In 2017, the electrical training ALLIANCE announced that a new leadership course would be available on January 1, 2018. This course is now ready for your utilization. It is a product of our industry’s realization that it is no longer adequate for our Apprentices to be trained only in technical skills. We have to continue developing the technical competencies of our students as well as honing their “soft skills” in order to properly prepare them for the marketplace. This course teaches concepts that are not on a higher or lower level of learning than our previous courses — they are simply on a different plane. Topics that were previously not fully examined in the Apprenticeship program now have dedicated lessons to fully explore the topics.
This course is one part of a larger industry wide leadership development program that will encompass several existing programs including the NTI Outstanding Apprentice Graduate Program, the VOLT Academy, some content created by the IBEW, and additional content created by NECA. The intent is to provide a clearly articulated path for new entrants which will allow individuals to progress as far as they desire within the organized electrical industry.
Course Content
This course explores new areas of focus by presenting the learner with authentic job-site based scenarios that require a thoughtful approach to personal action taken by the participants. Through the examination of the scenario, the students will be asked to reflect on the proper, and improper, outcomes that transpire as a result of a particular response to the situation. After having been queried about the information provided in the scenario, the students are presented with
“THE right answer” by one of our Industry Leaders. Since many of these topics are subjective and open to a certain degree of personal interpretation, it is important that the expected action, within a given scenario, be given by a recognized leader in our industry. The “right answers” are not simply a response assembled by someone with no connection to our industry; it is the response of people who have risen to the very highest levels of our organizations — people like NECA contractors who have become national leaders like Vice Presidents or Presidents. People who are Journey-level workers who have become Vice Presidents and the International President of the IBEW. People like our Executive Director, Todd Stafford, who was himself a JW on electrical construction jobsites. This level of commitment from our Industry’s Leaders provides the credible “right answer” to the scenarios that the students are presented with throughout this course.
Train The Trainer
Due the unique nature of this course (the fact that it is material that we have not, to this point, had dedicated lessons to present), it is necessary that each instructor who is charged with facilitating this course have an additional level of training. Since it
is too cumbersome to have all 4,000 instructors from across the county come together to a face-to-face Train The Trainer (TTT) course, the electrical training ALLIANCE has assembled an online TTT course for this purpose. This arrangement will allow the instructors for this course to both become familiar with the content as well as become competent with all of the additional unique features of this material. In addition to the scenario-based learning, instructors will be given a step-by-step Lesson Plan. This Lesson Plan can be thought of as a virtual play book that allows the Instructor the ability to proceed directly down the list of scripted plays or bring in additional resources that are at his/her fingertips to take a deeper look into a particular topic. Things like the amount of classroom time allowed for the course, particular areas of emphasis, or special job-site requirements can all influence the way in which this course will be delivered, so the Lesson Plan includes flexibility by way of additional “pre-formatted” activities that will allow for local enhancement and customization that is needed in YOUR area.
New Blended Learning functionality to support this TTT requirement has been created as well. To learn more about this functionality, click here. The outcome of this functionality, in addition to ensuring that the Instructor has been exposed to the content and is prepared to facilitate this class, is that you, as the TD, will only be able to assign your instructor in “Standard Version” after they have satisfactorily completed the “TTT” version. Satisfactory completion of the course (TTT version) is defined with two criteria:
- The instructor has viewed (and completed) all of the content in the TTT course, and
- The instructor has obtained at least a 75% grade on each of the 11 quizzes within the course.
Instructor Progress
You, as the TD, will be able to monitor the progress of your instructor in the TTT course by accessing this report in the LMS.
See this video to learn how to track instructor progress.
Instructors will be able to check their own progress by observing the checkboxes within the course that show completion of each of the course components.
Next Steps
What are you waiting for? You can now begin 
enrolling Instructors into the TTT version of this course! After their completion, you can enroll them (along with the students) into the standard version of Preparing for Leadership: Personal Qualities, Level 1.
Don’t forget that each instructor and student will need a copy of the Effective Leadership Skills for Construction Field Leaders textbook (Item Number S097 and price of $60.00)