YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Lillian Davis likes hard work, working with her hands and admiring what she’s accomplished.
Peyton Flower enjoys going to work every day and accomplishing a goal and Alexis Sperling was attracted to the trades because she wants to be able to do work for herself.
All three are in an apprenticeship program to become an electrician. Davis, 20, of Brookfield, is in her third year in the program through the Warren Electrical Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee.
Flower and Sperling, both 18, are in the first year apprenticeship program through Youngstown JATC in Boardman. They both started in June, shortly after graduating, Flower from Jackson Milton High School and Sperling from Columbiana High and Columbiana County Career Center.
Ahren Peplow, Youngstown Electrical JATC training director, says the apprenticeship program sees many applicants.
“It’s definitely changed a little bit,” he says. “When I got in back in 2011, [there were] a lot less experienced people trying to get in. Now we have all these options. We have all these different avenues that people can do to get into the program.”
Those options include a commercial wireman program. While not an apprenticeship, it enables participants to work, gain experience, join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 64 and roll that experience into getting into the inside apprenticeship program.
“For the industrial program here, we do also have a residential program that is bigger now,” Peplow says. “We took a class this year that is probably the biggest that we’ve taken in a decade. We took nine in this year for our residential program, including three women in that first-year class.”
CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS
Cody Hilliard, IBEW Local 64 business manager, also points to that changing demographic.
“We have had an uptick of more females being interested in our programs, and I would say we’ve been very successful thus far at getting them into our program and them succeeding in the field and on the classroom side of it,” he says.
Hilliard attributes that increase to the breakdown of stereotypes.
“We’re here to take people that have a hardworking personality and make them the best electricians that we can,” Hilliard says. “We don’t care whether it’s a female or if there’s some other minority at play. We want to take hard workers and make them good electricians.”
Flower and Sperling are among the first year apprentices in the Youngstown program with more women further along in their training.
Having women representation at events where the industry meets prospective applicants is one way the local works to recruit women.
“So when a younger girl comes up to talk about the trade, they’re talking to somebody that looks a little bit more like them, and has some of the same experiences as them, as opposed to hearing about it from a 60 year old white male,” Hilliard says.
IBEW Local 573 in Warren reports similar changes. About 10% of its membership is women.
“We are starting to get more women,” says Todd Ambrose, business manager for the Warren local.
He and Luke Gale, Warren Electrical JATC training director, attribute part of that to outreach.
“We have a [Mahoning Valley Skilled] Trades Expo every year at the Canfield Fair and over a dozen schools come in – 5,000 to 6,500 students come through,” Gale explains. “We tell them the opportunities that they all have and females come through there and we get to talk to them about it.”
The local tries to have women in the industry at the event to speak to the female students, telling them about the career and their experiences.
Davis wasn’t sure what she wanted to do after high school, but she didn’t want to go to college.
“I knew some people that were in this program, and they talked highly of it and how it was a good career choice,” she said. “I was looking for a career and not just a job, so I felt like joining this would give me a good sense of workmanship and just something to do.”
Ambrose views the increase in female membership as a sign of changing times.
“I always tell people the three most important people in my life are my mom, my sister and my daughter,” he says.
For a long time, a career in the trades proved difficult for a woman and “I’d like to hope that we’re kind of changing the mindset of some of our membership because the females need every bit of opportunity, especially in the trades, as they can get,” Ambrose adds
His daughter is going into construction management at a firm in Washington, D.C. That may have been difficult 20 years ago, he concedes.
“I want our female members to have every opportunity the males do, for sure,” the Local 573 business manager says.
Davis, the third-year apprentice, says she’s the only woman at her job site, but it’s not intimidating and the reception from colleagues has been positive.
“I feel like I’ve been fairly treated,” she says. “I think that I’ve been very fortunate, but I like to show up. I like to be willing to learn from these guys. So I think they really appreciate that.”
Her philosophy is to show up and do her job to the best of her abilities. She rotates jobs and locations as part of the apprenticeship, with the latest at a wastewater treatment plant being installed in Leavittsburg.
Previous jobs included at the FoxConn plant and with Becdel Controls.
WELL ROUNDED
Gale says that rotation serves two purposes.
“We try to give the students an opportunity to get a well-rounded experience and what we do is rotate students,” he says. “We’ll give them a job assignment; they’ll stay there for about a year, and then we try to rotate them to another contractor because all the contractors in the area specialize in a lot of different things, so we try to bounce them around.”
It also gives the apprentices an opportunity to work with contractors who see how they work and may want to hire the student when they finish the training.
So far, Davis likes all of the work she’s done through her apprenticeship.
“It’s all still kind of new to me because I’m still in my third year, but I’m always open to finding something that I want to specialize in, or just something that I feel like, okay, this is what I’m really good at,” she says.
Being a smaller local enables 573 to give apprentices a look at a bit of everything, Ambrose says. At some big city locals, a member could work in conduit or hold wire for years. At 573, one day a worker may be bending conduit and pulling wire the next.
The Valley also lends itself to variety, Gale adds.
“We have a lot of industrial and commercial where some areas are just strictly industrial, or just strictly commercial,” he says. “We have a wide variety.”
And the program’s curriculum is changing to include more hands-on learning. Gale believes that’s a positive because it applies what apprentices are learning in class.
“Before, it’s been a lot of textbook and notebook stuff and lectures, and we’re trying to shift more into let’s try to actually get their hands on while they’re here in the training center and that way they can practice and learn here and then also in the field,” he says.
Peplow, Youngstown Electrical JATC training director, has been in that position for about 18 months. He previously worked as a journeyman and a foreman.
“I’ve always had a passion for education,” he says. “Coming up through college and everything after high school, one of my original majors was education. It’s something that has always really spoken to me.”
When he was working with apprentices and teaching them on the job, he enjoyed it.
“I instructed for a few years and this opportunity came up and it was too good to pass up,” Peplow adds.
He attributes the growth in the apprenticeship program to outreach. It’s one of his favorite parts of the job. He visits schools in the district, talking to juniors, seniors and others interested in the field about being an electrician. While a lot of people ask about the money, Peplow appreciates those with an interest in the industry. There’s a lot more a person can do besides be an electrician, he says, pointing to his own career path.
Peplow attends events such as the Skilled Trades Expo, informing young people about the trades and the apprenticeship program. Apprentices see a variety of job sites.
“We rotate once a year,” the Youngstown JATC director says. “I like to get these guys out to see because every contractor does everything a little bit differently. One contractor might specialize in hospital work and then I rotate you out. You go to another contractor who specializes in heavy industrial.”
STEADY WORK
Nearly 80 apprentices are in the programs. While Local 64’s district hasn’t seen a project that requires a major workforce influx, there’s no lack of work.
“We have always in the Youngstown area been really good at staying busy, so we know our market,” Peplow explains. “We have a very large market share in this area, and we’ve kept it that way for a very long time.”
Hilliard sees that continuing. Membership sits at about 450, up from about 380 five years ago.
“The overall market is kind of expanding, and we’re getting into markets that we have not always historically been in,” he says. “A lot of that growth is seen from our residential side and our teledata side.”
Teledata includes camera systems, audio-visual systems and security systems. Hilliard expects residential and teledata to continue to grow exponentially in the region over the next several years compared to other aspects of the industry.
That’s good news for those preparing for those careers.
Flower, one of the first-year apprentices through the JATC in Boardman, knew she wanted to go into the trades and her interest in being an electrician piqued when Peplow attended one of her high school classes to talk about the industry. She hasn’t looked back.
“I really like it,” Flower says. “I like going to work every day and getting a goal done – that’s what I like to do. I like to put things together to see the end goal happen.”
She’s in the residential program and likes its fast pace and that it’s a new job each day. Two months in, she’s learned a lot of tricks of the trade that make the job easier.
Sperling is also in the residential program at the Boardman JATC.
“I think the residential is really good so I could get an understanding of how to work on homes,” she says. “Say I had a problem years down the line at my own home. I’d know how to fix it.”
But Sperling wants to go into the commercial apprenticeship after she finishes the residential, and eventually to lineman school. She loves climbing and being a lineman would allow her to help people while doing something she enjoys.
So far, Davis, the third-year apprentice at the Warren JATC, likes everything about the work she’s doing.
“I like to do stuff and build stuff and stand back at the end of the day and say, ‘Wow, I did that,’” she says. “So, it’s just the sense of pride in the work that you do.”
Pictured at top: Luke Gale, Warren Electrical Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee training director; Lillian Davis, a third-year apprentice; and Todd Ambrose, business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 573 in Warren, inside the center.
