Being part of a hall should help him get jobs.  When he’s part of a hall contractors will contact the hall to get workers for jobs.  Plant I work in will have maintenance outages or projects they will contact a couple contractors the contractor will contact the hall to get the right number of guys/gals for what we need.   My observation is the union trades are typically a cut above the non.  The plant I’m in has from the most part unfortunately gone away from a training program as we need to replace retiring crafts we have been swooning the craftsmen we like and trying to steal them.   Also if you’re good the same contractor will have you all time from the hall. 

I’ve interacted with our sites HVAC contractor a lot in the last 5 years and became good friends with him.  He has explained he’s been with the same contractor since he’s been an apprentice.   Seems like they have helped him with some of his prior education.