IBEW Apprenticeship Means
Opportunity for Alaska Students

May 7, 2014

Alaska students learn that an IBEW apprenticeship is an attractive alternative to college.

Like many high school seniors, Brian Hobbs and Jacob Bates weren’t looking forward to four more years of sitting in the classroom – all while racking up major college debt.

“I’m not a school person,” Bates told KTVA-TV in Anchorage, Alaska. They’re skipping college, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t on the road to a good career.

KTVA-TV reports:

 Many students have no idea what they want to do after they graduate from high school. But that is not the case for two young men taking classes at the King Career Center. Brian Hobbs and Jacob Bates learned recently they had been invited to interview for the IBEW’s apprenticeship program. ‘It feels fantastic,’ Hobbs said. ‘A lot of my friends are freaking out. They need money for college, they have lots of debts. I have everything going.’

The King Career Center is a pre-apprenticeship training program run by the Anchorage Public Schools, which introduces students to numerous skilled trades, including electrical work.

IBEW state training center director Charlie Breitenstein told KTVA-TV that said they’ve had great success with King Career Center students in the past.

Check out Hobbs’ and Bates’ story here.