The Electrical Worker Online


November 2015
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www.ibew.org

Record High
Aggressive organizing, recovery boost
'A' membership read_more

Training for the Future
Renewables featured in new Chicago center read_more

IEC Minutes May 2015

Notice for power plant workers

North of 49°
British Columbia Locals Recognized for Apprenticeship Training read_more

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Les programmes d'apprentissage des sections locales de la Colombie-Britannique ont été reconnus read_more

IBEW Training Centers Receive Grant Windfall

Steve Anderson calls the grant the Electrical Training Alliance received from the Department of Labor a surprise—albeit a pleasant, $4.8 million one.

"We've applied for these before and never got anything," said Anderson, who has been with the Alliance for more than 20 years and now serves as the director of outside line curriculum and training. "It's just been a very hard thing."

Based in Bowie, Maryland, the Alliance is a training partnership between IBEW local unions and the National Electrical Contractors Association. Formerly known as the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee, the labor department announced in early September it would receive the grant as part of $175 million awarded to 46 public-private apprentice training programs.

The grant requires the enrollment of at least 200 new apprentices in the first year and 1,000 during a five-year period, although Anderson expects it to be more than that. All will be trained as inside wiremen. The target population is traditionally underserved ones: young men, women, ethnic minorities and military veterans, which also likely made the application attractive to labor department officials.

To enhance retention, all will start with a 10-week pre-apprenticeship that will include classroom training and on-the-job exposure.

"The Obama administration has put a lot of emphasis on apprenticeship programs," Anderson said. "It looks like the administration put a lot of pressure on the Department of Labor to follow through on those plans."

For Anderson, the grant is a recognition that the federal government understands the IBEW's apprenticeship program is just as valuable as college or university education. The timing is right, too. The demand for construction trades workers is rebounding after being depressed for several years following the economic collapse in 2008.

"For years, we talked about how we didn't need and didn't use government funds," he said. "We funded our own training programs and it worked that way for decades.

"But at the same time, the federal government was sending those funds to our competitors. It's nice that at this particular time, we're going to have significant, additional resources to get the right people to come into the trades."