IBEW members often say that the union’s apprenticeship training, delivered by the NJATC, is the union’s best-kept secret.
But secrets just don’t work in an era when marketing one’s image and worth is more important than ever. That’s a big part of the reason the IBEW and its partners in NECA decided to transition the National Joint Apprenticeship Training Council into the Electrical Training Alliance.
NJATC Executive Director Michael Callanan says that over the past 10 years, the NJATC has become, in effect, “a diverse alliance of IBEW local unions, NECA electrical contractors, industry training partners and manufacturers, community colleges and universities, and public training centers in the U.S. and Canada.” All of those entities, he says, are committed to training our next generation of electrical workers.
Three primary motives, says NJATC Director of Operations Mark Cerullo, drove the rebranding of the organization into the Electrical Training Alliance.
“The NJATC as we know it will not disappear but will become a part of the Electrical Training Alliance,” says Callanan. First, the new name better reflects the reality of the NJATC’s operations and the way it delivers training. Second, over the past decade, training has significantly changed with the advent of new technologies and innovations. Third, the new name will better allow NECA and the IBEW to meet the needs of the electrical industry and its customers.
“In the 21st century, we have recognized that the days when the customers would come to us are long gone,” International President Hill told graduates of the National Training Institute in Ann Arbor, Michigan in July. “Our training is our foremost marketing tool and the Electrical Training Alliance conveys what we do, the cooperative nature of our program as well as who we, the IBEW and NECA, really are and what place we have in the community which we serve.”
Learn more at www.electricaltrainingalliance.org.
This article originally appeared on the IBEW website.