Training & Continuing Education Trends in the Electrical Industry

Feb 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Beck Ireland, Staff Writer

In addition to the class fee, the companies also pay workers their hourly rate while at training and suffer the loss of productivity. “You have to factor those three things into the cost of any training,” Dawson continues.

In comparison, a typical 4-hr class on the low end costs around $65. “We really keep an eye on price points,” Dawson says. “If you start to go over $300, people are going to start thinking twice about sending a person to that training.”

But not all training courses are employer-paid. In response to tighter competition, many workers are paying for their own training out-of-pocket. Additional results of the MEP Jobs' survey indicate that 55% of respondents funded their last professional certification training and testing costs on their own. This rate is much higher for electrical workers, with 75% paying out-of-pocket for their own professional certification training and testing costs, according to Dickey-Chasins. “Most people in the market are looking around and asking, ‘How can I stay competitive as an employee?’” he says. “One of the ways to do that is to build up your certifications and experience.”

New tricks

Beyond requirements, many companies will be forced to train their workforce in new skills, both technical and managerial. Downsizing will require some workers to take on added responsibilities or perform new tasks. At AMA, a recent uptick in students has come from employees with newfound responsibilities caused by the structural reorganization of their companies. “Their organizations have tweaked things a little bit behind the scenes, which means they have to learn how to budget, how to supervise, how to manage projects, and how to negotiate,” Avramidis says. “They may even have to learn how to launch a career in sales or marketing.”

In these cases, the expense for formal training may be a great investment against the lows of the recession, creating a leaner, stronger organization. “They're coming to us not to brush up on their skills but to learn new skills and return back to their workplace capable of doing the job they've been asked to do versus trying to figure it out on their own and increasing their risk of doing something very wrong,” Avramidis says. “Formal training for these positions can be better, faster, and sometimes even cheaper than trying to learn something on your own. The value that you get in spending a couple of dollars far exceeds the expense.”

Optimistically, some firms have acquired new equipment to offer additional services to their customers, making it necessary for employees to be trained on the new equipment and processes. IEC member contractors in Florida have requested classes in different skills and niches. According to Mora-Blackwelder, many residential contractors have created service departments to add work. “The residential guys have really been enhancing and building up their service departments,” she says.

Remarkably, many master electricians and business owners in that area have also asked for classes on green technologies and retrofitting for energy efficiency. In the MEP Jobs survey, 30.4% of respondents plan on taking a training course in green technology, and 27.3% of respondents will take a course in solar installation or service (click here to see Fig. 2). “These guys are in their 50s and set in their ways,” Mora-Blackwelder explains. “It's harder for them to want to embrace something new, but I'm finding that they are. When there isn't going to be new construction, there are lots of opportunities for refurbishing or retrofitting, and so they're asking for this type of training.”

Similarly, some IEC members in Connecticut have requested classes on photovoltaic (PV) technology. “We had a dinner meeting the other night with PV as the topic, and the attendance was really good,” says Lisa Hutner, executive director of IEC New England, Hartford, Conn., and Connecticut State Apprenticeship Council memberHartford, Conn. “We're going to have a full-day program on this topic. They have the time now to do something like this. Before, they were too busy to learn something new or research it. But now they have a little extra time.”

Although Bloomington, Ill.-based engineering and architectural firm Farnsworth Group has not had to downsize or reduce permanent staff, there was concern about being able to hire back its summer interns, so it purchased new equipment to provide additional services to its clients. “With the added work from the new equipment, we thought we might be able to keep our people busy, plus be able to rehire our summer interns again,” says Richard Suhadolc, P.E., engineering manager/chief electrical engineer at the firm.

On average, the eight technicians and 10 engineers at the company receive 120 hours of training a year. This year, in addition to required license maintenance, much of that time will be focused on learning how to use the new equipment, which includes an infrared (IR) camera, power analysis equipment, programmable logic controller (PLC), and software services. “We're increasing our 2009 training budget because of this new equipment so we can provide more services to capture more of the market share in the electrical field,” Suhadolc says. “Our board of directors decided it was finally time to implement some of this with the added business.”

Going mentor

An unintended side effect of the recession is that the slowdown in construction it caused may actually stave off the employee shortage the industry was close to facing in the next few years. However, even with 50% cuts in their 401(k)s, the baby boom generation will still begin to retire in large numbers within the next few years. This has many firms concerned about succession planning. “The question is ‘How do they pass their knowledge on?’” asks Avramidis.

An inexpensive way to impart legacy knowledge from experienced workers to new employees is to set up an informal mentoring or coaching program. “There's a simple way of doing it by saying ‘Okay, the junior people will report to the senior people, and we'll hope it all works out,” Avramidis says.

But there may be significant challenges to that program. Occasionally, senior employees don't want to part with their knowledge because they feel threatened they may be pushed into earlier retirement. In addition, the generation gap accounts for differences in learning styles (See Whose Online Is It Anyway?). “Sometimes, the senior people simply don't understand how the younger generation learns versus how they learned when they were coming up through the ranks,” explains Avramidis.

Consequently, a more formal plan for internal knowledge management, including inter-generational knowledge transfer, may have more success. Many organizations, including AMA, offer a succession blueprint for businesses that comprise 50 or more employees. “There are formal programs on how the younger person learns through the senior person — and how the senior person can best teach and try to overcome the generational differences. For the senior employees, these help assuage the uncertainty about their own career and what it means if they impart all their knowledge on someone who's earning half their salary,” Avramidis says.

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