupation you select. Apprentices are paid by their employer. They receive pay increases at regular intervals over the period of apprenticeship if their skills have increased and their training has been completed satisfactorily. Those who successfully complete their apprenticeship training reach journeyman status and are then fully qualified to pursue their occupation.