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When the pupils are ready, the teacher will appear

By Network & Cabling - Anthony Capkun Mon, Jul 7th, 2008

We've all heard the tales of the skilled labour crisis that's brewing in all parts of the country. And while some trades continue to attract decent numbers of apprentices-thereby ensuring a somewhat adequate supply in the years ahead-other skilled trades, like that of network cabling technician, suffer not from a lack of interested apprentices, but from a lack of academic establishments where newcomers might develop the knowledge and skills they'll need to find success as apprentices and beyond.

Anyone who's visited a typical high school lately can tell you the school boards have deemphasized the importance of the trades and scaled back on their technical instruction-the shop classes; the places where students who enjoyed using their hands as much as their minds used to find solace, belonging and a future. These days, when young adults wish to enter a hands-on profession, they quickly discover they don't know the fi rst thing about safety, tools or drawings.

An old Chinese proverb tells us that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Such is the case with the Pre-Apprenticeship Training Institute (PAT) located in Downsview, Ontario, which offers not only pre-apprenticeship courses in electrical, plumbing and HVAC, but a course entitled "Network Cabling Technician", taught by datacom industry veteran, Bill Weekes, CET, RCDD.

Weekes has been in the ITS industry for 20 years, having worked at outfi ts such as Ontario Hydro and Panduit before eventually launching his own design consulting business, Fancom Network Integrators. He doesn't try to hide the fact that he enjoys public speaking and teaching, and also feels compelled to give back to the industry that has treated him so well.

PAT is founded

Established over a year ago by Rui Cunha and his partner, Tony D'Assisi, PAT aims to pick up where our high schools, and even our colleges, have failed us. (In fact, Weekes challenged me to name a high school guidance counsellor who has come up through the trades, let alone a teacher. "After all, what industry professional has the time to give up his job to attend postsecondary schooling and Teachers' College for several years just so he can teach high school kids?" asks Weekes.)

"The Pre-Apprenticeship Training Institute was founded because we saw a desperate need for skilled people in the industry, and nobody was providing the solution for employers," says Cunha (pronounced "coo-nya"). "Everywhere you turn you hear that Canadians are not interested in skilled trades, but that's just not true! Over the last two years, we've put over 200 young people into the trades... and they are succeeding!" Cunha explains that, when they go to work, his students' focus is on productivity and quality. "We don't function like a traditional school," Cunha adds. "We're more like the employer's Human Resource and Training Department."

And Cunha isn't kidding. PAT's employer partners have grown alongside it over the past two years, Cunha says, as they see the institute as a partner helping them grow their businesses. "Employers are starting to hire exclusively through us because we screen potential candidates, then train them to meet the needs of employers," says Cunha. "We eliminate the employers' need to review resumes and conduct interviews, so they can concentrate on running their businesses."

Cunha also explains that PAT is under no obligation to place candidates with an employer when they don't meet the standard. "Thus, employers get the best people; those who have demonstrated both skill and work ethic. We have signifi cantly reduced the risk of recruitment in the industry," beams Cunha.

PAT's typical student is a 20- to 30-something young adult who has already gone through one or several jobs in the hopes of establishing some kind of career and come up empty-handed. "These are the people that, in previous generations, would have found their ways into their high schools' technical curriculum and ended up prepared and eager to enter a skilled trade upon graduation," explains Weekes.

Bridging troubled waters

So why did PAT choose to offer a course for Network Cabling Technician? "Our organization identifi ed a specifi c void in the marketplace when it comes to attracting the best people into network cabling," explains Cunha, adding that while the need for data transmission continues to grow, there's not a great deal of interest in the industry because people simply don't understand it. "Most people still think electricians do this work," says Cunha.

"PAT tries to be a bridge between fresh talent and contractors out there-be they electrical, network cabling or what have you-who are starving for people to come into the trades and learn the business," says
Weekes. "We have a 12-week program that's essentially a boot camp. While it involves academics, a lot of it encompasses attitude and employability in the marketplace."

As students go through the program, they learn the tenets of "On time and on task", which plays a key role in a candidate's employability. This means they are expected to show up to class early to ensure they have time to don their steel-toes and hard hats, and prepare themselves for the coming lesson. And considering that the institute tries to recreate the same physical environment its students will see in the real world (the bulk of the facility's square footage is nothing but roughed-in spaces), adequate PPE (personal protective equipment) is not suggested but required.

Weekes takes his students through all the fundamentals-from hand tools to the types of network cabling out there-to fashion them into the most knowledgeable beginner apprentices a contractor could ask for.

The first few lessons revolve around safety, including fall protection (i.e. ladders, barriers, etc.) and WHMIS. From there the program moves into cabling, which Weekes admits many of the students will see for the very first time, covering code issues involving cabling, such as plenum versus nonplenum. "This way, when the contractor asks his apprentice to go to the truck and get some cable, he will know which kind to bring depending on the location of the work," says Weekes.

From there the program gets into hand tools and how they are used. "Some people think that hand tools are pretty straightforward, but there's a right way and a wrong way to use them," says Weekes. "Same thing with cabling... we show them how to pull it out of the box, and what to do when there's a kink in the cabling." He also teaches his students about the kinds of conditions they might find on the jobsite... and they're not always ideal.

The students are taught about dealing with crosstalk (near, far, alien), which gets them ready for using test equipment (from various manufacturers) for hands-on testing to address this issue. "They have a project where they have to prepare a cross-connect field with horizontal cabling," Weekes says, "and while the Pass or Fail mark has a lot to do with workmanship, they fail the project if the tester says Fail." And while this may seem somewhat callous, Weekes explains that were this to happen on the jobsite, they would have to do the project from scratch.

"The whole idea is that we want them to make as many mistakes as possible in the classroom so that they don't make those mistakes on the jobsite." And should they make a mistake on the jobsite, they won't sit there-flustered and defeated-because they'll be able to draw upon their troubleshooting experience from the classroom.

Finding a fit in the market

Weekes tells me that his Network Cabling Technician course graduated its first class in September (they've already been placed with employers), and the next class is already underway. "But it's important to remember that our customer is the contractor- the one who will hire our grads," Weekes explains, adding that it would be great if more contractors stepped up, visited the institute, and really helped "sell" their trades to the students.

And, says Cunha, "We need industry to look at what we have to offer to meet their needs. We provide the industry with high standards for entry-level training and recruitment, and look forward to forging
future partnerships". Companies like the Toronto Transit Commission have already availed themselves of the services PAT offers, sending their network cabling department through the institute's continuous training program to ensure it can meet the organization's current and future demands.

The institute also counts on the support of industry partners, and some-like Panduit, O'Neil Electric and Cisco Systems-have already stepped up to the plate, but there's always room for more, says Weekes. To learn more about the Pre-apprenticeship Training Institute, visit www.patinstitute.ca or call (416) 638-411