In a move to keep up with the times, the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) recently revamped its apprenticeship training program to include modern project management software that is becoming ubiquitous on today's construction sites.
"In our area of the country, electronic documentation is becoming the predominant method of construction, so we want to be sure that our apprentices coming out of the program have all the necessary skills to continue that trend," says Rod Belisle, Director at NECA-IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) Electrical Training Center in Portland, Ore. "We are also offering our new technology-focused curriculum to journeyman who are being incorporated into a crew, handed an iPad and aren't familiar with what that next step is."