Due to an increasing demand for skilled entry-level workers in the telecommunications installation field, Ohio University Southern Campus and Collins Career Center have initiated a course devoted to accommodate that growth.

Thursday, May 10, 2001

Due to an increasing demand for skilled entry-level workers in the telecommunications installation field, Ohio University Southern Campus and Collins Career Center have initiated a course devoted to accommodate that growth.

Central Office Installation is a six-week training program designed to prepare students to enter the field of telecommunications and equipment installation. The first session of the course will begin May 14 and students will be in training Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Classes will be held at the Telephony.Ed Training Center, located at 1007 Second St., Ironton.

Jim Crawford, director of OUSC’s Center for Development, said OUSC decided to offer the course because telecommunications giants such as Ameritech, ATT and Sprint are having a hard time finding qualified individuals to take on jobs.

"All of these companies are searching for qualified people to put systems in place," Crawford said. "They will tell you the problem is they cannot find enough qualified people."

The course will include a combination of classroom and hands-on training.

Topics covered in the course will include building cable racks and waterfalls, cable lacing, color code and cable binders, switch board cabling, wire-wrapping, BNC termination, power and grounding, H-tapping, battery installation, crimping, equipment installation, Fujitsu FLM build-out, fuse and alarm panel installation, Alcatel Litespan installation and Adtran installation.

Other topics will include documentation, general safety and housekeeping skills, terms and acronyms, personal hygiene and dress, quality practices, ethics and professionalism, personal finance and economics, communications, sexual harassment, resume creation and interviewing.

Students will have both written and hands-on demonstration tests over the materials covered.

Steve Howard will serve as lead instructor for the course. Other instructors will include Donnie Townsend, Harold Fetters, Brock Fraley and Jerry Tackett.

Once students complete the course, they will be able to enter the field with the training needed to get a job right away, Dennis Thornton, project director for the Center of Development, said.

"The industry itself has a number of advance certificates and we’ll be offering programs for these types of training," he said.

Crawford added OUSC would offer supplemental one-week training courses as the industry deems necessary.

In addition to being a course of study at OUSC, Collins Career Center students can opt to take the course as a post-secondary program.

Cost of the program is $3,800, but included in that fee are the tools necessary for taking the course, valued at around $1,000, Thornton said.

The course is funded by the Ohio Board of Regents, OUSC, Collins Career Center and through a grant from the Ohio Institutional Training Program, which is part of the Ohio Department of Development.

Enrollment for the course will be through May 12. The course will be limited to 25 students. A second session is tentatively scheduled to begin July 2.