The first class has graduated, and the second class is already in progress.
The Indiana Fiber Technician Training Program, a partnership between Hoosier Energy and Indiana Electric Cooperatives (IEC) with the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), allows participants to earn the FBA OpTIC Path Certification.
But the class is more than just fiber. It’s focused on safety every step of the way, as the initial graduates found out.
“Safety was probably the biggest thing in the curriculum,” said Tyler Wright of Southeastern Indiana REMC.
For Decatur County REMC lineman Paul Trenkamp, it was an eye-opener.
“I knew about the environment being a lineman, those dangers, but I had no clue about the dangers of light that you can’t physically see,” he said. “… Whether you’re a lineman like me who knows the dangers already or if you’re brand new, fresh off the street helping with fiber, (safety) was very much the first thing.”
That focus is one of the things that made this training and certification unique, according to Hoosier Energy’s Matt Figg.
“I don’t know of anything that exists that would compare with what we’re doing right now,” the Ops Training Program Specialist said.
Figg learned a lot about what was out there when he began exploring the idea of putting such a class together a few years ago.
“I went out and met with some different folks, attended some different training courses from different entities,” Figg said. “They were okay, but it was two or three days in a hotel conference room, then you got a certificate of some sort.”
Hoosier Energy Senior Manager of Safety and Training Brandon Gentry then got a tip from one of his counterparts on the East Coast about some fiber training they were doing with a group.
That group was S&N Communications, which concluded its training by offering the OpTIC Path certification.
Figg began discussions with both S&N and IEC to put the outline of a program together. When all was said and done, there were six modules, seven sessions and 168 hours of combined classroom and hands-on training in the class.
“The hands-on portion is great for anybody first starting out, somebody’s that got two years of experience or somebody’s that got 20 years of experience,” Wright said. “It checks so many different boxes that anybody from anywhere can go in there and learn something.”
The safety classes covered electrical, traffic, industrial, biological and construction before moving on to fiber optic safety. Modules on fiber optic skills, hardware and cable testing, basic trouble shooting and basic fiber optic network design and installation followed, taught by S&N’s Andy Gibson.
“I don’t think there’s any other place that will offer the kind of information that you get in this kind of time frame,” Wright said. “We went through multiple fiber courses the past two years, offered from different places, but they didn’t get into the nitty-gritty like Andy did, and they didn’t have a safety focus like this class did.”
Classes are a yearly occurrence, starting in the fall and running into early spring. Class size is limited to no more than 12, with 10 in the first year and 11 in the ongoing second year. Hoosier Energy members have made up nearly half of those slots so far.
“I’ve been in this industry for 13 years, and I would highly recommend this to new hires,” Southeastern Indiana REMC’s Aaron Allen said. “It would be a highly beneficial class to everybody.”
Once it’s complete, graduates can go on to elective classes in Advanced Safety or Advanced Skills such as Pole Climbing/Pole Top Rescue, Trenching, Confined Space, Bucket Truck Operation/Material Handling, Underground Locating, Advanced Testing/Trouble Shooting and Outage Restoration and Planning Workshop.
“It’s worked out better than I had even hoped, really,” Figg said. “I think for IEC and for S&N Communications, we’re all very pleased with the product.”
To learn more about the program, visit www.indianaec.org/indiana-fiber-technician-training-program/.