Joliet electrician training center recharged with new technology for new era

Union electricians have a new facility in Joliet to train for solar energy and traditional work in industrial facilities.

The Joliet Electrical Training Center opened in August to provide electricians with a bigger and better facility in which they can train for their work.

“We’re very proud of it,” said Juan Rico, an assistant business agent and organizer for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 176, as he showed the new facility during an open house for the community Thursday.

Rico said the new facility is an investment in the Joliet area and in the careers of future union electricians.

“Our existing facility is 40 years old,” he said. “This is approximately 60% bigger.”

The training center will provide new facilities where electricians can train for solar energy, wind farms and other new technology as well as learning the traditional trade of an electrician. It is a joint venture between the IBEW and the Eastern Illinois Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association.

The new facility provides more space and improved facilities for future electricians to learn their trade, said Scott Dworschak, executive director for the National Electrical Contractors Association, which also has its office in Joliet.

“We’ve more than doubled our shop area because this is where they really learn,” Dworschak said as he walked through one of three shop areas in the new training center. “In our old training center, we had one shop area.”

The training center is located at 1200 Northeast Frontage Road along Interstate 55. It’s next to the union hall for IBEW Local 176.

“We feel it’s a great addition to the community,” Rico said.

Rico said when he talks at high schools to promote careers in his field, students are often surprised to learn that the IBEW has a training facility close to home in Joliet.

Apprentice union electricians don’t pay for the education they receive as they learn their trade while also going to work and earning money.

They start at a wage of $24.30 an hour and see their pay increase to $49 an hour by their fifth year. Journeyman electricians with more than five years of experience make $54 an hour.

“Our apprentices work while they go to school,” Dworschak said. “Our students graduate with no debt.”

Electrician apprentices do not pay for the training they receive. They enter a career that provides health care and a pension.

The program has 200 apprentices. It takes in 40 to 50 new apprentices a year.

Applicants are not required to have previous experience in the field, Rico said. They are required to have at least a year of algebra in high school because the field requires math skills.

Previous experience as an electrician or in construction is not required, Rico said, noting that many veteran electricians began the program with little experience.

“We teach them everything,” he said. “You don’t necessarily have to have a lot of construction experience. We were all there at one time.”