EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Part 3 in a three-part series exploring how Mount Vernon High School is preparing students for life after graduation. Part 1 was published on July 21 and is linked here. Part II was published on July 22 and is linked here.
MOUNT VERNON — A program run through IBEW Local 1105 is giving Mount Vernon High School seniors a direct pipeline into one of the region’s most in-demand trades.
The Interim Credentials program, created by the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), offers students a complete pre-apprenticeship curriculum during their senior year.
Students who finish can enter Local 1105’s apprenticeship program directly — bypassing the aptitude test, interview and application process required of typical outside applicants.
Career readiness advisor Christine Keaton coordinates the program at MVHS. She learned about it through the Central Ohio Career Readiness Council.
“IBEW 1105 from Newark said, ‘We have such a demand, how do we get a jumpstart on the apprentice program on the way to a journeyman?’ ” Keaton asked.
She introduced the program at MVHS for the 2024-25 school year as one way to help meet state requirements for College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness.
“Over the last two years, we graduated eight in the program. For the students who have completed our pre-apprenticeship and have applied to the apprenticeship for full-time employment, 100 percent have been accepted,” she said.
IBEW 1105 member Michael Schroeder, a foreman with Cupertino Electric, said projections show there is 15 to 17 years’ worth of work for the local.
“Statewide, there’s probably 25 to 30 years’ worth of work in Ohio alone. A lot of it is these data centers, and that’s where a lot of them will be working,” he said. “Regardless of how people feel about them, it’s fueling our economy right now — and it’s providing a good living for a lot of people.”
How the pre-apprenticeship works
Seniors work through 49 online modules developed by NECA, covering the fundamentals of electrical trade work.
Students also use Oculus VR headsets to work through 54 hands-on simulation modules. They wire outlets, navigate electrical panels and practice the physical skills they need in the field.
Keaton does not teach the technical component, but she tracks students’ progress and moves them forward.
“I would say that our Mount Vernon kids coming out are top notch. They’ll do what you tell them to do; they ask questions. They genuinely want to know.”
Michael Schroeder, journeyman with IBEW 1105
Once the students graduate, they go directly into an orientation program with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union.
“They do an orientation, then a swear-in ceremony, and they get assigned to a contractor. That all happens within a month or two of graduating,” Schroeder said.
Students who enter directly out of high school can be fully certified journeymen electricians by age 21 or 22.
Explosive demand driven partly by data centers
IBEW 1105 serves southern Knox and Tuscarawas counties and Licking, Coshocton, Guernsey, Muskingum and Perry counties.
IBEW 688 in Mansfield covers the northern part of Knox County, but according to Keaton, it has reportedly been laying off apprentices. That underscores that the opportunity available to Knox County students is not a given across the entire central Ohio region.
Much of 1105’s work is clustered around data centers in Licking County. Activity near the former Conesville Electric plant site in Coshocton County includes a solar facility and data center in the Conesville Industrial Park.
“So they are staying local here in Knox County, or quasi-local within the [IBEW] jurisdiction in terms of family,” Keaton said of the MVHS graduates.
The day Schroeder spoke with Knox Pages, 15 contractors needed to hire 150 people to fill the jobs list just for that day. Almost all were long-term or indefinite placements.
“Those are journeymen calls, but if they don’t get filled by journeymen, then we’ve been getting a lot of apprentices,” he said.
Contractors aim for a one-to-one ratio of apprentices to jurneymen. Right now, it’s between six to 16 apprentices to one journeyman. Schroeder said that shows how many journeymen are needed in the near future.
Apprentices attend school one day a week, every other week year-round and work the rest of the time. Currently, they complete their apprenticeship in about 3.5 years.
Learning on the job
Schroeder does not expect students to know everything when they graduate. In fact, he said he prefers they don’t so he can teach them correctly.
“It’s a journeyman’s job to teach them the hands-on stuff and then they go to school and learn the why and the technical information behind it,” he said. “If I have to have a first-year apprentice, I would rather have one that came through the pre-apprenticeship program and is ready to work.”
Schroeder said MVHS students have been receptive to learning, a reflection of the quality of the school’s program.
“These kids, they listen, they want to learn, they show up for work. I would take five of these kids over any other five first-year apprentices because they’re good kids,” he said.
Keaton chuckled because they are the same students she had to drag to class.
“But they found their passion, right? It’s connecting them to their passion. They have jobs their whole life,” she said.
The one downside Schroeder noted working with recent grads is on time-sensitive jobs. Having five inexperienced apprentices to one journeyman can slow things down.
“But it’s not really a downside because they’re still learning, and they’re still helping get things done; it’s just a learning curve,” he said.
More than a paycheck
Keaton said many are drawn to the program by their classmates’ social media posts. One apprentice affiliated with Local 1105 drew attention for documenting his earnings: reportedly clearing $170,000 in a single year by working overtime.
At $25 to $26 per hour, apprentices can bring home $1,700 a week with contractor incentives and overtime paid at double time. Schroeder said annual raises mean earnings climb steadily.
Benefits often add another $14 or more per hour in value. Union members receive fully paid insurance, retirement contributions and annuities through the union.
The union covers retirees’ insurance after they retire. Under the retirement guidelines, members can retire around 55 and still receive benefits comparable to what they earned working full time.
Schroeder said he is encouraged by how many of the Mount Vernon apprentices are already thinking beyond their next paycheck. They are opening investment accounts, building credit responsibly, and saving rather than spending everything they earn.
Keaton expects the IBEW electrical program, along with the OTC+ program, to raise the school district’s CCWMR rating from two stars to four stars on the next state report card.
Eight seniors enrolled in the pre-apprenticeship program for 2026-27 and eight to 10 incoming juniors have expressed interest.
