Education Department

Director: Amanda Pacheco

202-728-6186
Education_dept@ibew.org

About The Department 

The Education Department has been committed to the education and training needs of our members and leaders since its establishment in 1924. The work of the education department is founded on the belief that when we educate and engage our members and provide them with the tools to be activists our union will thrive. The training and education programs that are provided by the IBEW strive to be inclusive of all our members by addressing the diversity that makes us strong while fostering a sense of solidarity across our union. The IBEW education programs provide comprehensive training in organizational and leadership development through organizing training, steward training, local union officer training and more.  Below is a list of programs available to local unions and their members. If you would like to schedule a training for your local union, contact your IBEW International Representative and/or your district office.

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  First Contract Negotiations Training

  This training provides negotiating committees in newly organized workplaces with the tools and skills necessary for success at the negotiating table.
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  IBEW STRONG

  IBEW leadership has created a strategic plan to strengthen and grow the IBEW through the organization of all workers, including those from marginalized communities. This course is designed to educate locals in the implementation of this plan. It covers five central themes: expanding outreach and recruitment to young people and marginalized communities, providing training and education programs that address the need for inclusion at all levels of the IBEW, providing inclusive opportunities for members to develop leadership skills and foster local union activism, providing opportunities for all local union members to take on leadership roles, and documenting, sharing, and replicating best practices for creating a stronger IBEW through outreach and inclusion programs.
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  Collective Bargaining Training

  This course equips negotiating team members with the fundamentals of collective bargaining and advanced negotiating tactics. A mock negotiating session will provide attendees with a practical application of the knowledge and skills learned in the course.
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  Construction Organizing Membership Education Training

  This interactive course prepares union leaders, organizers, and appointed staff to teach the COMET and LEAP training classes. Areas of focus include how adults learn, proven teaching techniques, and effective communication skills.
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  Leadership Education And Planning for Organizing

  This interactive course prepares union leaders, organizers, and appointed staff to teach the COMET and LEAP training classes. Areas of focus include how adults learn, proven teaching techniques, and effective communication skills.
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  Bias and Belonging

  Our country, and our union, is becoming increasingly divided on issues of race and other differences, resulting in alarming and dangerous consequences. We have created this course in an attempt to bridge this divide within the IBEW, basing the course content on the most up-to-date research emerging from the scientific community on this subject. We do not seek to demonize any individual or group for their beliefs, but rather demonstrate how everyone holds some bias, and how that bias can be identified and mitigated through best practices.
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  Local Union Leadership Training

  Designed for all IBEW officers, LULT focuses on two critical areas necessary for growing your local union: leading and managing. This course reviews the key responsibilities of each elected officer as defined by the IBEW Constitution and Basic Laws & Policies as well as the everyday application of those responsibilities.
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  Member To Future Member

  These courses are designed to engage current members in organizing efforts. Topics covered include IBEW history, effective communication, and foundational organizing skills. Members will learn to address the concerns of current and future IBEW members and practice their techniques via role-play during the training. In each class, participants develop an action to be implemented at the local union level upon completion of the training.
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  New Business Manager Training Week One

  This course is offered to new and experienced business managers in each international vice presidential district. Over the course of two 1-week sessions, this training will provide local union leadership with the in-depth information, resources, and skills necessary to conduct the day-to-day affairs of their local unions.
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  New Business Manager Training Week Two

  This course is offered to new and experienced business managers in each international vice presidential district. Over the course of two 1-week sessions, this training will provide local union leadership with the in-depth information, resources, and skills necessary to conduct the day-to-day affairs of their local unions.
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  IBEW Steward Training

  This course is offered for construction and professional/industrial stewards. This course is designed to provide stewards with essential knowledge, skills and tools that they need to fulfill their many duties. Topics include roles and responsibilities, legal rights and obligations, understanding the contract, and communicating with members.
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  IBEW Steward Training

  This course is offered for construction and professional/industrial stewards. This course is designed to provide stewards with essential knowledge, skills and tools that they need to fulfill their many duties. Topics include roles and responsibilities, legal rights and obligations, understanding the contract, and communicating with members.
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  Common Sense Economics

  This program examines the current state of the economy from a worker’s perspective. Participants will challenge assumptions about the economy and connect economic issues to union goals including organizing, community engagement, legislative and political action, and collective bargaining.
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  IBEW Code of Excellence

  The Code of Excellence is designed to promote the IBEW to employers, customers, and fellow members. This course focuses on the responsibilities of IBEW members, how to resolve problems using COE provisions, and how to successfully implement the COE program within your local union or workplace.
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  IBEW Advanced Steward Training

  This course builds on the education and skills that are the foundation of the basic Steward Training. Stewards will learn more about the grievance process through skills practice and practical applications. In addition, stewards will focus on organizing and the leadership role that is critical to building the local union.

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  ARC: Assessing and Running Campaigns

  Better communication means more opportunities to conduct campaigns. Specific skills learned in ARC include an overview of labor laws, ULP and NLRB election procedures, different forms of gaining IBEW representation, developing a campaign message that resonates with workers, managing a campaign, salting, keeping track of worker conversations, and other essentials to organize entire companies.
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  CORE: Communicating One-on-one Really Effectively

  Communicating with employers and unrepresented workers is the job of every organizer. CORE gives organizers of all experience levels the skills they need to be most effective in their role, such as active listening, recognizing different communication styles, identifying worker and contractor needs, getting past barriers in conversation, minimizing self-made obstacles, and understanding IBEW solutions to common issues that individual workers and contractors face.
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  VOLT: Veteran Organizers Leverage Training

  Veteran Organizers Leverage Training teaches seasoned organizers the advanced concepts in organizing like learning to recognize, develop, and deploy leverage in an escalating fashion. Topics include organizing work and workers at the source through PLAs, community workforce agreements, regulatory pressure, card-check/neutrality agreements, subcontracting agreements, and other methods.

For a full list of our classes check our brochure.

IBEW Education Regions

Who is the International Representative in your area who will provide training and education?

Click your area for contact information regarding  

how to request a training:

Sign-in Sheets - Are you conducting a local union training?

Use this sign-in sheet to credit your members. 

Click to download the official IBEW sign-in sheet: Sign-in Sheet (pdf version) | Sign-in Sheet (Excel version)

Have a completed sign-in sheet? Click here to email it 

Please send complete and accurate sign-in sheets to the IBEW Education Department at:
Mail: 900 Seventh Street, NW, Washington, D.C., 20001
Email: Education_Dept@IBEW.org
Fax: (202) 728-6175

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