The NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center (NIETC) restarted apprentice classes on Monday, June 22 after a three month pause due to Covid-19. Training Center staff has been working since mid-March to prepare for this semester.

“When we started planning, we didn’t know the end result of the virus, but we knew what might happen. We headed down that road, understanding that our planning might end up being a wasted effort,” stated NIETC executive director Rod Belisle. “But here we are. I am confident that it was all worthwhile.”

Apprentices spend one day a week in class for 11 weeks, twice a year. The other four days of those weeks are spent on jobsites learning under the supervision of journeymen. Depending on the program they are in, they are enrolled in either three, four or five years of classroom and jobsite training. As a result of this pause, all NIETC classes have been delayed a semester.

Classrooms are prepared so that all students will maintain social distancing while in class. The training center will utilize its largest rooms and even the auditorium as a classroom to accomplish that. Currently there are 1,005 apprentices in the three programs.

“We just completed new construction that added two new classrooms and without them, we may not have had the necessary space,” Belisle said. “We are either lucky or great at planning.”

“One-way traffic will be used in and out of classrooms,” said NIETC safety director Barry Moreland. “Many labs have been modified to reduce the number of students in the lab at a given time, and we have had to put up barriers or relocate lab materials for further safety.”

Moreland added, “We have had to address some basic policies, such as not allowing class-day changes because the number of students in class will be specifically allocated, and we can’t allow overflow like we may have done in the past. Scheduling is our biggest challenge and highest priority.”

The training center will still be closed to the outside public. Entrance and exit policies have been established for students, along with health questionnaires and contact tracing forms that must be signed every day of class.

The training center also offers continuing education programs for journeymen, but for now all in-person classes have been canceled. Because of the importance of these programs, the Zoom video meeting platform has been used to conduct some classes, but enrollment must be limited. NIETC hopes to expand these opportunities over time.

“We have prepared our training center at the highest level possible with complete regard for safety, first and foremost, without sacrificing quality of training. This creates safety both in the classroom and in the workplace as apprentices and journeymen continue their essential jobs,” said Belisle.

Normally, the process of addressing construction related hazards is fairly straightforward. The use of site-specific and task-based hazard assessments to identify risk reductions strategies using engineering, administrative and lastly, personal protective equipment, as control options is a proven game plan.

Now, in a world with potential COVID-19 workplace exposures, construction employers are challenged with keeping construction projects on track, while protecting their most valuable resource—our skilled trades workers.

To help identify and implement safe work practices that align with OSHA regulations, CDC recommendations and the public’s expectations of actions that reduce workplace coronavirus exposures, a COVID-19 Joint Construction Safety Task Force was established in early April by the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council.

The task force is a partnership of union and non-union industry professionals, with support from Oregon OSHA. The group meets twice a week to monitor health information, review government guidelines, and to collect data and other COVID-19 related information.

Representing NECA and IBEW on the task force are Garth Bachman, IBEW Local 48 Business Manager; Wayne Chow, IBEW Local 48 President; Drew Lindsey, IBEW Local 280 Business Manager; Maurice Rhaming, owner of O’Neill Construction Group; and Barry Moreland, Safety Director of the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center.

Since inception, the group has visited 20 construction sites and compiled a number of industry best practices and resources which have been published to this newly created website, hosted by the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences.

The group will continue to coordinate job site visits as long as Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s “Stay Home, Save Lives” executive order is in place, and will continue to update the website with additional resources and best practices as they become available.

Barry Moreland
NIETC Safety Director
bmoreland@nietc.org
503.501.5066