IBEW Apprenticeship Update Q&A
Q: How has Covid-19 impacted your apprenticeship training?
A: "Covid-19 has impacted us and has made us change the way we provide training.
Let’s go back to when this all started, In march we had shut down all of our in person classes and went to a remote learning to complete the school year.
Over the summer we have made changes to our facility so we could start in person classes again. (Which start today) Those changes have been, Buying new desk so each student has their own and they are spaced out to provide social distancing. All apprentices will be entering the classroom with a mask on until they are seated at their tables. When we do our hands on training we will be doing that in smaller groups and they will be required to wear a mask and gloves. Of course all surfaces are cleaned prior to enter the classroom also.
Long story short, Covid-19 is affecting the way we have delivered our training but we are moving forward. We will continue to provide the best electrical training available to our apprentices whether it is in person or if we have to go back to remote learning.
As far as moving forward with our program as a whole we have chosen to move forward with taking in new apprentices this year. Which was 9 on our Watertown side and 7 on our Plattsburgh side. We are still taking applications as normal, (www.ibew910.org/ejatc) still doing aptitude test just in smaller groups and doing interviews over zoom.
All of our apprentices are currently working for one of our contractors, and had very little time off during this whole process.
It has been a mess for sure but other than making changes to adapt to the current situation we are doing whatever we need to so that the program can continue to run."
Alan Smith, Training Director,
EJATC of Watertown
