Ask any class of high school students how many of them have heard of college, and every hand will go up and they will surely think you are nuts. Ask that same class how many have heard of apprenticeship, and you might get a few hands and some puzzled faces.
The average age of a 1st term apprentice is 29. Beginning an electrical career at age 29 versus at 18 incurs a loss of wage and fringe benefits totaling $2,000,000, based on the Inside Wireman 2019 wage and benefit package. Add that wage loss to the cost of college costs that are incurred by the average high school graduate and you end up with a very expensive price tag.
The NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center is hard at work to eliminate the Trades knowledge gap, sharing apprenticeship opportunities with area high schools, community colleges, and events like the Apprenticeship Event for Service Members, Veterans, and Spouses.
Ambassador 48 is an outreach program that helps make our attendance at these events possible. A 90 minute hour training session prepares Local 48 journey workers and apprentices to work at these events. Training sessions are offered each fall and spring and will be posted on the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center and IBEW 48’s Facebook pages, as well as their websites. Apprentices will also receive an email notifying them of the training opportunity.
To date, 57 apprentices and journey workers have been trained, and 270 hours have already been logged between January – November 2019.
Ambassadors receive a T-shirt for their first event, and Local 48 reimburses straight-time wages and the approximate monetary value of hourly benefits. Apprentices also receive WPR hours for their time.
