More than 170 electrical apprentices in Florida now have the equipment they need for hands-on training, thanks to Siemens Energy and Automation Inc., Atlanta. Siemens delivered main lug and main breaker load centers and breakers, switchboards, panelboards, disconnects, combination starter/disconnects, contactors, and pilot lights to the three technical centers where electrical apprentices train.
Steve Brown, of Aladdin Ward Electric, Tampa, Fla., contacted Rexel Consolidated Electric Supply, Sarasota, Fla., and Siemens for help in equipping the technical training centers. "The curriculum at the centers has now been expanded, so that by the time the students complete their four-year apprenticeships and go for their journeyman licenses, they'll be well equipped," he says. "And their grades are improving as they find themselves able to apply what they are studying."
The 56 contractors participating in the local chapter of the Electrical Council have quadrupled enrollment over the four-year life of the apprenticeship program, boosting the number of graduates from three in the first year to 26 in 2000.
