The ABC Central Ohio board of directors voted to move forward with a remote training option to complete this year’s apprenticeship program. The decision to discontinue in-person classes for the foreseeable future was made in light of the fact that The Ohio State University and other adult educational institutions have recently made similar decisions, as well as numerous comments by Governor DeWine suggesting that primary and secondary schools may remain closed as well. The board did not think it appropriate to remain in a state of inaction. As a result, starting Monday, March 30 all apprenticeship classes will be delivered online.
Classes will be hosted using ZOOM, which is a teleconferencing application that can be accessed by students using a computer or their smart phone. For most trades, twelve remaining classes will be held – some will hold less as they were further along when the decision to suspend training was made. These will be broken into 2-hour increments, with the “first” class being an uninterrupted seminar followed by a “second” interactive review and Q&A. This format will be repeated until the remaining hours of instructional classroom time are complete. There will be no testing or in-person hands-on lab during this time.
Students needing to make up hours will be given an opportunity to do this during the summer. Laura Koh, our workforce development administrator will contact these students separately.
A class schedule will be distributed to students during the next week. Because classes will be held in 2-hour increments instead of four, many students will need to log in two time a week; however, some will continue with a one class a week pace as we have instructors who teach multiple classes and therefore can not double up. We expect classes to run though the middle of May for some, but into the first week of June for others. We are hoping that this will not be a problem since classes will be offered remotely, removing the need to travel to our facility.
At the moment, this plan only effects those students enrolled at our Jetway Blvd. location. In-house training programs will still be administered by the individual companies that host those. Student’s taking classes at Pioneer Career Center will have its own alternative training plan adopted in consultation with that location’s administration; we will communicate those changes accordingly when more is known.
Once again, we appreciate your patience during this unprecedented time. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact me at bhacker@centralohioabc.org. In the meantime, look for additional scheduling information from Laura Koh during the next week.
