On Saturday, June 9th, 153 electrical apprentices will graduate from the Independent Electrical Contractors Rocky Mountain (IECRM) Four-Year Electrical Apprentice Program in a graduation ceremony at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities.
Most notable about this graduating class is that they are 100 percent employed and none of these graduates is saddled with college debt to deal with after graduation. In addition, these graduates are either licensed journeymen or will become licensed in the coming months. An audience of guests including family members, friends, spouses, instructors, and employers will attend to celebrate the graduates. IECRM is an IEC electrical apprenticeship training program.
Trade schools like IECRM are vehicles for students who want to fast-track into skilled careers. Vocational training is also ideal for adult students looking to advance in their current career or even change careers altogether.
“To me, graduating from IECRM is like climbing a mountain in Colorado; it’s a long journey and sometimes you wonder if you will achieve the goal,” says Jonathon Heaner, 2018 class Valedictorian and apprentice at Weifield Electrical Contracting. “But once you reach the top, you see a whole new world of mountains beyond you – bigger, taller, more challenging. This is the fruit of many years of hard work, but it has been worth it as I see a world of opportunity open in front of me.”
IECRM provides training and instruction in electrical contracting. “We teach job specific skills designed to enable a student’s advancement in a high-paying profession, electrical contracting,” says Paul Lingo, IECRM training director. “We emphasize the practical, as opposed to the academic education, and our student apprentices all are employed and receive on-the-job training at the same time. This earn while you learn format gives students a leg-up when it comes to beginning their careers, with no college debt to deal with after graduation. By the time a student graduates from the four year apprenticeship program, most have doubled their income with full-time positions that pay a living wage with health benefits.”
IECRM also offers degree-transfer programs, allowing a student to transfer some of their credits to a community or four-year college or university. These degree-transfer programs allow students to leverage a vocational education as a stepping-stone to a baccalaureate degree.
Each IECRM graduate receives a certificate of completion from the IECRM 4-year Apprentice Program; a certificate of Completion and Transcript from Emily Griffith Technical College recognizing completion of up to 42 hours of transferable college credit; an IEC National Certificate of Achievement; and certain students will receive certificates of completion from the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Apprenticeship and Training for meeting the standards and requirements prescribed by the U.S. Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship Program.