The Washington, DC Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (JATC), End Hunger in Calvert County, So. Maryland Job Source, State of Maryland DLLR and the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland have joined forces to help people in need get jobs.
The goal is to train at least 30 people to make them employable in the field of electrical construction and place them on the JATC’s available to work list for trainees. As the class progresses the JATC will assign them to employers as R1 (entry level) trainees.
The first class was held on July 23rd at Calvert Career Center High School in Calvert County, MD. The classes will run twice a week for 15 weeks. The class will cover power and hand tool identification, material identification, conduit bending, basic wiring of switches and receptacles, introduction to blueprints, OSHA 10-hour safety certification, and first aid/CPR certification.
If they ultimately decide to pursue a career in electrical construction, they can apply for the JATC’s three or five-year tuition-free apprenticeship program. After completion of the apprenticeship program, journeyman electricians can earn high pay, work anywhere in the country and move from field work into the professional arena as foremen, estimators or even own their own businesses.
The new program began with an idea from JATC Assistant Director Ralph Neidert. After JATC Director David McCord and he discussed McCord’s participation in a bike race to support End Hunger, Neidert set about forming a partnership.
“I thought that if there were people in Calvert County that were hungry and we had jobs available, why not form a partnership between us and them,” Neidert explained.
The JATC is sponsored by the Electrical Alliance, a cooperative effort between the Washington, D.C. Chapter of National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 26. More information about the apprenticeship program is available at www.washdcjatc.org.
More information about the electrical job training is available on the End Hunger in Calvert County website at www.endhungercalvert.org.
