YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – After seeing his brother work as an aircraft maintenance technician, Sam Adams was inspired to follow in his footsteps.
Adams, a Howland University student, is in the electrician program at Trumbull Career and Technical Center and works at Gitner Electrical Services in Warren when he’s not in class.
TCTC’s Week-A-Winter program allows electrical technician students to gain intensive, full-day work experience with partner companies.
Adams plans to continue his training in a 16-month program at the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics after he graduates. He wants to learn avionics, the electrical parts of aircraft that include automation, communications and navigation equipment. He hopes to one day work for American Airlines.
“I came to the TCTC electrical program to prepare me for it and try to prepare me so I could get a good start,” Adams says.
Adams is what Mark Taylor, an electrical technician instructor at TCTC, calls one of his standout students, who had a brother, sister or cousin who had achieved success after going through the program.
Taylor has 33 years of experience in industrial electrical engineering working for General Motors in Lordstown to help students learn relevant skills. His duties at the plant include high voltage, water heater maintenance and transmission line control.
“One day you’re building a building and wiring it like a house and the next day you’re wiring a bus,” Taylor says. “It’s very diverse.”
Class size is capped at 25 students per class, with a waiting list three times that capacity. Taylor teaches the fundamentals of residential, commercial, and industrial electrical work. The curriculum includes the National Electrical Code and basic safety skills for working in a field where mistakes can cost lives.
Taylor believes in building partnerships with local businesses, internship programs and unions. He wants employers to consider evaluating students’ projects at the school, giving students a chance to impress and giving Taylor a better idea of what they’re looking for in employees. He has an advisory committee of local business representatives to help him refine the program.
“I want to give them as much experience as possible,” Taylor says of his students. “I want to give them everything they learn, and I want to give them the ability to go to the next opportunity with as much experience and advantage as possible.”
TCTC has initial training agreements with VEC Inc. and the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition. Students who excel at TCTC may join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union.
“Everyone says the same thing: Are they going to show up for work? Are they going to be on time? Can they pass a drug test? Can they leave their phones in the car? If so, we’ll hire them tomorrow,” Taylor says.
Students graduating from the program this spring are lined up for opportunities through the Youngstown Area Electrical JATC’s Lineman Training Program, PIA, and several partner employers. Three are headed to college to study electrical engineering.
Taylor believes the high academic standards and programs like College Credit Plus and honors classes available at TCTC “rival any high school in Trumbull County.”
One former student attends Youngstown State University and works for Ajax Magnethermic, which reimburses him a percentage of his tuition based on his grades, up to 100% for every A.
Demand for electricians
Taylor doesn’t see the demand for students in electrical training programs ending anytime soon.
“After Covid, everyone was looking for someone. Now things have slowed down and they’re more selective,” Taylor says, adding that there’s a lot of work.
Power-hungry data centers, unconventional power generation and vehicle charging stations are just a few of the ways electricians can stay relevant and pursue in-demand jobs.
At the Mahoning County Career and Technology Center, students help Canopy Solar install solar panels on the roof of the $1.2 million Energy Workforce Training Center, which opened last fall. The new building has allowed teacher Corey Cooper to add more programs to the electrical program, which has a cap of 25 students per class and a waiting list for the past three years.
Students learn about solar power delivery, converting DC voltage to AC voltage before adding it to the grid, battery saving and panel efficiency.
“They can actually see how the system is set up. And when they’re done, they can see the efficiency and how it works and see what’s behind all the work,” Cooper says.
A solar-powered car charger is currently being installed at the training center.
MCCTC also added power line pole training to enhance residential, commercial, industrial and specialty electrical training.
“I try to expose kids to five or six different aspects of the industry,” Cooper says, noting that specialized electrical training includes low-voltage opportunities such as security and internet installation. “We try to touch on all of that to give kids exposure and help them get oriented in the way they want to be.”
Cooper says the school seems to continue to add new electrical-related career paths and professions every year, including fiber optic installation, which is expanding locally.
“I bet the need for electricians in this valley has doubled in the last five years,” Cooper says.
Many don’t wait to graduate to gain broader experience. This year, three-quarters of Cooper’s students are doing early work, going to school one day a week and working the other four.
But Cooper says it’s also important to focus on soft skills, and ensure students are employable.
“Most of them have already found a job as soon as they graduate, which is really helpful, and that rate seems to be increasing every year,” Cooper says. “My goal is to make sure that every kid who wants a job has found their place in a job or internship before they graduate.”
MCCTC also partners with the Western Reserve Independent Electrical Contractor Program, IBEW, and industry partners such as VEC in Girard, for training programs and job opportunities.
“The scope of work is unlimited, it just depends on what they want to do,” Cooper says. “The average salary here is really good for skilled trades. If we get half the work proposed now, we won’t have enough. We’ll be looking at other places in different states to sign the book and different mobile electricians to come in and help us handle the work that comes through here.”
According to Cooper, large projects like the Ultium Cells plant meant that the Mahoning Valley had to look elsewhere for electricians, including itinerant electricians who would work on large projects.
“As a union member, you can travel to any of the 50 states and Canada with your card and sign any of their books,” Cooper says. “With all that training, you can take that with you and go wherever your family is or wherever you need to go to improve your situation.”
Train enough students?
“The Ultium plant has been a bit of a challenge,” says Eric Davis, training manager for the local IBEW chapter in Warren. “We certainly don’t have as bad a problem as other parts of the country.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there were 712,580 electricians nationwide in May 2023, earning a median annual wage of $67,810. The vast majority of them work as construction equipment contractors. Ohio employed 24,430 workers in May 2023, the fifth largest state in the United States.
The number of electricians is expected to grow 9 percent between 2020 and 2030, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Baby boomers and early-career Gen Xers are retiring, leading to national concerns about the long-term supply of trained electricians.
Part of that expected increase is electric vehicle charging stations, which Davis says he began training for 15 years ago with some IBEW trainers. Each trainee who passes the course learns how to install them and calculate the capacity of a home charger. IBEW offers a refresher course for skilled electricians.
“We thought this would work for a long time, but it didn’t,” says Davis, who notes that Ohio is one of the states that has money to build charging stations along highways and is said to be making progress. Eventually, this work will get here.
Ed Emrich of IBEW Local 64 in Boardman points out that it’s not just about getting enough applicants, but getting enough quality applicants.
“It’s not like that in Mahoning County or this part of Ohio, (but) there is a workforce gap. We are mandated by our local, regional and national organizations to increase our numbers to fill these positions so that we have a qualified workforce when the work is done,” he says.
It takes three to five years to get an apprenticeship, depending on the type of electrical work—residential or commercial—but Emrich points out that it doesn’t replace the knowledge gained by someone with 20 or 30 years of experience.
“We want people to be as efficient and effective as possible, and while work may not be there right now, we have to prepare for the inevitable future when that happens so that the lack of work is either non-existent or minimal,” says Emrich.
“Once the battery plant slowed down, some of the other projects that were scheduled to start were slow to get off the ground,” Davis says. “We’re certainly optimistic about the future and that doesn’t stop us from continuing to hire the best candidates available.”
And with everything going on across the country — the need to build new grid capacity, replace aging infrastructure and push toward renewable energy — even if there isn’t a major project in the Mahoning Valley, projects elsewhere could mean opportunities for local electricians.
“All the projects going on in the Columbus and West Columbus area are so massive that people from all over North America are going to work on these construction sites. So you have to look at things through a macro lens, not a microscopic lens,” Emrich says.
How to enter the field
While there is no wrong time to apply, the winter months are best because new interns start the program in May. The minimum requirement is a high school diploma in algebra, Emrich says, but applicants also pass an aptitude test and interview with residential and commercial/industrial boards.
Students from a program such as those offered at MCCTC or TCTC have the experience and knowledge that gives them an advantage when applicants are placed on a ranked list. The minimum age is 18, and the union accepts both recent high school graduates and those seeking a career change.
Davis says a desire to learn is a prerequisite and some mechanical ability is helpful.
Trainees receive three-hour lessons twice a week, from September to May. During the day, they work in the field with a trained electrician and earn money while they rack up 8,000 hours.
However, they will not add more people to the trainee lists if there is not enough work.
“If you’re going to learn a big part of the trade in the field and we don’t have a job to send you to, and an opportunity for on-the-job training, you’re leaving a big part of the training out and then it takes more than five years, maybe,” Emrich says.
“The construction industry is really a cyclical industry,” says Davis. “It definitely has its ebbs and flows, its peaks and valleys.
“Locally, we seem to be doing pretty well by having the people we need when work is plentiful, when construction is busy.”
Pictured above: Sam Adams, a student at Pittsburgh Aeronautical Institute of Technology from Howland, is following in his brother’s footsteps by enrolling in the school’s electrical technology program. He will continue his education through the Pittsburgh Aeronautical Institute’s training program.
