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Training Success in Nova Scotia Prompts Inquiries by Other Locals

May 2001 IBEW Journal

In the past two years, IBEW Local 625, Halifax, Nova Scotia, has enabled more than 100 IBEW members to increase their employment opportunities in telecommunications by completing the IBDN 950 Structured Cabling Course. The success of the program, says Business Manager Fern Tardif, has a growing number of locals in other provinces inquiring about how to set up such a training program.

It's a two-week course that contains components involving telephony, computer networking, design and engineering IBDN systems, hands-on installation and testing and troubleshooting exercises. It uses the NORDX/CT product line, and a senior instructor with NORDX/CT helped Local 625 launch the program by training Local 625 member Tim Swinamer to teach the program.

"Being one of the participants in this course, I am confident that it was one of the best, if not the best, course I have taken in recent years," says Paul LeBlanc, president of IBEW Local 1852 in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He credits the quality of Brother Swinamer's teaching. "As Tim is an electrician himself, he connected very well with the members and understood the level of expertise involved to perform in the field of the electrical construction industry."

"I recommend this course to all IBEW locals so as to have our members well trained and ready for this ever-expanding line of work and to protect ourselves from the non-union element," Brother LeBlanc said. A similar endorsement came from David McLeod, the chief electrical inspector of the Nova Scotia Department of Labour, who calls it "the most comprehensive industry-based training for installations in the telecommunications sector."

The NORDX/CT connection is vital, says Business Manager Tardif, "because the focus on 'cabling' in telecommunications is centered on structured cabling installation practices, and NORDX/CT invented structured cabling."

Brother Swinamer's normal 10-day format involves five days of theory and five days of hands-on exercises that address all installation and connection issues.

"The course includes both copper and optical fiber media types in its 10-day format," Swinamer says, but the course "can also be delivered in a six-day format involving the copper media type only (950C) or a four-day format involving the optical fiber media type only (950F)."

He says he set up the optional formats at the request of IBEW locals that are currently considering the IBDN 950 Structured Cabling Course for their members. Brother Swinamer encourages inquiries at 902-450-5566 or by fax at 902-450-5463, to Tardif at 902-450-5625 or to NORDX/CDT training manager Guylaine Boisvert at 514-822-7584.