Even with move to online courses, many unions still offer in-person instruction

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When construction officials look back at the changes they’ve made in response to COVID-19, some of the most wide-ranging ones have undoubtedly been made to the ways they provide training.

From the outset of the pandemic in March, trades groups have been scrambling not only to move coursework online but also adopt strict social-distancing policies at sites used to provide instruction to newcomers to the trades.

At Local 139 of the International Union of Operating Engineer’s training center in Coloma, for instance, are seeking to keep everyone safe by employing a machine that takes the temperatures and recognizes the faces of apprentices and others in training programs. Other measures include insisting that anyone taking part in in-person training wear color-coded armbands and wristbands to ensure the union can perform contact tracing if someone on site should test positive for the virus.

“We have been taking extreme measures to make sure that our students are safe,” said Terry McGowan, Local 139 president and business manager.

Although some of Local 139’s courses are taking place online, students are still having to get hands-on experience operating heavy equipment. The apprentices who do report in-person at the Coloma training center are being kept safe in part by requiring that they stay eight feet apart from everyone else. They also must limit their work to a single machine and not share tools or equipment. At the end of each training day, Local 139 staff employees make sure everything that was used is sanitized.

Even with these restrictions in place, Local 139 managed to graduate more than 160 apprentices last year. Hundreds more are still enrolled in the program, and more than 3,000 Local 139 members are taking training courses.

As for online instruction, the union has been able to provide recertification coursework using software its staff developed about four years ago. This has allowed many operating engineers to renew their credentials without traveling to a central union office or training center.

Local 139 is not alone in going online to recruit and develop new talent.

Terry Hayden, president of the Wisconsin Pipe Trades Association, said his organization recently started an online portal to help people get engaged with its training program. In many other ways, though, it’s business as usual – with some additional precautions.

“We continue to have state-of-the-art training centers. We still have the same attractive model that we’ve had,” Hayden said. “We continue to organize individuals that may be seeking a career shift, and we’ve seen shops sign on to become union contractors.”

Wayne Belanger, education director at the Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, said the ABC began working at the pandemic’s outset to move many of its professional-development courses online. The ABC, in fact, has providing training to more 400 people this year through online classes.

Belanger said the hardest part of the move to virtual instruction has been devising coursework suited to people who are not used to sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time. The transition has in part involved taking material normally covered in in-person classes and dividing it up among various short virtual training sessions.

Belanger acknowledged that some of the benefits of in-person training, such as networking, cannot be replicated in a virtual setting. But the convenience of online course work is also undeniable. So, even after the pandemic subsides, the ABC will be unlikely to discard all of its online training programs.

“If you think about it, 10 years ago, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything,” Belanger said. “We’ve learned the lessons of what it takes to run a virtual program.” Follow @natebeck9