The IBEW needs more journeyman inside wiremen. Hundreds of thousands more.

"There are two, and only two, ways to get more journeymen: We organize them or we build them," said Todd Stafford, executive director of the Electrical Training Alliance, the IBEW training partner. "Every apprentice that tops out at one of the 270 training centers in the U.S. and Canada is one less journeyman the IBEW has to organize."

Last month, The Electrical Worker highlighted the almost universal boom in demand for electrical workers in nearly every electrical industry: energy, manufacturing, transportation, data centers and carbon reduction.

"I've been saying for years that we will not be able to indenture our way out of our manpower needs. But we can make our apprenticeship program — as good as it already is — bigger, shorter and more effective," said International President Kenneth W. Cooper.

The Electrical Training Alliance has been planning for a radical increase in demand for construction electricians for about a decade, Stafford said.

"We asked ourselves: 'How much more could we do? How much faster could we go? Could we support 70,000 apprentices? 100,000? Then we set about creating the physical infrastructure and the computer-based curricula, classes, videos, simulations and tests that would make it work," he said.

The result was more than just new classes, said ETA Managing Director Greg Greiner. It is a near complete reimagining of the apprenticeship process, from recruitment to topping out.

"The entire educational philosophy has changed. It had to. We need so many more journeyman wiremen so quickly, the way we use our training centers, the way we teach, the way we recruit, the time before graduation, all of it had to get with the times. We don't have the luxury of doing what we always did," Greiner said.

This new model, launched two years ago and known as "computer-mediated learning," or CML, is now putting down roots, and training directors are beginning to see how revolutionary it could be.

Computer-Mediated Learning

In the last decade, several IBEW locals have invested millions of dollars building state-of-the-art training centers with every resource, the latest technology and room for hundreds, even thousands, of apprentices.

Smaller locals may not have the resources to adopt this strategy.

"We're on the south end of a really small town two hours south of Denver in an old metal building next to the union hall — 9,600 square feet, half offices, half shop space," said Pueblo, Colo., JATC Training Director Dan Kraus. "Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a new facility. But we don't need it."

The ETA has been creating online and computer-based courses since 2009, first for linemen and then, starting in 2014, the core curriculum for the inside.

Kraus has been training director at Pueblo Local 12 since 2014, and he started using the new courses as soon as they were available for his 39 apprentices.

"We jumped in right out of the gate," he said.

The courses didn't just replace textbooks with interactive assignments.

Lectures, theory, math: They were all handled in video lectures that the apprentices could watch anywhere, anytime, as often as they wanted until they understood it. Tests are shifted from in-person to online and happen before class so instructors can see how each student is doing.

"CML is very different. We say, 'Do it at your speed, but here's the deadline,'" Kraus said.

Even for something as physical as conduit bending, there is a necessary educational component — the math and theory — that can be mastered before everyone meets at the training center.

"If we set aside two hours in person, we want them to be hands on tools. Sine, cosine, tangent: That's all stuff they can do at home. Take the test. If everyone is struggling with one part, we zip through just that and then, back to bending and threading," Kraus said.

If there are students who risk falling behind, Kraus' instructors make time and space for them.

"We set up tutoring for the ones who flat-out don't get it. You have simulations if they are struggling with labs. CML will not reduce the need for good instructors. We are just using them differently," he said.

This, Greiner said, is where the revolutionary part comes in.

Rethinking the Classroom

Since its creation nearly 70 years ago, the ETA has never stopped innovating as the industry has evolved. It designs all the curricula, labs, software, simulators, virtual-reality immersive experiences and assessment tools that JATCs use to transform raw hands into the most productive construction electricians in the world.

But one thing stayed the same over the decades — training was done in person and in a classroom, with an instructor in front of a blackboard, or later in front of a screen. The whole class marched through lessons at the same speed.

The advantage to this model is that it gets a lot of training to a lot of people at a reasonable cost and a reasonable workload for instructors and administrators.

The problem is that one-size-fits-all education hasn't ever fit anyone particularly well.

"Think about watching a movie. There're some people who are wondering what's about to happen, some thinking about what is happening now and another group that is still catching up trying to figure out what happened five minutes ago. The same is true in every classroom. Everyone learns at different speeds, but we did not have tools to meet every learner where they were," Greiner said. "The people at either end are being failed."

It shows in retention rates of only 50% to 75% in many JATCs.

In the past, the only way to truly customize education was to reduce the ratio of students to teachers. What the ETA determined was that technology finally allows JATCs to increase personalization — Greiner calls it asynchronous learning — without giving every apprentice their own teacher.

"We have 180 hours a year of in-class time. We can't lower standards. We can't increase time. If we want to get journeyman faster, we had to remove something. What we removed were the lectures," Greiner said.

In course after course, the lectures — what Greiner calls "the educational component" of courses — were recorded and made available online with a host of simulations, games and assessments.

What remains in person is training: the labs and physical skills that need to be done in person.

"Our student body is double what it was eight years ago, and we are absolutely expanding," said Jacksonville, Fla., JATC Apprenticeship and Training Director Danny Van Sickle.

Van Sickle said that first- and second-year apprentices use the CML curriculum. The final fifth-year class tops out in February, and the fourth-years top out in June. By the middle of this year, nearly every apprentice in Jacksonville will be exclusively using the new system.

"When they come, they aren't going over homework, we are putting them in a lab," Van Sickle said.

Van Sickle said the impact of CML isn't just about efficiency. It is critical to recruiting and retaining higher-quality applicants.

Jacksonville has satellite programs in six high schools and colleges but only has journeyman instructors in three of them. This past year, Van Sickle switched from the traditional Interim Credential Course — made up of five of the first-year apprenticeship classes — to one that is entirely run through the CML program.

"Now they are learning from some of the best instructors in the IBEW," he said.

If they are accepted into the apprenticeship, graduates of the ICC go straight to second-year classes — though they aren't paid second-year wages until they have 2,000 hours of on-the-job training.

Van Sickle also offers the ICC to the top 20 to 40 applicants who aren't accepted.

"Before if you were accepted, you started and if you didn't get in you had to reapply and wait. Now we tell them 'You didn't get in. That doesn't mean you can't learn some things. Take the interim credential course. When you come in again, you'll be ahead of the curve,'" he said.

They pay for the course books, just like apprentices do, and the ones who stick with it and do well are the people Van Sickle will look to first when there are openings again.

"There is an absolute improvement in retention because they know what is involved before they get in," Van Sickle said.

Same standards, less time, better retention. All that's needed, Stafford said, is wider adoption.

Now that nearly the whole curriculum is computer-mediated, training directors can start new apprentices at any time. Instructors can efficiently provide individual support for multiple apprentices. Contractors can be confident that every apprentice has the same minimum set of competencies wherever they trained and whoever taught them.

"When you stop thinking in cohorts and lectures, you can go from 50 to 150 apprentices without changing your footprint," Greiner sad. "We have 52,000 apprentices today. Our learning system back end can handle well over 100,000. Our software can handle 100,000 in the same course at the same time. The course materials are here. But to take advantage of the flexibility and speed, you can't just flick a light switch. This will take real effort by JATC administrators."

Dave Nott is training director for one of the facilities Kraus calls a Taj Mahal.

The Electrical Training Institute in Los Angeles is a 144,000-square-foot showcase for the trade. This year, 455 apprentices topped out of the ETI, more graduates than Kraus' Local 12 has members.

And unlike Van Sickle, Local 11 isn't experiencing record growth. That happened before the Great Recession.

"In 2000 we had 400 apprentices. In 2008 we had 2,200," Nott said. Today, the ETI is down to 1,400.

But CML tools are still critical to his mission.

"To turn people out in four years instead of five, you need to make up that time somewhere. CML is the only way we do this and maintain our standards," he said.

In-person lecture time and test review are down, and time in labs has gone up. Nott rededicated classroom space to labs and hybrid rooms that can handle education, training and remote participants.

Nott said Local 11's training center can now support 2,500 apprentices.

"Apprenticeship cannot meet the need alone, but can we turn out tens of thousands more journeyman each year? Absolutely. It will take a change in mindset, but every JATC in North America has access to tools to take on many more apprentices, teach them the same material in less time, with more individual attention all while reducing the strain on training directors and instructors," Stafford said. "What most training centers need is not a new facility. What they need is new thinking about how we create journeymen."

The only unacceptable option is believing that things can stay the way they are, Greiner said.