‘Heavy Metal’ camp helps attract, train future electricians

Charlie Hafner thinks he will be an electrician. “Ever since I could hold a screwdriver, I’ve been doing side jobs with my dad. … I’m definitely sticking to this field,” said the 18-year-old Maquoketa (Iowa) High School graduate. The recent graduate joined 10 other young men from the Quad Cities region this week to get […]

Charlie Hafner thinks he will be an electrician. “Ever since I could hold a screwdriver, I’ve been doing side jobs with my dad. … I’m definitely sticking to this field,” said the 18-year-old Maquoketa (Iowa) High School graduate. The recent graduate joined 10 other young men from the Quad Cities region this week to get an introduction and a few lessons in the electrician field. The training camp was made possible through a program that helps attract and train the next generation of skilled workers. The Quad City Electrical Training Center in Moline is hosting that program known as the Heavy Metal Summer Experience (HMSE). The camp began Monday, July 7, and runs through Thursday, July 10. The program ends on Friday, July 11, with a graduation ceremony at the center. 

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The HMSE is a free, hands-on program designed to introduce high school students and recent graduates to high-demand, debt-free jobs within unionized skilled trades such as sheet metal, piping, electrical, and plumbing. The QC Electrical Training Center, located at 1700 52nd Ave., Suite C, now is hosting one of 51 HMSE camps planned this summer across North America. It also is HMSE’s first all-electrical camp in its five-year history. Founded in California in 2021, HMSE was established to address the growing labor shortage in the construction industry, which faces a wave of retirements and a shrinking workforce. The top goals of this week’s training camp are to introduce the local young people – ages 16 to 19 from 11 different area school districts – to some of the basics of the field and get them interested in pursuing careers as electricians. “I hope they enjoy themselves this week, and I hope they spread the word about this program,” said Terry Van Hook, training director for the Quad City Electrical Training Center. He added that he wants the students to understand they can have well-paying jobs in a field that doesn’t require a college education. “The idea is to show young people that college isn’t the only path to a successful future,” Mr. Van Hook said in a news release before the weeklong camp. “Jobs in the skilled trades are in demand all over right now; they pay really well, come with great benefits, and if you go through an apprenticeship program like ours, you’ll get paid while you’re learning and graduate with no student debt.” The pay for being an electrician starts at about $21 an hour. Once they get experience in the field, electricians can earn $150,000 or more a year, Mr. Van Hook added. In addition, another message that training officials are delivering to students is this – America needs electricians. There is a vast shortage in the field, and that shortage is getting worse every year. Some of the stats include:

• Employment of electricians is projected to grow 6% annually until 2032 — twice the rate of all other occupations — with about 73,500 job openings each year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
• More electricians retire or leave the job each year than come into the profession, leading both labor union and non-union organizations to increase recruiting, and begin career messaging as early as middle school. According to the National Contractor Association, 7,000 new electricians join the industry each year, but 10,000 retire, putting the number of skilled electricians available at a severe deficit.
• There were approximately 762,600 licensed electricians in the U.S. as of 2022, the BLS reported. They are earning a median salary of $61,590 per year, though the highest 10% make more than $100,000.

The training director, instructors and volunteers working at the Moline training center Wednesday, July 9, said they were impressed with the 11 students participating. “They’ve all been eager to get going. …. We’ve been really surprised. They’ve all been willing to work. We’ve been just blown away by their ability to adapt,” Mr. Van Hook told the QCBJ. Much of the day’s work focused on two different projects. One group of students worked with electrical metallic tubing at a series of training stations. In that exercise, some of the work focused on correctly bending the tubing and installing it into boxes to simulate some of the skills needed by electricians. Cindy Burke, a union official with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 145, and an electrician for 30 years, was one of the instructors assisting in the electrical metallic tubing exercise. The Rock Island woman said she liked what she was seeing in the students. “It’s going well. … They are all learning something this week.” One of the students learning from Ms. Burke was Nathaniel Bishop, 17, of Rock Island. The recent Alleman Catholic High School graduate  said he plans to go to college to become an engineer, and learning lessons from the electric field will help with that profession. However, he also is leaving the door open to becoming an electrician in the future. “I want to learn more about this field. … But, if college doesn’t work out, I’ll know something about this trade,” he added. Meanwhile, another group of students worked on a Quad City Electrical Training Center trailer that will be used as a trades recruiting tool at job fairs and schools in the region. That trailer will feature a series of six screens and other equipment that will be used to give would-be electricians some virtual reality lessons in the field. It also will provide students with some information on the trade. “I’m optimistic about the future of this field. … I can see three-fourths of the students here today getting into the trades,” said Bryan Peterson, of East Moline, who is a full-time instructor at the center and helping students with projects taking place in the trailer. Ms. Burke, who took vacation time in order to help teach the students, said that she is also optimistic about the future of the trades after working with the local students. She hopes the students at the Heavy Metal Summer Experience go on to become electricians because there are more job openings all the time in the field. In fact, she added that she might soon create another opening in the field because she is considering her own retirement. “They (the students) will be up and coming. I will be the outgoing,” she said with a smile.