Eldeco Hosts an Electrical Engineering Intern from Brashier Middle College
According to Build Your Future, 1.5 million craft workers will be needed by 2021. And for every 1 tradesman joining the workforce, 4 are leaving.
The future of the industry’s workforce depends on recruiting and educating youth. Eldeco is proud to support craft training any time the opportunity arises. That’s why, when a high school student from Brashier Middle College reached out for an internship, Eldeco was on board.
Every Monday and Wednesday, Lamar shadows Ben Alexander, an electrical engineer at Eldeco. Their first project was to create a model for a bus duct stand for L.G. Lamar was given the dimensions and learned how to create the object in Revit. Ben has also shown Lamar how to place the Revit object into a model on Navisworks, where the team can view all the trades interacting with one another – plumbing, mechanical and electrical. Ben has even introduced some more complex concepts to Lamar, including clash detection.
As part of their senior project, Lamar’s teachers required the students to complete an 80-hour internship prior to graduating. The idea is to provide a hands-on learning experience that prepares the students for a career path. Thanks to Ben’s help, Lamar has gained a fundamental, beginner-level understanding of electrical engineering.
“When the opportunity comes up like it did with Lamar, I was willing to jump all over that to help someone,” explains Ben. “I keep pounding into him that all the stuff you learned in school that you probably thought was unimportant – we’re using a good bit of it.”
Ben, an Electrical Engineering graduate from Clemson University, started his Clemson Co-Op program at Eldeco in 2008. He’s been with Eldeco full-time since 2011. “When I was younger, the iPods were first coming out and I thought, ‘I want to be an electrical engineer so I can design iPods.’ When you get to college, you learn that it’s a broader field than that.”
Lamar’s teacher knew he was interested in studying engineering and connected him with an electrical design company for his internship. “Everyone at Eldeco is nice, helpful and welcoming,” says Lamar. While he knew he liked math and science and has considered other types of engineering, Lamar says, “I fell in love with electrical at Eldeco.”
Cultivating Future Craft Workers at Eldeco
Before being promoted to an electrical engineer, Ben Alexander started at Eldeco as a field engineer and designer while he pursued his Professional Engineering (P.E.) license. “Eldeco paid for my review material for the P.E. exam and supported me throughout the entire process,” explains Ben.
Eldeco is a learning organization. That means as an organization, we have a duty to provide support and training to our employees as well as to future members of the workforce. This happens on a daily basis here at Eldeco, from Ben’s experience, to Lamar’s, to our apprentices.
To learn more about the state of the industry and the importance of workforce development, visit https://workforce.abc.org/